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Text Box: Michelham Priory was founded in 1229 by Gilbert de l’Aigle, who endowed it with lands which he held for King Henry III. The Priory became the home for a prior and several canons, who followed the Rule of Saint Augustine. In 1537, during the Dissolution, the church and the eastern range were destroyed and the Priory closed. The remaining buildings were leased and subsequently sold. The Priory became a Tudor Gentleman’s residence, the Tudor Wing being added at the end of the 16th century. In 1601, the estate was sold to Thomas Sackville, the Lord Treasurer, whose family owned it for the next 300 years. They leased it to tenants as several separate holdings. The main farm, including the area within the moat comprised over 500 acres, a very large farm for the area. Because of the heavy Wealden clay, farming was mainly limited to breeding and fattening cattle. The Sackvilles kept fishing, hunting and shooting rights, and did not encourage progressive farming methods, so the estate was in decline by the end of the 18th century. From 1791 to 1861, three generations of the Child family were tenants. An inventory of 1821 shows that beer and cider were consumed in large quantities by a large farming family with live-in domestic servants, and farm labourers. The Victorian period The Child family concentrated on pure-breeding beef cattle, and established a new standard for Sussex Reds. They won many prizes at stock shows from 1834-1858. In 1845, when Frank Child was a boy of 13, he wrote and illustrated a fine history of the Priory which can be found upstairs in the Victorian case near the Prior’s room. Frank went to Lewes Academy, while his sisters were educated in London. In 1861 Thomas Brown, a new tenant, moved in. Unfortunately, as a general agricultural depression hit England due partly to cheap food imports, he had to reduce his workforce from 20 to 12. By 1881 he was milling to increase his income. His sons continued farming till 1894. In 1896, James Gwynne bought the Priory from Lionel Sackville-West, and began a programme of restoration. Para-InvestigationsPara-InvestigationsMichelham Priory - 17th october 2009Para-InvestigationsPara-InvestigationsPara-Investigations

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