Ovingdean Grange

Ovingdean Grange
Ovingdean Grange in 2010, seen from the southwest
Location	Greenways, Ovingdean, Brighton and Hove, United Kingdom
Coordinates	50°48′59″N 0°04′35″W / 50.8165°N 0.0763°W / 50.8165; -0.0763Coordinates: 50°48′59″N 0°04′35″W / 50.8165°N 0.0763°W / 50.8165; -0.0763
Built	c. 16th–17th century (as farmhouse)
Rebuilt	c. 1835
Restored	1993
Architectural style(s)	Vernacular/Classical
Owner	Steve Coogan
Listed Building – Grade II
Official name: Ovingdean Grange
Designated	20 August 1971
Reference no.	1380552
Location within Brighton and Hove

Ovingdean Grange is a Grade II listedmanor house situated on the south coast of England in the village of Ovingdean, east of Brighton. One of the oldest and most historical residences in Brighton, it gave its name to the novel Ovingdean Grange by the popular 19th-century writer William Harrison Ainsworth.

Ovingdean is a small village just outside Brighton, where Ovingdean Grange is the oldest residence. The oldest building is the 11th-century parish church of St. Wulfran's opposite Ovingdean Grange. Saxon farmhouses were first built in Ovingdean in the 11th century, and no firm evidence exists of when the Grange was first built. It is most likely to have been built circa 1540, by Thomas Geere, a yeoman from Wivelsfield who settled in Ovingdean.

Over much of its history, it has been the Grange's occupant who acted as churchwarden for St. Wulfran's opposite. The north side, which was the original entrance, is the oldest part of the house, with flint walls and stone quoins, just like those of the church.

Over the years the house has seen many changes architecturally. As a Tudor manor house, the Grange had servants' quarters and a cellar below ground. Since then it has been altered, the most noticeable addition being the false Georgian façade in 1824.

The house was used as a family home in the 1900s. From 1945 the Grange was occupied by former Mayor of Brighton and local farmer Frank Masefield Baker, although, owing to the ill health of one of its inhabitants, it eventually fell into disrepair. Brighton Council eventually auctioned it off in 1987. After it had remained empty for eight years, the new owners, Dr. Harry Brunjes and wife Jacquie, undertook extensive renovations in 1993 to restore it to its former state. In 2011, Steve Coogan bought it for £2.45 million.