A Walking Tour of Petworth

Where better to begin a tour of the town than in the MARKET SQUARE, known to have been a market place since 1541 and probably some 300 years before that. The present Leconfield Hall, built in 1794 on the site of a former covered market, was the Courthouse and Council meeting place, it now serves as the main public hall. On the north wall can be seen a replica bust of William III, attributed to the Dutch sculptor Honore Pelle, one of only four such pieces in the country. The original can be seen in Petworth Area House. On the east side of the Square the building covered by a large wisteria has several 'stopped' windows, evidence of the Window Tax of 1762, there are other examples in the town. The Square is also the site of one of the last remaining street fairs in the south of England. This dates from 1189 and is held annually on the 20th November.

Leading from the Square to St. Mary's Church, cobbled LOMBARD STREET was once a busy shopping street with shoe shops, haberdashery, bakers, grocers and butchers. A reminder is to be seen on the left hand side where a bull's head on blue and white tiles indicates a butcher's shop, the southern part of the building with the round window was the slaughterhouse. At the junction of Lombard Street and Church Street, 'Pettifers' dates from 1573 and has been the home of some important families.

CHURCH STREET has perhaps changed as much as any of the original streets. The War Memorial stands, not in the churchyard as it appears but on private land where shops and houses stood until the beginning of the last century. At the junction of Church Street and East Street an obelisk, designed by Sir Charles Barry stands in sight of Petworth House as a token of thanks to Lord Leconfield for providing the town with gas lighting.

A little way down NORTH STREET is Somerset Hospital, built in the early part of the 18th century and established in 1746 by the Duke of Somerset to provide homes for twelve poor widows, today run as a charitable trust. Next door is an attractive house of about the period of the Civil War. Further along North Street is Thompson&s Hospital (1642) and on the junction of the A272 Egremont Almshouse (1836). Both have been renovated and are run by trusts. Just across the mini roundabout lies the site of probably the worst tragedy in history of the town. In September 1942 a single bomb landed on the town boys' school, resulting in the loss of twenty-eight pupils and two teachers. A small memorial now marks the site.

Returning to EAST STREET, George House dates, in its present form, from 1805 when it replaced the George Inn, one of a great number of hostelries and beerhouses long since closed. Next to George House is another building which has served as a working men's institute, library and general meeting place. Close by, the former Girl's School, in use from 1864- 1956, was formerly a chapel and is now a private residence. The timbered buildings opposite were bought by the Duke of Somerset in 1724, and although they are much older the frontages have changed little in the last two hundred years. Stringers Hall dates from at least 1652, the date being faintly visible at the top of a rainwater pipe, at the north end of the building, TRUMP ALLEY was, before the construction of NEW STREET at the beginning of the nineteenth century, an access road to the Market Square with an inn and other shops. Daintrey House, named after a local family, is mainly Georgian in appearance but has many Elizabethan features to the rear.

In ANGEL STREET the attractive Roman Catholic Church, built in 1898, is one of the main features. The terrace of houses opposite was built in the middle of the last century for employees of the Leconfield Estate, The history of the Angel Hotel can be traced back to 1720 since which time it has remained licensed premises and has had much to do with local history, having been the meeting place of many societies and other groups.

MIDDLE STREET, in former times an extension of East Street, has buildings largely unchanged since at least the sixteenth century.

IN HIGH STREET, dominating Middle Street, is a curious building known locally as the Clubroom. Once used as an artists studio, later a dance hall and general meeting place, it is now in commercial use. To the left of the premises two cottages with steps and cellars were, until 1939, a public house. Moving up the hill towards Grove Street, Windmill Visitors Guide 2007 House is a reminder that on the east side of the lane was an extensive area containing cottages and storehouses associated with a working windmill. Almost opposite Windmill House is the Petworth Cottage Museum, a reconstruction of a Leconfield Estate cottage as it was in 1910. At that time it was occupied by Mrs. Cummings, a seamstress at Petworth House. The Museum seeks to recreate the cottage as she would have known it, including her sewing room. At the end of High Street, Stone House has traditionally been owned by the more wealthy traders and for many years was occupied by ministers of the Congregational Church. Moving into GROVE STREET, the long terrace of mid-Victorian houses provided further homes for the vast numbers of Leconfield Estate employees. The cottages and bungalows were once homes for prison staff, the prison, built in 1788 and demolished in 1880, being behind the high wall at the rear of these dwellings. It was a huge building, more than a storey higher than the home, which now occupies the site.

Back in GOLDEN SQUARE, an extension of the Market Square, the garden of Lancaster House is said to have been the hiding place of Church plate in Cromwellian times. It was also the home of the Lord of the manor whose ancestors landed at Hastings in 1066. The same family also owned the area, which is now a small shopping precinct when stables for a large number of horses and a grain business occupied the site. Some of the upper wooden structure dates back to this time. The row of shops was once a general store owned by Benjamin Challen whose initials can be seen on the top storey. Visitors Guide 2007 In DAMERS BRIDGE the high pavement may have spanned an open ditch which ran from Lombard Street, across the Market Square and on to what is now the public car park. The diamond patterned paving bricks were once used throughout the town. Built in the 1850's the Congregational Church, now the United Reformed Church, maintains a link with previous Free Churches which have occupied this corner of the town. Just around the corner and into SADDLERS ROW stands a restaurant, in 1851 and probably before, a bakers. Also in this area a forge is known to have existed in 1670, probably connected to a Saddlers shop. On the opposite side of the road the large building with the fine entrance, now shops and flats, was the Swan Hotel from the turn of the century until the 1980's. No firm evidence exists regarding the shop on the junction with Park Road, it possibly dates from 1604.

POUND STREET, which derives its name from a cattle pound which, until 1937 existed near the mini-roundabout, has some buildings of interest. The building fronted by white columns was once a very fine town house dating from the eighteenth century. A few doors away No 22 was, in the early eighteenth century, a Presbyterian meeting house. PARK HOUSE is not intended for pedestrians but there are one or two points of interest. The Grand Entrance Gates to Petworth House , with the twin figures of Gog and Magog, symbols which have been used on the Town Seal since 1894 and the Ebenezer Chapel, built in 1887, and another link with a non-conformist past, are worthy of note.