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PEKES is situated
twelve miles inland from Eastbourne,eighteen miles from Brighton and
nine miles from Lewes in the county of East Sussex in the South east
of England. Up a drive of 350 yards with unspoilt views of the countryside,
Pekes offers unique self catering holidays. History of Pekes The coastline is entirely flat at Pevensey Bay ...one reason why he chose to land there. He had no sooner arrived than he considered England HIS and started giving it away. One of the first parcels of land he handed out went to one of his aides, Monsieur de Peke, who built the first house to stand on the site of the present property. It was a large one room Norman Hall ...only his name survives. It is now an eight bed-roomed residence rebuilt and modernised in Tudor times about 1550. It has changed very little since, except the exterior is now handsomely tile hung. Inside, all of the original beams are preserved and exposed. The oldest part of the house, the Kitchen (modernised) retains its beautiful oak beams, large hearth, the original brick floor and latticed windows. In 1550 , its new owners were the Jefferays, distant cousins of the infamous, dreaded Judge Jefferay. Their monuments still stand in the village church. The house became a minor "Manor
House". The family did not prosper, however, and left. Little
is known of the years in between except that it was owned by several
farming families. When the present owner's grandfather purchased it
in 1908, it was in a fairly rundown condition. You can find out more about "Pekes"
in the "Sussex Archaeological Collections" book, Volume
LIII, published by the Sussex Archaeological Society.
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