The oldest house occupied in Heyshott is South House, now Farriers. It has blackened beams and is dated approximately 1490.
It is now attached to a more modern building. Of its history we know only that it was the poor-house of the village in the late 1800s when the poor laws were introduced. People who became dependant on the parish and vestry would live in this house and be given 1/6d. pocket money. The meadow behind the house to the south is still called the Workhouse meadow.
 
The old Cobden Club House, now La Fontaine, is also timbered. It is now a private residence and has been carefully restored and modernized and retains its spacious rooms with their magnificent beams.
 
The old cottages known as Black Horse Cottages were once an inn of that name. It had a thatched roof. The building was bought by Mrs. Fisher Unwin and converted into 3 cottages with tiled roofs. A hand pump can still be seen set into the front garden wall of the centre cottage. These cottages are now in the trust of the Cobden Club Trustees.
 
Foundations of a building were ploughed up during the 1939-45 war in the corner of the field between the Cobden Club and the Black Horse cottages. An old map of the village held by the late Mr. Murray of Upper Cranmore only showed that a building did exist at this spot but did not indicate of what type.
 
The house called Glebe Cottage built in 1819 on the other side of the road, a little further down the road from the Black horse cottages is also very picturesque. It was at one time 3 cottages known as Newells, owned by Mrs. Fisher Unwin. They were sold by the Cobden Club Trustees and converted into 2 properties. A little distance away to the south is the old Glebe barn, which collapsed in ruin after a storm in 1976.
 
Dunford House which lies on the boundary to the north-west beside the stream, is built on the site of the old farm house which dates back to the 17th. century. It is hidden on two sides by trees but has a large lawn at the front; you can see the front of the house from the road which runs from West-Lavington to Walkers farm.
 
Hoyle Farm which lies on the north-east parish boundary has a partition wall in one of the bedrooms made of wattle and daub filling, which dates back to the 16th century.
 
In the grounds of 'Corner Cottage' on the lower green near 'Lower Cranmore' was once a bakehouse; it was beside the now bridle path leading to 'Heather View' further up the common.
 
Bex Mill.
 
Bex Mill in Heyshott is a good mile from the Village, is also on the western parish boundary, and dates back to the 12th. century. We know little of its history but it has played its part in village life, the Mill was fed by a stream which rises from under the Downs at Cocking.

 
The earliest document we have is a lease of the mill and mill house in 1734 by the Rev. Christopher Golding to John Penicod.
In 1758 Elizabeth penicod left Dunford Farm, Becks Mead etc. to Richard Cobden, Maltster of Midhurst. In 1802 Richard Cobden leased the mill and mill house to several people, but in 1841 the property was leased to Henry Mills and handed down to a son, also Henry Mills.
Many improvements were made around this time. The first was to take out the wooden shafts and replace them with iron shafts; also an additional storage space was built on the mill building. Mr. Mills had a sifting machine put in to produce a finer flour.
 
It was about this time that because of the shortage of water in the summer, the owner took out the narrow wooden water wheel and had a wider steel wheel installed, but this did not prove successful and a steam engine to supplement the water power was installed in about 1870.
 
Henry Maxwell wells inherited the mill and the house from his Uncle Henry Mills in 1905 and moved the steam engine to an outbuilding to the left of the mill door. There was no engine to be found at the mill in 1946, although evidence of it could be seen.
 
Henry Maxwell died in 1920, leaving the mill and house to his 3 sons, Henry Maxwell Wells, Donovan wells and Morris Wells. It was during the lifetime of the Wells that I remember taking sacks of corn down to the mill in a cart drawn by a horse; it was to be ground for cattle feed. I enjoyed watching the working of the mill and I recall the wooden peg gears and the two grinding stones, grinding the corn between them, and how dusty it all was.
 
The Wells family sold the business in 1946 to the present owner Mr. Ruthven who kept the mill going until 1960, when it was being used to generate electricity for the mill house. The mill became redundant and was sold and converted into a private dwelling.
 
The 3 mill cottages were pulled down in 1963-4 and a house has been built on the site with an outlook over the mill pond and woods, with the Downs in the background.
 
The mill house is of interest as it is quite old, of 'Queen Anne' period or even older. It stands beside the road and has a well approximately 20 feet deep below the kitchen floor with a pump on the kitchen wall. A little stone and tile building, standing just below the mill house was used as a bacon-curing shed and later as a wood house and workshop, but in recent years has been converted into a pleasant bungalow.
The rest of the mill grounds have been sold and houses constructed. One could pass this spot today without knowing that the mill had existed, but the stream flows on beside the road for some 100 yards and under the little narrow bridge flowing on to Dunford and the River Rother.
 
Note. A Henry Mills left a Charity to the village of Heyshott