On my travels to East Sussex I noted a technique we don’t see much in the west country – galletting.
This is a method of filing wide joints with pebbles of shells, pushed into the spaces between stones, which if merely filled with lime mortar would be too wide.
This little cottage in Winchelsea has an alternating pattern of scalloped tiles at first floor above limestone with mortar joints incorporating pebbles (probably from Winchelsea Beach).
Many houses in Winchelsea have cellars dating from the early C15 when they were trading merchandise with the French before the harbour was completely silted up.
Winchelsea was one of the defences with Rye and became one of the Cinque Ports together with Pevensey, Sandwich, Hastings and Hythe (5 coastal towns which were important military and trade routes with France, now ceremonial).
