IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Litlington Road, SEAFORD, BN25 4AJ

History of the Grade II listed House and important garden. The present Manor was established on the site by at least the 12th century and was recorded in Domesday Book as Carlestone. Charleston functioned as an agricultural farmstead, tenanted during the 19th century and then in use as labourers' accommodation before standing empty in 1931. The painter Sir Oswald Birley (1880-1952) and his wife bought Charleston in that year and in 1932 commissioned the architect and garden designer Walter Hindes Godfrey (1881-1961) to refurbish the house and lay out the garden. The Birleys established the Sussex (later the Charleston) festival at the Manor which continued until the house was sold in 1980 after Lady Birley's death. The property has changed hands several times since but the gardens survive largely as designed by Walter Godfrey with the present (1996) private owners continuing the tradition of the annual music festival.

The dovecot is visible just to the right of centre - with doves perched on it, if you look carefully.

Viewed from Litlington Road. Charleston Manor itself dates in part from the 12th century and was home to portrait painter Sir Oswald Birley, from 1928 until his death in 1950, and his wife Lady Lady Rhoda Birley who continued living here until her death in 1980. They are both buried in Westdean churchyard. It was the Birleys who redesigned the gardens and rerouted the public bridleway which once ran down this drive to its current route running around the northern side of the manor's grounds.

Charleston Manor, one-time home of the artist Oswald Birley, sits just above the flood-plain of the River Cuckmere, with semi-parkland of Charleston Bottom behind.

Heading for Alfriston on the SDW in pouring rain.

The pond is quite old and used to stretch up to Litlington Road though the current layout was made by the birleys during the late 1920s when they first moved into Charleston Manor. It is also possibly a remnant of a small inlet that may have once existed here in medieval times. Viewed from Litlington Road over a chest high fence.

Viewed from the west bank of the Cuckmere River. They are near the entrance to Charleston Manor.