Angmering - Then & Now

 


This photo/history project started in January 2014. It is the intention to add to these images periodically.

 
 

1. The Square. The shops in The Square have changed substantially since the photo on the left was taken
in the early 20thC. All the shops in the picture have been demolished and re-built with the exception of the one on
on the near left (Pesketts) which is now occupied by Butts Estate Agents and The Stone Room. The tall shop was
Dench's (later Marsh's) grocery stores. No car parking problems in those days. The road direction sign has been repositioned.

 
 
2. Elm Grove. The photo on the left was taken over 100 years ago. Since that time, the thatched cottage on the right
has been demolished. It can be seen that Elm Grove Cottage was thatched at that time. Dolphin Cottage (yellow doors) was once a sweet shop
with the square bay shop windows. The owner has deliberately retained the old shrubs in positions close to where they were a century ago as there
have been structural changes over the years. Note that the grass bank in front on the cottages is still there.
 
 
3. Stubbs Hill, High Street. The right-hand side of the street has changed little in 100 years.
What is Woodies News (later The Resourceful Squirrel) was the Red Lion PH. The pub closed in about 1932.
The stores at Winchester House at the top of the hill were purchased by G W Stubbs, draper, in 1923 and
old Angmering families still refer to the hill as Stubbs' Hill.
 
 
4. Church Road. One of the prettiest roads in Angmering containing a number of Listed Buildings.
Conyers (on the right) may date from c1450 while St Nicholas House (next door) is said to date from 1585.
The road has also been known as Pook's Hill, Church Row, and Church Lane.
Note that Blaber Cottage further down on the left of the road was thatched 100 years' ago.
 
 
5. Station Road. Old Mill House (left) and The Old Cottage (right).
These properties are probably more than 250 years old with Old Mill House probably being the slightly older of the two.
There has been little change in them in the last 100 years but a new entrance to The Old Cottage
has been made in the right-hand side "outshut", probably in the 1940s.
 
 
6. The Green & Church Hill. Blaber House (on the right) is little changed but it has gone from a
grocery store to an antiques shop to a dental surgery to private housing. Vestry Hall can be seen at the top of the hill.
All the buildings on the left-hand side of the hill were replaced in the late-1920s and early-1930s including a dairy on the extreme left.
The old photo was taken in about 1906/7, a couple of years after the lime trees were planted. The church tower can no longer
be seen from the Green, obliterated by the shops. Those shops interestingly stand on land once held by Poling parish.
 
 
7. The Square. Photos taken at the bottom of Stubb's Hill (High Street) looking across The Square.
On the left, almost touching The Lamb Inn, was the Terry family's castellated house blocking what is now The Lamb's
car park entrance. On the right were The Bunnes (17thC cottages), demolished c1937. The late18thC house, now Eachways,
(out of sight in the old photo) can be seen on the right in the modern photo - this was once the village police constable's residence.
 
 
8. Water Lane junction with Weavers Hill. What a change! The cottages on the left-hand side were
demolished in 1936. The small thatched cottage on the corner of Weavers Hill, adjacent to Weavers Cottage,
burned down in the early 1930s. During WW2, the bank on the left-hand side was mined to protect the village
in the event on an enemy invasion. The mines were removed in 1944.
 
 
9. Water Lane. The cottages, now painted white, on the left-hand side are Gladstone Cottages built by
the Angmering builder, historian and Socialist, Edwin Harris, in 1898. In the old photo, taken c1906, the open Black Ditch
or Patching Stream can just be seen. This was culverted in the early 1930s. The houses in the far distances are the ones
demolished in 1936 (see photo 8)
 
..
10. Stubbs Hill (High Street). The shop at the top of the hill was Winchester House (now Cottrell House and
Winchester House). It's name derived from Richard Winchester who ran a draper's business there until 1903. The photo was taken
in about 1905 after it became Marsh's furniture store. In 1923, it was bought by George W Stubbs and returned to being a draper's shop.
Note that, further down the hill, the main part of Vine Cottage, with a Victorian entrance, was thatched 100 years ago.
 
 
11. Old Baptist Chapel. Angmering Baptist Chapel was erected on the hill in Station Road in 1846
and first registered as a place of worship on 7 January 1847. As the 20th Century progressed, the facilities of the
Chapel became inadequate. The derelict flint barn in Station Road, approx. 300 yards to the south of the Chapel,
was secured as the new Church and the old Chapel converted into two dwellings with vehicle access.
 
 
12. New Baptist Church. The derelict barn in Station Road was converted to the new Baptist Church in 1970 and
an extension to the Station Road side of the Church was opened in 1994. The barn was built in 1846 which was about the same time as
the Jerusalem windmill, which was sited close by, was relocated to Rustington. In the old photo, there was a shop at the front
which was said to sell garden produce at one time.
 
 
13. Church Road. Note how St Margaret's Cottage, originally thatched, has been extended.
The cottage is much older than the ones to which it is attached and may be some 400 or more years old.
In the modern photo, Shafiques Indian take-away can be seen on the right. This probably started life as a garage
and went on to become an electrical store, a chemist's shop, and then two restaurants.
 
 
14. The Forge. The Forge was sited in what is now the car park of St Margaret's Church.
From the photo, taken in the 1890s, the building looks in pretty poor repair and it had been demolished by 1911.
Note the penny-farthing bicycle propped up against the wall. The building adjacent to the Forge was itself eventually
demolished and replaced by new shops in the 1950s.
 
 
15. The Bunnes. The Bunnes were flint cottages, probably built in the 17thC and demolished c1937 after falling into.
a state of decay. In the old photo, on the right can be seen the sign of The Red Lion PH which closed c1932. The part
that can be seen in the modern photo are the offices of Angmering Parish Council. The Bunnes site remained vacant
until the early 1950s when the property, Phares Courtledge, was built, itself now scheduled for demolition.
 
 
16. Water Lane and Weavers Hill Junction. What a change! The cottages on the right-hand side were
demolished in 1936. The small thatched cottage on the corner of Weavers Hill, adjacent to Weavers Cottage,
burned down in the early 1930s. Set further back in the modern photo are houses built in Merryfield Crescent.
 
 
17.High Street. The old photo was taken in 1934. Since that time there have been a number of changes.
Brocketts, the once thatched building on the right, contains a medieval window on its east face.
Gothic House further on, built in the later part of the 19thC, still has its iron gates in the old photo and the
eagles on the western gate pillars are still there. Gothic House is one of only two properties in Angmering where
the use of galleting (i.e. flint chips) has been employed in the mortar between the main wall (sandstone?) blocks .
 
 
18. The Green in The Square. It's impossible to replicate the view taken c1905 from the Church Tower as
shops have been built in the line of sight. However, the modern view taken from the roof of "Tea in the Square" is fairly close.
Gone is the set back Elizabethan Farmhouse (The Rosary) where the Co-op is today. Gone is the tall grocery stores (Dench/Marsh).
Gone are The Bunnes. However, The Green is more defined with the war memorial at its centre - and look how the lime
trees have grown in the last 110 years, dwarfing the properties around them.
 
 
19. Longback Cottages in Arundel Road. There has not been a great deal of change since the old photo
was taken 100 years' ago although there have been some extensions on each end of the terrace. Note the well
in the side garden. Longback Cottages, now Grade 11 Listed Buildings, were built as almshouses for the poor
in the 1720's with rents at 6d a week for one room and 1/- a week for a whole house. The cottages were sold
into private ownership in 1870.
 
 
20. The Lamb and The Square. The exteriors of The Lamb (on the left) and Eachways (on the right) have not altered
much in the last 100 years. The grass triangle is now smaller (but prettier), the signpost at the foot of the High Street
has moved slightly, and street lighting has been introduced. However, John Terry's castellated house has long since been
demolished. Later, a bungalow called 'Red Admirals' was built along side the house in the late-1930s. This in turn was
demolished c2005 and an apartment block, also called 'Red Admirals', built on the site.
 
 
21. The Woodman Arms at Hammerpot. The origins of this hostelry probably date back to the 17thC.
Some time during the 20thC, the building was extended on the southern aspect and an 'outshut' extended to the
west side. Tragedy struck the public house on the evening of 26 February 2004 when The Woodman burnt down
after a fire started in the thatch of the Grade II Listed Building and only the main chimney breast and a part of the
south extension were able to be salvaged. The then owners, Gales Brewery, re-built it as an almost exact replica
of the earlier building and re-opened on 4 February 2005. The modern photo was taken on the day of re-opening.
 
 
22. The Cottrells (off High Street). The Cottrells was built by Angmering socialist local politician and historian,
Edwin Harris, between the years 1911 and 1914. His own builder's yard was located just a few yards' away.
He built these terraced cottages "for the working man". Note the changes since then - cars! Apart from these,
all the houses have been rendered and painted at first floor level, windows and doors replaced, pavements introduced,
and the road surfaced in tarmac..
 
 
23. Arundel Road. From this angle and view, there does not seem to be much change from the c1910 photo. However, the grass
verge has gone, pavements introduced, and the road tarmacced. Bradleys, the butchers (on the right), is now
a private residence and the building beyond - once the slaughter house and then a forge, is now the garage
for a modern house built in the Noughties.
 
 
24. Arundel Road. Pear Tree Cottage (left) lost one of its chimney stacks over the last century.  On the east
side of the road there were no buildings to the north 80+ years' ago. Today, St Margaret's Court retirement housing
can be seen on the right but hidden on that side is all the housing built during and after the 1930s right up to
St Margaret's School. Street lighting was not introduced in Angmering until the early 1960s.
 
 
25. Olders Cottage. The Cottage has always been associated with William Older who, through a legacy in his Will,
led to the foundation of the village school in 1682 - now Angmering Library. During the 1960s the cottage,
situated in Station Road, was demolished and replaced by a modern bungalow named Olders Lodge.
 
  26. Weavers Hill. The first row of cottages toward the bottom of Weavers Hill were built in the 1890s
by George Boore. Others were added later in the early part of the 20thC. This bottom part of Weavers Hill
is currently (2023) being considered for inclusion into Angmering's Conservation Area.(2023 photo: courtesy David Marsh)
 
  27. Older's Charity School / The Library. The original school was built in 1844, extended and enhanced
in 1853, and a new eastern wing added in 1884. When the school closed in 1965/6, the school
accommodated some 160 pupils.The younger pupils moved to St. Margaret's CE Primary in Arundel Road.
The building reopened as a WSCC Library some 8 years later.
 
  28. The Red Lion / Pete's Den. The Red Lion is thought to date back to C1740 when it
was originally called "The Lamb". It finally closed in 1932. Since then, it has been a butchers,
antique shop, newsagents, florist, and now Pete's Den - a micro bar - named in memory of Pete Dennett.
It can be seen how the steps were taken away and flooor lowered by reducing the height of the cellar.

 

Neil Rogers-Davis
January 2014

(All the modern photos on this page are the copyright of Neil Rogers-Davis. These are not to be used in any form or in any published material without express permission)

 

Page first uploaded: 22 January 2014 (Update [nos. 23 & 24] 16 Dec 2016. Update [no.25] 2 Oct 2019. Update [nos. 26, 27 & 28] uploaded 26 Oct 2023.