The site of the Bexhill Horse Barracks was purchased by the Barracks Commissioners in 1809 and 1814 and went to auction on 11th May, 1822.
It was sold to Joseph Mitten who bought lot 13 in the sale of the site of the former Bexhill Barracks, in 1822. The lot consisted of two separate titles – the whole of a purchase from John Vernon in 1809 and one acre, part of a portion of Bexhill Down which had been purchased from the Dorset Estate in 1814 – and formed the site of the horse-barracks on the west side of Bexhill Down. Its location can be plotted by reference to the map of Bexhill manor of c1810.
The northern part of the site was developed as Leasingham Gardens between 1930 and 1939
The details of the Purchase from John Vernon, 1809
Kewhurst Farm and other property in Bexhill was sold by John Collier of Hastings, esq, to [his brother-in-law] the Rev James Cranston of Bexhill on 22 and 23 September 1737. Cranston’s will was proved on 22 November 1768 and that of his nephew, also James Cranston, on 2 September 1785
Kewhurst, occupied by John Duke, and other property was settled on the marriage of John Vernon of Lincolns Inn, esq and Mary daughter of Catherine Cranston, widow, on 6 and 7 February 1798; Wyndham Knatchbull of Russell Place in St Pancras, Mx and Charles Abbot, speaker of the House of Commons, were trustees of the settlement. Catherine Cranston, who had a life interest in the farm, died in December 1808
On 16 and 17 November 1809 part of the farm, a field called Down Field and part of The Barn Field (itself part of Watclerks), measuring 5a 3r 9p in all (W: the rest of Barn Field; E: Bexhill Down; N: lane from the down to Broadoak; S: Samuel Ockenden formerly George Wenhouse), was sold to the Commissioners for the Affairs of Barracks (Osborne Markham, John Fisher and Alexander Loraine, esqs) for £460.
Details of the Purchase from the Dorset estate, 1814
On 13 and 14 May 1814 part of Bexhill Down, lying to the east of the above land, was sold to the commissioners by Arabella Diana, duchess of Dorset, as guardian of her son John George Frederick [Sackville], duke of Dorset (AMS6454/42/4)
As to both purchases
The former barracks land was auctioned in 13 lots by Mr Woodhams of Bexhill on 11 May 1822; lot 13, consisting of the whole of the 1809 purchase and an acre of the 1814 purchase, was sold to Joseph Mitten of Bexhill, plumber and glazier, for £100. On 25 and 26 September 1822 the property was conveyed to Joseph Mitten of Bexhill, labourer (to whom the original purchaser, Mitten, had sold on for £140) and his trustee William Mitten of Bexhill, labourer. Samuel Beeching of Bexhill, yeoman, the purchaser of lot 7, covenanted to produce the deeds of the purchase from the Dorset estate in 1814; presumably lot 7 consisted of the largest part of that purchase. The consent of the Treasury Commissioners was certified by Stephen Rumbold Lushington, one of the secretaries.
Particulars of the Sale
Barrack-Sales-Part