Legh Manor, (also known as Little Ease and Leigh Manor), Ansty, England

Legh Manor according to Godfrey (1976, which article is a full history and survey of the house) has a long history. It was known as Little Ease (name still used in the Cuckfield Tithe Map, 1843), probably a corruption from Little Leghs, and which was thought to be a dower house for the manor of Legh or Paines. The family Legh took its name from Legh in Cuckfield (name mentioned as early as 1218 and until 1393). By 1540 the manor had passed to the Hussey family and the present house was built between 1540 and 1550 (the initials I H and M H which appear on some painted window glass and on one of the fireplaces probably refer to John Hussey and his wife Margaret).

Eventually, in 1707, it was sold to the Sergison family together with Cuckfield Park, and it descended with other Sergison manors in Cuckfield until 1917. Lady Chance (1938) says that 'the manor appears to have been used as a farm house for nearly two hundred years'. In the early 1900s Captain Charles Sergison restored the old house and turned it once more into a gentleman's residence. In 1917 it was sold by Mrs Prudence Sergison-Brook to Sir William Chance.

The Cuckfield Tithe Map, 1843, and Apportionment shows a site called Upper Little Ease, with field numbers 1608-1616, which was owned by the Sergison family and tenanted by a Mary Upton. On the 1st edition Ordnance Survey map, 1874, the site is called Leigh Place [Manor House]. There were 132 acres of farmland, and 14 acres for the house and grounds, which continued to the east side of the road including Brewhouse Pond. There is some evidence that a garden had been laid out with an orchard to the north and west of the house and some tree planting to the south. A rectangular area immediately to the west of the house, with a central path, is marked on this and later maps and seems to be the main garden. The 3rd edition Ordnance Survey map, revised to 1948, calls the site Leigh Manor.

In 1917 when Sir William and Lady Chance bought Legh Manor, they moved there from Surrey. It was for them that their friend, Sir Edward Lutyens, had designed the house 'Orchards' at Godalming in Surrey. At Legh Manor his work was more limited when he was asked, in 1920, to alter and restore the house. Sir William and Lady Chance wished to ensure the permanent protection of the property. Accordingly, after her husband's death, Lady Chance conveyed the property to the Sussex Archaeological Society (SAS) around 1935. The house and grounds were open to the public in 1936. The SAS subsequently sold the property in the 1980s and it is now privately owned.