Fire wrecks historic house

THE owner of an historic 300-year-old farmhouse - burned to the ground on Tuesday night - has vowed to rebuild it from scratch.

It is not as yet known how the blaze started at Upper Lodge Farm on the Broyle at Ringmer.

Owners Dominic and Corina Buckwell had moved in with their possessions on Friday. The couple were in London when the fire started in the empty seven-bedroomed building.

Firefighters were called to the farmhouse, recently sold by the nearby Raystede Centre for Animal Welfare, at 11.06pm. They found it well ablaze.

Six pumps were called in from Lewes, Uckfield, Hove and Barcombe and at the height of the blaze 30 firefighters were on the scene. At one point they had to withdraw when part of the building collapsed.

On Wednesday morning fire crews were still damping down the smouldering remains. An investigation into the cause of the fire was underway.

A fire brigade spokesman said no conclusion could be drawn on its origins until the investigation ended.

Mr Buckwell, a lawyer and formerly a Lewes resident, said on Wednesday that he was still in the process of getting in touch with his insurers.

The couple were staying in Brighton for the moment.

'We moved in on Friday after buying it from Raystede. We were staying in London on Tuesday when we received a call from the fire brigade that the house was on fire. It was a terrible shock,' he said.

''We have no idea how it started. We understand it is not suspicious. We lost all our possessions.

'The house will be rebuilt as it was. I would appeal for any information on the plans of the building and its background and history. We were in love with it.'

Hunting lodge

Upper Lodge Farm was built in 1699 by the Dukes of Dorset as a hunting lodge, used as accomodation when the gentry hunted deer in Broyle Park. The back of the building was even older.

In 1770 after the park was enclosed it was used as an isolation hospital for people with infectious diseases. To this day it is sometimes called the Old Pest House.

Cllr John Kay, chairman of Ringmer Parish Council's planning committee, told the Express he knew a great deal about the farmhouse and would be pleased to pass his information on to Mr Buckwell.

'It is a tragedy that this grade two listed building has gone,' he added. 'It was major building in the parish.'