Who lived in this remote and mysterious abandoned Sussex cottage? And why?
If you’re walking in Westdean Woods south west of Cocking in West Sussex, you might stumble across the intriguing ruins of a cottage. But you might not, because they are easy to miss. The ruins are remote, just to the side of a footpath in woodland between the Newfarm Plantation and Bepton Woods. It’s a quiet but magical spot, but because the ruins are very overgrown, it would be easy to just walk on by.
But step off the beaten track, and you’ll see the ruined outline of a small cottage. It wasn’t a farm and it’s not believed to have been built as a base from which to manage the woods. From what I can find out, this abandoned cottage first appears in documentation in 1799. It was a 2-acre plot with a house and garden enclosed by a flint wall, with what is thought to have been a vegetable plot, hog pen and garden, with little terrace steps. It must have been so pretty.
At one point, a Robert Underwood lived there although it was owned by William Stephen Poyntz Esq., who married into the Cowdray Estate. (Information from the SDNP website and the Cowdray Estate archives). It was called New Farm and later Newbarn before reverting to New Farm. It is surrounded by plantation and forest and there are no other cottages nearby.
It’s poignant to think that hundreds of years ago, a lot of work must have gone into creating this little homestead that now stands in ruins. And we may never find out more about Mr Underwood and why he lived in the forest.
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