Medieval:

The medieval houses in East Grinstead High Street are believed to form the longest continuous row of such buildings in the country.

The Priest House in West Hoathly dates from the early C15th and was originally a timber-framed farmhouse with a central open hall, probably built for the Priory of St Pancras in Lewes. It has a spectacular roof of Horsham stone and is the only building of its kind open to the public in the Ashdown Forest area. It has been open as a museum since 1908 and is run by Sussex Past.
www.sussexpast.co.uk

Several other houses in the village of West Hoathly also date from the C15th, as do many of the houses in the village of Hartfield.

The Hatch Inn at Coleman’s Hatch is said to date from 1430 and was originally a row of three cottages. It became an inn in the C18th, at which time it was known as The Cock. (www.hatchinn.co.uk)

The Chequers Inn in Forest Row dates from 1452 and is built from brick and tiles. It was once a posting inn used by carriages travelling between London and the south coast and has a past rich in association with smugglers and highwaymen.
www.chequers1452.co.uk

The original part of Bolebroke Castle in Hartfield was built in the C14th and is said to be one of the oldest brick built buildings in Sussex. Only the entrance gateway, flanked by two towers, remain from this date, most of the rebuilding having been carried out in the late C15th. Henry VIII used it as a hunting lodge when he was in pursuit of wild boar and venison on Ashdown Forest. When he was in pursuit of Anne Boleyn, who lived 5 miles away at Hever Castle, Bolebroke was again his base.
The castle is open to public. www.bolebrokecastle.co.uk

C16th onwards:

Sackville College, a Grade I listed Jacobean almshouse, built from 1609-1619, in East Grinstead, still functions as a subsidised residence for the elderly. It is built of Sussex sandstone around a quadrangle and has large mullioned windows. The principle rooms are the Chapel with its original carved door and the Great Hall with its Minstrels’ Gallery and hammer beam roof.
The College is open to the public for guided tours from June-September. www.sackville-college.co.uk

Groombridge Place, in the village of Groombridge on the Kent/Sussex border, is a C17th moated manor house built in 1662 on the site of a C13th castle and moat. The magnificent gardens were laid out in 1674 with the help of John Evelyn, horticulturalist and diarist, and have survived intact to the present day.
Groombridge Place Gardens are open to the public from March-early November. www.groombridge.co.uk

Kidbrooke Park in Forest Row was built of local sandstone for Lord Abergavenny in 1724 and has fine Adam style plaster ceilings. The surrounding parkland was re-designed by Humphrey Repton in the early C19th. The house is not open to the public as it is now a school.

Hammerwood Park, on the outskirts of East Grinstead, was built by Benjamin Latrobe at the tender age of 28 in 1792. It is one of only two buildings he completed in this country before emigrating to the United States, where he was involved in designs for elements of the Capitol and the White House in Washington. His most successful building in America was the magnificent Baltimore Cathedral. In 1803 he was appointed Surveyor of the Public Buildings of the United States by President Thomas Jefferson. Hammerwood was built as a temple to Apollo, Latrobe designing both the house and the surrounding parkland.
Hammerwood Park is open to the public. www.hammerwoodpark.com

Ashdown House is the other domestic building completed in this country by Benjamin Latrobe. It was built in 1794, the year before he emigrated to America. It has been said that if Hammerwood House is a homage to Apollo then Ashdown House is a Temple of Diana, described by John Julius Norwich as ‘all Ionic, feminine grace’. The house is not open to the public as it is now a school.

Standen, a National Trust property on the outskirts of East Grinstead, is a superb example of the work Philip Webb, an architect much favoured by the Arts and Crafts movement and a close friend of William Morris. It was built in 1892 and the interior is still preserved with many of the original fittings, textiles and wallpaper. The house stands in 12 acres of hillside gardens and is open to the public from March to the end of October.
www.nationaltrust.org.uk/standen