88 The Horsham Society Newsletter December 2008 Newsletter December 2008
Horsham’s green lung Clever old Waitrose aitrose is currently running a scheme called WCommunity Matters. The firm’s leaflet states that each month the Horsham branch will donate £1,000 between three local good causes chosen by the public, and every shopper gets a green token which he or she can place in a plastic box in support of a favourite cause. There’s a choice of three each time, and the more tokens a cause gets, the bigger its donation.
It’s a clever idea, and well done Waitrose for initiative. In the first month of operation, St Catherine’s Hospice was the runaway winner, no doubt because of its high profile locally, and the following month the Air Ambulance scheme was well ahead. I tend to feel sorry for the equally worthy but less popular causes, so generally drop my tokens into the slot with the smallest green pile. Need a stocking filler? Directory By The Way n the last issue we wrote about the acquisition of Horsham Park, Ifor the benefit of its townsfolk, from the Hurst family. This aerial f you’re looking for an extra Christmas gift, what could be photograph, which recently appeared in an HDC publication, I better than a copy of the Society’s latest publication: A The Horsham Society is an independent body supported by members’ graphically illustrates the value of this green lung to the community. Journey Through Horsham’s Changes by John Buchanan subscriptions, a registered charity (No.268949), affiliated to the and Annabelle Hughes. Copies are £9 each to members, Campaign to Protect Rural England and registered with the Civic Trust. New members Fringed by fine mature trees, and surrounded by houses and other It is a member of the English Historic Towns Forum. buildings, every inch of it must be protected, and sporadic attempts including delivery (normal price £9.95) and can be obtained Thanks very much to the following six new members for from Nigel Friswell, 2 Millais, Horsham RH13 6BS. Please PRESIDENT: Dr Annabelle Hughes by the council to nibble away at it must be resisted at all costs. joining: Mr and Mrs Powell, Manor Fields, Horsham; Mr and make cheques payable to ‘The Horsham Society’. VICE-PRESIDENTS: Mrs Bence, South Grove, Horsham; Mr and Mrs Posgate, Oliver Palmer, Rt. Hon. Francis Maude MP, Nigel Friswell Manor House, Causeway, Horsham. Ladybirds, ladybirds, Early warning CHAIRMAN VICE CHAIRMAN John Steele Ian Dockreay Choral concert fly away home (please) Please note that next month’s issue contains the 2 Old Denne Gardens 24 Wimblehurst Road annual subscription renewal forms, so we would be Horsham RH12 1JA Horsham RH12 2ED adybirds are usually the most endearing of insects, with their Tel: (01403) 272814 Christ’s Hospital Choral Society is putting on a concert at St grateful if everyone could do so with the January Tel: (01403) 241582 attractive colouring and variety of spots. But we took a different Email: [email protected] Mary’s on Saturday 29 November (at 7.30 pm). Two French L Newsletter. It’s a bit of a burden sending out lots of view recently, when, for a number of days in early October, one of Hon SECRETARY Romantic masterpieces by Gounod and Bizet are featured, and follow-up reminders (although to be fair the vast Hon TREASURER Sandie Brittain our bedrooms was invaded by wave after wave of the little tickets are available on the door. For more details call 01403 majority do renew – but some more quickly than Roy Bayliss 2 Fairview blighters. They seemed to think it was their territory, not ours. How 15 Patchings Horsham RH12 2PY 247434. others!) and Pat Gale would very much appreciate it Horsham RH13 5HJ they got in is a mystery in itself – no doubt through cracks in our Tel: (01403) 260915 if you could leap into action as soon as you get the Tel: (01403) 262262 elderly window frames – and the sight of dozens crawling about the NEWSLETTER DISTRIBUTION forms. Many thanks. MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY ORGANISER place, half dead and alive, was less than pleasant. No sooner had the Pat Gale Kathy Gleeson Personal & Professional Service Hoover got to work than a whole lot more appeared. 46 Bedford Road 13 Millthorpe Road from a company established Horsham RH13 5BJ Roffey RH12 4ER Did you know that there are 42 species resident in the British Isles, Tel: (01403) 253946 Tel: (01403) 210511 over 30 years the commonest being the 7-spot and the much smaller 2-spot? That Editor’s note Horsham Society website: www.horshamsociety.org Business Stationery • Brochures • Leaflets they can be red or yellow, all with black spots? That, although such Envelope Printing • Folders • Design • Mailing sweet and innocent-looking little things, they are highly predatory In the run-up to Christmas it may seem a little unseasonal to ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION RATES and destroy huge numbers of aphids and feature a story about Horsham and the temperance Individuals: £5 per year Single Pensioner: £3.25 per year Digital Printing in Colour and Black & White Family Membership: £7.50 per year Family Pensioner: £5 per year other insect pests? That their bright colours movement, but it’s a good one (see pages 84-86) and I hope Businesses: £10 per year Single Life Membership: £100 All major credit cards accepted are of a warning nature, advertising the bitter you find it interesting. It centres around Jury Cramp, a Family Life Membership: £150 taste that they carry if a hungry blackbird gets leading local abstainer, and a set-to he had with the £2.50 postage is added to the above rates for out-of-town members 7/8/9 Newhouse Business Centre, Horsham Press too many ideas? And that they exude drops of appropriately named Wildman Cattley, and we also tell Old Crawley Road, Horsham, West Sussex, RH12 4RU E-mail: [email protected] www.horshampress.co.uk pungent fluid if handled, which leave a stain something of Cramp’s life and times. All correspondence should go to the Hon Secretary in the first instance. and a long-lasting smell? You didn’t? Tut, The Newsletter is published monthly except for August. Letters and 01403 265608 tut .... Copy date for the January 2009 issue is 5 December. articles to be considered for publication should be sent to the Editor, Brian Slyfield, Arun House, Denne Road, Horsham RH12 1JF. Opinions © Individual contributors 2008. No material may be reproduced, copied or stored in a in the Newsletter, whether Editor’s or contributors’, are not necessarily retrieval system without the prior consent of the relevant contributor, which should be the policy of the Society. sought via the Editor. OUR CONCERN IS THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE OF THE TOWN 82 The Horsham Society Newsletter December 2008 The Horsham Society Newsletter December 2008 87
From The Committee Letters to the Editor
Do please write in: letters for publication to Sussex captain at the time was the leg- More homes needed without permission on detached proper- demolishes this bizarre notion, leaving Brian Slyfield, Arun House, Denne Road, endary CB Fry, but he failed to turn up on ties, and on smaller homes, three metre the landlords with surely just one option. Horsham RH12 1JF the day and KS Ranjitsinhji (‘Ranji’), he government’s target to build three extensions will be allowed. There will no Let the water flow again. another great name from the past, stepped T million new homes by 2020 is not longer be a maximum volume for a rear into the breach. In the event the game was high enough to meet the growth in the extension that can be built without per- Change of use at Action on A-boards? not concluded due to bad weather, but number of elderly people and young mission, and the rules governing loft con- was intrigued to read the item in the despite this disappointment the fixture was families, according to a recent report by versions and extensions will also change. Horse and Groom? well reported, and one national paper the Town and Country Planning I October Newsletter about the problem (However it is not generally realised that rumour has it that plans are afoot to waxed lyrical: ‘Set in the midst of a rich Association. Apparently at least a further of A-boards in the town and the response for many years homeowners have been convert the Horse & Groom into a from Messrs Baldwin and Rumble that the meadow land studded with trees ... and 500,000 homes are needed in England A allowed to carry out a great deal of im- restaurant. One or two people have said matter would be included in ‘proposals for redolent with the odour of new-mown hay, within the next 12 years. The pressures provement without planning permission, that it would make an ideal gastro-pub, action that were currently underway’. the scene is one of great natural beauty, and are partly because we are living even the good folk of Horsham who came nearly including most loft conversions). for example, and it’s essentially a fine longer than expected, more women are You may care to know that in 2005 I 4,000 strong to look at their county team, building – but one which has been much having their children later and also interviewed Tom Crowley when I was a had the additional advantage of paying abused. It will probably need a good deal because long-term migrants are starting Notes on selected planning presenter for the Roundabout magazine (for court to Ranji’. of work done on it, but let’s hope a families in this country. applications and appeals the blind and partially sighted). The thorny development of this nature does take Apart from the game itself the festival became subject of A-boards was raised and I was My thanks to Mike for allowing repro- place. It has much more potential than the a highlight of the town’s social calendar, But the report also notes that, because of 90 Hurst Road (Northbrook College): assured the matter would be looked at and, duction of his photo, and do think of joining and a high old time was had by all: fancy the credit crunch, these targets will This application has been refused on the Town Hall for such a use, but care will I foolishly thought, dealt with. How wrong the Friends. Why not drop in at the dress carnival balls, amateur dramatics, con- almost certainly be impossible to achieve grounds that the proposed new building need to be taken to preserve the integrity I was! A-boards have increased to alarming Warnham Visitor Centre between 11.00 and certs, brass bands and bunting in the streets. and there is likely to be a shortfall of was too large, but there has been no serious of the building (to use a favourite archi- numbers everywhere in the town centre and 12.00 on a Sunday morning to meet other tects’ phrase). Maybe it will rise, phoenix- more than 750,000 homes by 2016. The discussion about the quality of design. I am horrified at how many there are now. members and have a cup of coffee? The author has done much homework, and number of new builds this year is expect- Demolition on the site has now taken place. like, from the ashes of its murky past. Traders seem to think it is their right to takes us through each annual event, right up ed to fall from about 170,000 per annum clutter the pavements with their advertising Review: A History Of The until 2007. There is a wealth of detail, to 120,000 and is unlikely to pick up for Norfolk Court: This application has been Pirie family member boards (some with more than one) thought- which will appeal in the main to dedicated four years. As a consequence there will be approved despite overwhelming local lessly placed, and I really believe they are a Horsham County Cricket cricket fans, but David Boorman writes severe overcrowding and soaring house opposition, including that of the Society. returns to Horsham danger to all pedestrians but especially to Festival 1908-2007 with such style and an engaging sense of prices once construction starts again. those with visual impairment. Perhaps action he statue of William Pirie, 19th humour – the dry-as-dust statistics, for ‘Even when credit conditions improve and 10 Milnwood Road: An appeal has been will only be taken if there is an accident. his excellent new book is well century Collyer’s master, with his anoraks only, are relegated to the back of mortgages again become available the lodged in respect of the first proposal for T researched and written by David donkey and cart, which stands in the open Please keep pressure on the local council to, T the book – that the general reader will find current undersupply of additional homes the site which involved a block of flats in Boorman, professionally edited and pro- the book an enjoyable read as well. space named after him, is a much loved ideally, remove – or at least substantially will quickly risk a return to spiralling place of the building now demolished. The duced to a high standard by Roger Heavens, Horsham landmark – and a magnet for reduce – the numbers of these eyesores. prices’, says the report. Society will ask to appear at the hearing the publisher. It is a handsome publication, Inevitably there is the odd error (Shilling- young children, who love to clamber over Thank you. to oppose the appeal. hard back with colour and mono illustra- lee Park was the home of Earl Winterton, the old boy. It was good news that his Carole Sorrell Christine Whitehead is Professor of Swan Close, Southwater tions, which deals with a subject of great not Lord Leconfield), but don’t let’s quib- Housing at the London School of Econo- great grandson recently visited us from local interest – one that, so far, has not been ble. This is the best local history book I mics and a co-author of the report. She Swan Walk seats New Zealand and came to Arun House, comprehensively covered – and it deserves have read for a long time, its enjoyment notes that Gordon Brown had based his here appears to be universal agree- the site of Pirie’s old school. Greg Pirie to do well. mitigated only slightly by the author’s projections on 2004 population statistics, explained his links to William: ‘Head- The Reedbed concern for the future of county cricket at Tment (except, that is, by the land- David Boorman tells the story of early but the Office for National Statistics now master William Pirie married, secondly, Horsham. But whatever that future, this is lords) that the seats outside M&S in Swan his is the title of an excellent newsletter county cricket in Sussex (the first match projects that the population in England at the age of 57 (in 1859) and produced an important record of our past, and again Walk should not have been removed and sent to members of an equally excellent played under a Sussex banner may have William Sawyer Pirie one year later. The T would make an ideal Christmas present for will grow 2.86 million more by 2026, to that they should be reinstated as soon as organisation: Friends of Warnham Local been against Kent in September 1734), and latter married in 1896, aged 36, and anyone with either a general or specialist 58.7 million. possible. They are badly needed by elderly Nature Reserve. The Friends are a relatively sketches in a little of the Horsham club’s produced John Sawyer Pirie when he was interest in the local game. BS shoppers. So far the landlords seem to be new arrival on the Horsham scene, but they own history. Sussex Weekly Advertiser So what does all this mean here in Hor- 52, in 1912. John Sawyer Pirie was married sham? A significant delay in executing turning a deaf ear to local concern, and have been quick to set up a lively programme reported a match on Hurston Common on 5 A History Of The Horsham County Cricket we suggest that all those members who in 1947, when he was 34, and migrated to of events, and are good at publicising August 1771 between ‘11 Gentlemen of Festival 1908-2007 by David Boorman, published the development plans to the west of the New Zealand the following year. I am his by Roger Heavens. Price £20 from Horsham town? But a call for even more housing in wish to draw attention to the problem themselves around the town, with a stand in Horsham and 22 Gentlemen of West son and was born in 1955, when my father Pirie’s Place at regular intervals. Chiltington’ (which seems a bit unfair) and Museum: ISBN 978 1 900592 50 5. the area when times do get better? should express their views through the letters pages of the WSCT. This was an was 43’. our club takes this as its foundation date. In the latest issue Mike Attwood, a first-rate effective course of action when the swans We learn that Horsham had its first cricket wildlife photographer, tells of how a young Planning law changes themselves were removed. week in 1888, and the driving force behind Osprey was recently seen at the pond, on its the later establishment of an annual county he Housing Minister recently an- migration path to North Africa. It’s not match here was Arthur Oddie, who had Tnounced changes to planning law, Swan Walk water unusual to find these magnificent fish- been connected with the local club since the whereby permission will no longer be eating birds of prey stopping over on the nother problem. The swans may be early 1880s and had strong links with the required for home extensions. It is claimed larger reservoirs in East Sussex and Kent county game. Oddie (who we profiled in that the consequent reduction in red tape Aback, but their water has been taken (and there was one recently down on the away. Believe it or not, the landlords claim the June 2004 issue), lived at North Lodge, will save the taxpayer up to £50 million coast at Church Norton), but to see one at a large house in North Parade – now demol- this is because of the risk of Legionnaires' by removing almost a quarter of planning Warnham is really something. As Mike ished – was keen on amateur dramatics and Disease. But in a well thought out, prop- applications from local authorities. reported: ‘About 50 feet above my head was generally well known around the town. erly researched and scientifically based was a beautiful young Osprey. It circled the As from 1 October single-storey exten- comment in the WSCT (14 November), pond for several minutes enabling me to take And so the first county match, against sions up to four metres deep can be built Nigel Friswell, a Society vice president, a dozen or so shots before disappearing’. Essex, took place on 15-17 June 1908. The 86 The Horsham Society Newsletter December 2008 The Horsham Society Newsletter December 2008 83 the recorder called, but by 1891 the Cattley family was fully principles. He goes on to say: ‘The bill chiefly proposes to transfer installed, and in 1895 the mansion was sold on to Rev EDL vetoing power from magistrates to the public, a step which you Review: Southwater A to Z: A Miscellany Harvey, a man who did much good work locally, and who was and many who live on what Lord Randolph Churchill called a his is a delightful new book, published by Southwater Local History Group and compiled by Patsy Laker and Catherine Andrews. a moving force behind the establishment of Horsham’s second “devilish and destructive traffic” are terribly afraid’. He then It’s good to see a new angle on a village history, and in this case the title says it all. The reader can trawl through the alphabet, hospital – a ward there was named after him. (We profiled comments that ‘threats by gentlemen of your position are not T finding out about all sorts of things: houses, events, personalities and much more from Southwater’s past. The book kicks off with Harvey in the July 2001 issue). used to (sic) in this neighbourhood’, and ends with the statement Abbots Leigh, a colonial style house built in the first decade of the twentieth century, now demolished, which featured a searchlight that he (Cramp) employs people with many shades of opinion, in its grounds during WW2, and ends with Zaleski, the first novel written by fantasy novelist Matthew Phipps Shiel (we wrote about The 1891 Census records that apart from Wildman and Caroline and would never let their beliefs affect their employment him in the May 2004 issue) who once lived in New Road. and their son Stephen, three nephews were staying at prospects. ‘I have never stooped so low and never will’. Beedingwood at the time: Charles (aged 35 and a stockbroker), On the way we take in Dinosaur, which gives the Southwater story an earlier start than most, and learn about two pterodactyl wing Mark (aged 30, another hop merchant – so it was truly a family Wildman Cattley to Jury Cramp: 10 April 1893 bones that were found locally by George Bax Holmes in Victorian times, and about the bones of an iguanodon that were excavated in business) and a third whose name I cannot make out (but he was ‘Cheque enclosed with best wishes. I always thought however 1928. So this is a book for dipping into, and with its eclectic range of aged 30 and again ‘a merchant’). that you “goody, goody gentlemen” who I thank God you are not information, covering topics such as the local Prosecuting Society, formed in as other men are etc always “turn the other cheek and never After their spell at Beedingwood the Cattleys moved to 1796 by a group of villages (including Southwater) to fight crime, the career of called names or ever got spiteful”. This is not the first time, Westlands, West Grinstead (they were there in the 1900s) and local man Bernard Lintot (1675-1736) who rose to prominence as a London however, I have been deceived in or by Pharisaical rabid tee- eventually to Hove, where Wildman died on 7 December 1918 at publisher, and the local stoolball club, it’s very much a bran tub of historical totallers. ‘PS: Do try to be a Man’. the age of 81. His wife had predeceased him by only a few years, facts. There are also valuable notes on many local houses – but I do wish the book had come up with an explanation of how the curiously named and passed away on 13 April 1915. Jury Cramp to Wildman Cattley: 12 April 1893 Newfoundout, in Reeds Lane, got its name! So, in the family tradition, Cattley had been a successful trader, ‘Cheque for quarter account duly received. Receipt herewith at a time when the business of beer and breweries was booming. with thanks’. Cramp then explains that he will release their One of the book’s strengths its its wealth of illustrations, many of which are in Graham Holter, in his excellent Sussex Breweries, tells of the correspondence to the local press, and why, and notes that ‘the colour, and Patsy and Catherine deserve congratulations for all the hard work importance of Sussex as a source of hops, and Brighton alone public have an interest in the Local Veto Bill and the way you that must have gone into assembling them. Do get hold of a copy – it would had 60 breweries in 1875. In 1882 there were 9,000 acres of hops might treat its supporters. An intelligent and impartial press may make an ideal present – and for details write to Southwater Local History growing in the county, and a little earlier, in 1871, it was reported judge between us’. Group, 12 Woodfield, Southwater, Horsham RH13 9EN. BS that Sussex hops were ‘greatly admired’ by the brewers of New Wildman Cattley to Jury Cramp: 15 April 1893 York. The Cattleys must have had a big business, and would have Cattley has been away briefly. He lets it be known that it is fine acted as middlemen between farmers and brewers. During the by him that the letters have been released, and ‘why not have a A-boards a continuing problem harvest thousands of pickers would have put London’s grime good big “tea meeting” at which a good deal of “butter” for one behind them and spent three to four weeks in the countryside, but -boards are becoming a significant problem (see Carole Sorrell’s letter in this issue) and so far we and others have found it difficult side and “brimstone” for the other might doubtless be used’. today there are fewer than 400 acres of hop gardens in the Ato get the authorities to take action. So John Steele has now written to Councillor Derek Whittington, at WSCC’s Strategic Why not ‘read out the letters from the pulpit as well; it will county, and the Sussex crop is eclipsed not just by Kent, but by Planning and Transport Department, in order to try and nail the problem. The text of the letter is set out below, and we will report on enable you to pose as a martyr in the eyes of your ultra-political, Herefordshire and Worcestershire as well. developments: tea-drinking non-conformist friends’. Finally: The disagreement between Cattley and Cramp centred around ‘I am writing to ask you to take positive action to curb the present excessive use of A-boards in Horsham town centre. This is an issue ‘PS: In spite of all I wish you well and shall yet hope that some which has concerned our members for many years but despite a number of approaches to WSCC and Horsham District Council nothing what was known as the Local Veto Bill, which proposed to of us may live to see your mind grow a little larger’. replace the authority of local magistrates, in deciding whether or has been done to deal with the problem and the prevalence of unsightly and potentially dangerous A-boards has now reached epidemic not to allow public houses to be licensed, with a vote by the proportions. Not only are traders using more boards – often several for one shop – but they are placing them even further from their Phew! The correspondence then ends with Jury Cramp declaring general public. Private consumption of alcohol was not affected, premises. Some of our town centre streets are very narrow and pedestrians have to negotiate a series of A-board chicanes. With the that ‘your feeble sneers and professed good wishes may be but a two-thirds majority vote could restrict its public sale – increasing use of mobility scooters the situation has worsened markedly in the last year or two. readily dismissed’, and while Cattley now goes silent, others although a period of three years’ notice was required before a enter the fray and the issues continue to be batted back and forth ‘The Horsham Society is opposed to all A-boards but we recognise the wishes of traders to attract custom and have therefore suggested license could be withdrawn (which seems a leisurely time span). in the columns of the paper. A London correspondent joins in, in the past a voluntary code of practice under which traders would be limited to one A-board positioned no further than one metre from Nevertheless Cattley smelled trouble, and started a vigorous and another puts pen to paper, contributing lines of doggerel – the shop front. Neither WSCC or HDC has been prepared to consider such a scheme. HDC say it is a highway matter and WSCC has exchange of letters with Jury Cramp, who he knew to be the but let’s leave them to it. previously said that as A-boards are unlawful it would be inappropriate to support a voluntary code. Meanwhile the problem gets leading local abolitionist. Cramp took a decision to release their worse. Would you back Cramp or Cattley in all this? Sober-sided folk letters to the West Sussex Times and Standard when he found out would, I am sure, go with Cramp, but by and large, at the end of ‘Unless WSCC is prepared to change its stance the Horsham Society considers it essential that you formally warn all traders that they that Cattley was ‘mentioning our correspondence to my the day, and taking everything into consideration, I think – no, I are breaking the law by using A-boards and take enforcement action against those that continue to do so. The parking enforcement disparagement elsewhere’. So here’s the gist of it: know – that I would much prefer to have a pint of beer with the officers could be used to do this at no additional cost. I look forward to hearing what you propose to do. We would still prefer a erratic and irascible Wildman Cattley than a cup of tea with the voluntary code – we understand that Brighton and Hove City Council run a voluntary scheme – but if you persist in your current view Wildman Cattley to Jury Cramp: 4 April 1893 oh-so-virtuous Jury Cramp. then it is your duty to enforce the law. I am copying this letter to Cllr Nigel Dennis and Tom Crowley, HDC Chief Executive’. Cattley demands to know if Cramp will support a candidate who would vote in favour of the Local Veto Bill. The bill, if passed, ‘will rob thousands of their money, deprive them of their living and rob shareholders in breweries’. But he then gets petty. ‘If you Town Hall turmoil answer in the affirmative, send me your account by return’. umour has it that HDC has difficulty in finding takers for its deeply unpopular plan to convert the Town Hall into a restaurant. (Remember Cramp ran a jeweller’s shop). ‘I look upon it that R And we now learn that an outfit called Davis Coffer Lyons (DCL), who act as agents for leading restaurant companies, and who anyone who supports this bill of confiscation is assisting to try have also advised the council, have suggested that it gets planning permission for changes to the building and Listed Building Consent, and rob and ruin many of his fellow countrymen’. presumably to make it more attractive to potential clients. Finally: ‘Send me a line by return’. Not only that, but DCL has now submitted a planning application on behalf of HDC. So it seems as if the council will have to decide on its own application. Are we being naive here, or is there a conflict of interest? Jury Cramp to Wildman Cattley: 6 April 1893 ‘I lose no time in replying. As a life-long abstainer and temperance John Steele, Horsham Society chairman, commented: 'The council is now paying to apply to itself for planning consent for a change worker there can only be one answer’. Cramp states that despite of use (for which there is no tenant), including costly plans to alter all three floors of the building. Instead of this futile waste of public any threat of loss of employment he could never sacrifice his money the council should admit the failure of its misconceived scheme and think again about alternative uses for the Town Hall'. Beedingwood, Cattley’s old home 84 The Horsham Society Newsletter December 2008 The Horsham Society Newsletter December 2008 85
I was interested to learn that a certain Mrs Gant, who lived in Wildman Cattley v. Jury Cramp, Jury Cramp, the temperance movement – and a new Horsham hotel Arun House from 1896-1901, was also a temperance supporter. by Brian Slyfield She was a keen attender of local meetings, such as a gathering of ‘a Pharisaical rabid tee-totaller’ the Conference of the Band of Hope Workers (the movement’s youth wing), again in the Albion Hall, which was held in 1898 in ack in 1893 two men with interesting names but very he name Jury Cramp will be familiar to many Horsham Monday evenings between 6-8 pm, and when an individual association with the Horsham United Temperance Association. Bopposite opinions had a major disagreement over the issue T people, who will have fond memories of the family’s fine account had accrued as much as £2 2s, that individual became Miss Gant would not feel terribly at home in her old house today. of strong drink, which was exposed to the world in a sharp old jeweller’s shop in West Street (there until 1985). Later eligible to enter a ballot. If successful in the ballot, he or she exchange of private letters, released to the local paper. In one generations of Cramps will, as well, be known to many of us. But could then qualify for a watch, to a higher value than the two And so to Horsham’s new hotel. Jury Cramp, as energetic as corner was Jury Cramp, whose views on the matter are now clear as far as Horsham is concerned, the family’s story starts with guineas – just as long a another club member would stand as ever, had taken another initiative. This time he decided to branch to us all, and in the other was Wildman Cattley, a hop merchant Jury, so let us tell a little of it, and of one of the driving forces in guarantor for the balance of the payment. A clever but cautious out in a major way, and 28 April 1898 saw the grand opening of of substance who had come to live locally at Beedingwood on his life – the temperance movement. scheme by Cramp, but it is difficult to see the true benefit for the his Temperance Hotel in Market Square, just to the Forest road, and who saw in Cramp the good folk of Horsham – and was it really worth all the trouble? the left of the Town Hall as you face towards devil and all his works (the feeling was, of Jury Cramp was not native to Horsham. He was born in East the Causeway. Its launch was unusual by course, mutual), and a serious threat to his Grinstead in 1847, one of three sons and three daughters, whose In later life Cramp reminisced about his pioneering temperance today’s standards – no canapés, and certainly livelihood and that of many others. father was known as the ‘tee-total poet’. As we will see, young days, and it is clear that a great deal of courage was needed to no champagne. Canon Daniel from Horsham Jury and his siblings were deeply imbued with their father’s spread the word – a highly unpopular one in some quarters – in vicarage presided, and proceedings started with Both men had individual and, by today’s temperance beliefs, which were central to Jury’s thinking what he described as a ‘drink-sodden town’, with 70 ‘drink a tea. Then there was an hour’s conference (no standards, imaginative christian names. throughout his life. He learnt his trade as a watchmaker as an shops’ in the area. He talked of open-air meetings in the Carfax need to guess what that was all about), and the Cattley sounds like a character out of Lorna apprentice in Croydon, and after working around the country – which was a very different place to today’s well-ordered vicar congratulated Jury Cramp on his ‘noble Doone – beyond the law, down from the moors arrived in Horsham in 1872 at the age of 27. His first premises centre. In the latter part of the nineteenth century it was cut public spirit’. Apparently there had been and dangerous – and indeed from his were in Market Square and Middle Street (one of his brothers across by random pathways, muddy in winter and dusty in previous, unsuccessful attempts at getting a correspondence he comes over as an arrogant, also had a grocer’s shop in the town), and six years later, in 1878, summer. The meetings were often received with great hostility, temperance hotel off the ground, and in one hot-headed fellow. Cramp, on the other hand, he moved to West Street. and when speeches were made from Amos Chart’s wagon, lent such effort its treasurer left the town and took while equally determined, seems generally to for the occasion, its wheels had to be padlocked to prevent the money with him. So everyone wished this have held the high ground with a more level- In his time he was a member of the Urban District Council, and rougher elements in the crowd making off with it. venture well. headed stance – just what one might expect, in was a Methodist lay preacher at the London Road church for 58 fact, from the ideal juryman. It was thought there was a real need for a hotel years. He was recognised everywhere by his small, active figure, On one occasion a burly fellow did his best to tip the wagon over, like this for young men, and indeed early But that’s enough fanciful stuff. The story and was regularly seen on his cycle well into his 80s. He died, at whereupon the diminutive Jury Cramp, in turn, tipped a bottle of bookings showed promise; for the first week or behind Cattley’s first name, while interesting, the goodly age of 90, on 10 January 1937 – what a fine water (what else?) reserved for the speakers over him, an action so it was full. But then its manager, Mr is in fact much more prosaic. He came from an advertisement for abstinence. which was followed by a smart tactical retreat by the temperance Woodley, together with his wife and Jury Cramp, A 1905 advertisement old Yorkshire family, and in the mid 18th century brigade. Rev GO Frost was the first local minister to take the for Cramp’s hotel. had spent some time on research, and had Thomas Cattley, a farmer near Wetherby, To coincide with his move from Middle to West Street he pledge, and he had a particularly rough time of it – jeered by the taken a close look at similar establishments elsewhere. And the married Mary Wildman of Bramham – so succeeding generations announced to the general public the somewhat demanding rules mob and needing, more than once, a police escort to get him owner’s ambitions knew no bounds: he had also planned a incorporated her family name. Around the same time a Stephen of his Watch, Clock and Jewellery Club. He was a man of some home. He was once heckled for being a smoker (it’s a bit like that temperance ‘book depot’, to be associated with the hotel, together Cattley came south to London, and in 1757, with a partner, initiative, and this organisation was but one example. To qualify today), but countered quickly with the offer to give up his pipe if with a library and a ‘bureau for servants’ – in other words an established Cattley and Hardcastle, a successful trading company for club membership a weekly payment of 1s had to be made, on the heckler gave up his beer. The offer was not taken up. agency that linked abstemious employers to abstemious employees. which imported tallow and barilla (used to make soda, soap and The Albion Hall and Town Hall were indoor venues, and in those glass) from Russia. They had trading houses in both London and But none of this would come to pass. The hotel managed to rough and tumble times both suffered broken windows and St Petersbourg, and Cattley became a man of much property. survive for a few years, but never really caught the imagination damaged furniture at meetings, such was the antagonism that Their business was not glamorous, but it was highly profitable. of those young men; business faded away and in due course it Cramp and his colleagues engendered. But it was not always the closed. Consequently, none of the other ideas got off the ground. Also interestingly, a Thomas Wildman bought Newstead Abbey case: sometimes apathy ruled. One meeting in the Albion Hall, from Lord Byron in 1817 for 90,000 guineas. The two had been presided over by RC Wilberforce, a recent Liberal candidate, and This Victorian world of evangelical temperance may seem alien contemporaries at Harrow, and Wildman’s family wealth is said to with Mrs Hurst from Horsham Park in attendance – and with to many of us now, but anyone unlucky enough to walk through have been derived from the West Indies sugar boom and the manage- hymns as well as speeches – took as its theme ‘Thrift in Relation Market Square on a Saturday night at closing time, where Jury ment of the Beckford family interests at home and abroad. to Temperance’, but ‘owing no doubt to several other meetings Cramp’s hotel once stood (even those with the most liberal of there was a somewhat poor attendance’. I wonder.... But they all inclinations), might think that all those young drunks in the town More immediately, Wildman Cattley of Beedingwood was born plugged on, and learnt in time to be skilled lobbyists. The centre would be far better off at home with a steadying cup of on 22 October 1837 at Clapham, the son of Stephen Wildman movement, for example, persistently challenged licensing tea. Cattley (‘a Russia trader’ – so there was continuity in the business) applications (see the next story in this issue), and was proud to and his wife Ellen, née Toulmin. In due course he succeeded his have played its part in the closing down of 20 local premises. father as honorary treasurer of Surrey County Cricket Club and was himself a keen amateur player. He also became Master of the They also gathered influential supporters to the cause. Rt Rev Grocer’s Company, was a JP and a breeder of prize cattle, Winnington Ingram, Bishop of London, as a young man – a possibly when living at an earlier address, Haling Park, Croydon. private tutor – had lived in Horsham in the 1880s, and he subscribed to the movement. Again Thomas Cowan of He married Caroline Elizabeth Wheeler from Alton on 23 August Compton’s Lea, famous in his time as President of the All 1859, and the couple were to have three sons, all born in England Beekeepers’ Association, was a supporter, and in 1883 Croydon: Stephen, Arthur and Hubert. Wildman then came to Mr Denny of Beedingwood gave Jury Cramp a very large live at Beedingwood, a once grand house which is now no more donation in support of the Blue Ribbon Mission (the best ever, than a shell, following years of neglect and a major fire in May according to Cramp). But things did not always go smoothly. In 2007. It was built in 1876, as is clear from an inscription on the the 1875 Election a temperance candidate was put up, and not building, and it may be that Cattley was responsible for its Jury Cramp (first left) with other Horsham worthies only did an unappreciative crowd rip the trousers off him, but he construction. At the moment I am not sure. The 1881 Census at the dedication of the town’s drinking fountain. only got 10 votes. records just three servants – no-one else – in residence at the time Cramp’s shop in West Street. 84 The Horsham Society Newsletter December 2008 The Horsham Society Newsletter December 2008 85
I was interested to learn that a certain Mrs Gant, who lived in Wildman Cattley v. Jury Cramp, Jury Cramp, the temperance movement – and a new Horsham hotel Arun House from 1896-1901, was also a temperance supporter. by Brian Slyfield She was a keen attender of local meetings, such as a gathering of ‘a Pharisaical rabid tee-totaller’ the Conference of the Band of Hope Workers (the movement’s youth wing), again in the Albion Hall, which was held in 1898 in ack in 1893 two men with interesting names but very he name Jury Cramp will be familiar to many Horsham Monday evenings between 6-8 pm, and when an individual association with the Horsham United Temperance Association. Bopposite opinions had a major disagreement over the issue T people, who will have fond memories of the family’s fine account had accrued as much as £2 2s, that individual became Miss Gant would not feel terribly at home in her old house today. of strong drink, which was exposed to the world in a sharp old jeweller’s shop in West Street (there until 1985). Later eligible to enter a ballot. If successful in the ballot, he or she exchange of private letters, released to the local paper. In one generations of Cramps will, as well, be known to many of us. But could then qualify for a watch, to a higher value than the two And so to Horsham’s new hotel. Jury Cramp, as energetic as corner was Jury Cramp, whose views on the matter are now clear as far as Horsham is concerned, the family’s story starts with guineas – just as long a another club member would stand as ever, had taken another initiative. This time he decided to branch to us all, and in the other was Wildman Cattley, a hop merchant Jury, so let us tell a little of it, and of one of the driving forces in guarantor for the balance of the payment. A clever but cautious out in a major way, and 28 April 1898 saw the grand opening of of substance who had come to live locally at Beedingwood on his life – the temperance movement. scheme by Cramp, but it is difficult to see the true benefit for the his Temperance Hotel in Market Square, just to the Forest road, and who saw in Cramp the good folk of Horsham – and was it really worth all the trouble? the left of the Town Hall as you face towards devil and all his works (the feeling was, of Jury Cramp was not native to Horsham. He was born in East the Causeway. Its launch was unusual by course, mutual), and a serious threat to his Grinstead in 1847, one of three sons and three daughters, whose In later life Cramp reminisced about his pioneering temperance today’s standards – no canapés, and certainly livelihood and that of many others. father was known as the ‘tee-total poet’. As we will see, young days, and it is clear that a great deal of courage was needed to no champagne. Canon Daniel from Horsham Jury and his siblings were deeply imbued with their father’s spread the word – a highly unpopular one in some quarters – in vicarage presided, and proceedings started with Both men had individual and, by today’s temperance beliefs, which were central to Jury’s thinking what he described as a ‘drink-sodden town’, with 70 ‘drink a tea. Then there was an hour’s conference (no standards, imaginative christian names. throughout his life. He learnt his trade as a watchmaker as an shops’ in the area. He talked of open-air meetings in the Carfax need to guess what that was all about), and the Cattley sounds like a character out of Lorna apprentice in Croydon, and after working around the country – which was a very different place to today’s well-ordered vicar congratulated Jury Cramp on his ‘noble Doone – beyond the law, down from the moors arrived in Horsham in 1872 at the age of 27. His first premises centre. In the latter part of the nineteenth century it was cut public spirit’. Apparently there had been and dangerous – and indeed from his were in Market Square and Middle Street (one of his brothers across by random pathways, muddy in winter and dusty in previous, unsuccessful attempts at getting a correspondence he comes over as an arrogant, also had a grocer’s shop in the town), and six years later, in 1878, summer. The meetings were often received with great hostility, temperance hotel off the ground, and in one hot-headed fellow. Cramp, on the other hand, he moved to West Street. and when speeches were made from Amos Chart’s wagon, lent such effort its treasurer left the town and took while equally determined, seems generally to for the occasion, its wheels had to be padlocked to prevent the money with him. So everyone wished this have held the high ground with a more level- In his time he was a member of the Urban District Council, and rougher elements in the crowd making off with it. venture well. headed stance – just what one might expect, in was a Methodist lay preacher at the London Road church for 58 fact, from the ideal juryman. It was thought there was a real need for a hotel years. He was recognised everywhere by his small, active figure, On one occasion a burly fellow did his best to tip the wagon over, like this for young men, and indeed early But that’s enough fanciful stuff. The story and was regularly seen on his cycle well into his 80s. He died, at whereupon the diminutive Jury Cramp, in turn, tipped a bottle of bookings showed promise; for the first week or behind Cattley’s first name, while interesting, the goodly age of 90, on 10 January 1937 – what a fine water (what else?) reserved for the speakers over him, an action so it was full. But then its manager, Mr is in fact much more prosaic. He came from an advertisement for abstinence. which was followed by a smart tactical retreat by the temperance Woodley, together with his wife and Jury Cramp, A 1905 advertisement old Yorkshire family, and in the mid 18th century brigade. Rev GO Frost was the first local minister to take the for Cramp’s hotel. had spent some time on research, and had Thomas Cattley, a farmer near Wetherby, To coincide with his move from Middle to West Street he pledge, and he had a particularly rough time of it – jeered by the taken a close look at similar establishments elsewhere. And the married Mary Wildman of Bramham – so succeeding generations announced to the general public the somewhat demanding rules mob and needing, more than once, a police escort to get him owner’s ambitions knew no bounds: he had also planned a incorporated her family name. Around the same time a Stephen of his Watch, Clock and Jewellery Club. He was a man of some home. He was once heckled for being a smoker (it’s a bit like that temperance ‘book depot’, to be associated with the hotel, together Cattley came south to London, and in 1757, with a partner, initiative, and this organisation was but one example. To qualify today), but countered quickly with the offer to give up his pipe if with a library and a ‘bureau for servants’ – in other words an established Cattley and Hardcastle, a successful trading company for club membership a weekly payment of 1s had to be made, on the heckler gave up his beer. The offer was not taken up. agency that linked abstemious employers to abstemious employees. which imported tallow and barilla (used to make soda, soap and The Albion Hall and Town Hall were indoor venues, and in those glass) from Russia. They had trading houses in both London and But none of this would come to pass. The hotel managed to rough and tumble times both suffered broken windows and St Petersbourg, and Cattley became a man of much property. survive for a few years, but never really caught the imagination damaged furniture at meetings, such was the antagonism that Their business was not glamorous, but it was highly profitable. of those young men; business faded away and in due course it Cramp and his colleagues engendered. But it was not always the closed. Consequently, none of the other ideas got off the ground. Also interestingly, a Thomas Wildman bought Newstead Abbey case: sometimes apathy ruled. One meeting in the Albion Hall, from Lord Byron in 1817 for 90,000 guineas. The two had been presided over by RC Wilberforce, a recent Liberal candidate, and This Victorian world of evangelical temperance may seem alien contemporaries at Harrow, and Wildman’s family wealth is said to with Mrs Hurst from Horsham Park in attendance – and with to many of us now, but anyone unlucky enough to walk through have been derived from the West Indies sugar boom and the manage- hymns as well as speeches – took as its theme ‘Thrift in Relation Market Square on a Saturday night at closing time, where Jury ment of the Beckford family interests at home and abroad. to Temperance’, but ‘owing no doubt to several other meetings Cramp’s hotel once stood (even those with the most liberal of there was a somewhat poor attendance’. I wonder.... But they all inclinations), might think that all those young drunks in the town More immediately, Wildman Cattley of Beedingwood was born plugged on, and learnt in time to be skilled lobbyists. The centre would be far better off at home with a steadying cup of on 22 October 1837 at Clapham, the son of Stephen Wildman movement, for example, persistently challenged licensing tea. Cattley (‘a Russia trader’ – so there was continuity in the business) applications (see the next story in this issue), and was proud to and his wife Ellen, née Toulmin. In due course he succeeded his have played its part in the closing down of 20 local premises. father as honorary treasurer of Surrey County Cricket Club and was himself a keen amateur player. He also became Master of the They also gathered influential supporters to the cause. Rt Rev Grocer’s Company, was a JP and a breeder of prize cattle, Winnington Ingram, Bishop of London, as a young man – a possibly when living at an earlier address, Haling Park, Croydon. private tutor – had lived in Horsham in the 1880s, and he subscribed to the movement. Again Thomas Cowan of He married Caroline Elizabeth Wheeler from Alton on 23 August Compton’s Lea, famous in his time as President of the All 1859, and the couple were to have three sons, all born in England Beekeepers’ Association, was a supporter, and in 1883 Croydon: Stephen, Arthur and Hubert. Wildman then came to Mr Denny of Beedingwood gave Jury Cramp a very large live at Beedingwood, a once grand house which is now no more donation in support of the Blue Ribbon Mission (the best ever, than a shell, following years of neglect and a major fire in May according to Cramp). But things did not always go smoothly. In 2007. It was built in 1876, as is clear from an inscription on the the 1875 Election a temperance candidate was put up, and not building, and it may be that Cattley was responsible for its Jury Cramp (first left) with other Horsham worthies only did an unappreciative crowd rip the trousers off him, but he construction. At the moment I am not sure. The 1881 Census at the dedication of the town’s drinking fountain. only got 10 votes. records just three servants – no-one else – in residence at the time Cramp’s shop in West Street. 86 The Horsham Society Newsletter December 2008 The Horsham Society Newsletter December 2008 83 the recorder called, but by 1891 the Cattley family was fully principles. He goes on to say: ‘The bill chiefly proposes to transfer installed, and in 1895 the mansion was sold on to Rev EDL vetoing power from magistrates to the public, a step which you Review: Southwater A to Z: A Miscellany Harvey, a man who did much good work locally, and who was and many who live on what Lord Randolph Churchill called a his is a delightful new book, published by Southwater Local History Group and compiled by Patsy Laker and Catherine Andrews. a moving force behind the establishment of Horsham’s second “devilish and destructive traffic” are terribly afraid’. He then It’s good to see a new angle on a village history, and in this case the title says it all. The reader can trawl through the alphabet, hospital – a ward there was named after him. (We profiled comments that ‘threats by gentlemen of your position are not T finding out about all sorts of things: houses, events, personalities and much more from Southwater’s past. The book kicks off with Harvey in the July 2001 issue). used to (sic) in this neighbourhood’, and ends with the statement Abbots Leigh, a colonial style house built in the first decade of the twentieth century, now demolished, which featured a searchlight that he (Cramp) employs people with many shades of opinion, in its grounds during WW2, and ends with Zaleski, the first novel written by fantasy novelist Matthew Phipps Shiel (we wrote about The 1891 Census records that apart from Wildman and Caroline and would never let their beliefs affect their employment him in the May 2004 issue) who once lived in New Road. and their son Stephen, three nephews were staying at prospects. ‘I have never stooped so low and never will’. Beedingwood at the time: Charles (aged 35 and a stockbroker), On the way we take in Dinosaur, which gives the Southwater story an earlier start than most, and learn about two pterodactyl wing Mark (aged 30, another hop merchant – so it was truly a family Wildman Cattley to Jury Cramp: 10 April 1893 bones that were found locally by George Bax Holmes in Victorian times, and about the bones of an iguanodon that were excavated in business) and a third whose name I cannot make out (but he was ‘Cheque enclosed with best wishes. I always thought however 1928. So this is a book for dipping into, and with its eclectic range of aged 30 and again ‘a merchant’). that you “goody, goody gentlemen” who I thank God you are not information, covering topics such as the local Prosecuting Society, formed in as other men are etc always “turn the other cheek and never After their spell at Beedingwood the Cattleys moved to 1796 by a group of villages (including Southwater) to fight crime, the career of called names or ever got spiteful”. This is not the first time, Westlands, West Grinstead (they were there in the 1900s) and local man Bernard Lintot (1675-1736) who rose to prominence as a London however, I have been deceived in or by Pharisaical rabid tee- eventually to Hove, where Wildman died on 7 December 1918 at publisher, and the local stoolball club, it’s very much a bran tub of historical totallers. ‘PS: Do try to be a Man’. the age of 81. His wife had predeceased him by only a few years, facts. There are also valuable notes on many local houses – but I do wish the book had come up with an explanation of how the curiously named and passed away on 13 April 1915. Jury Cramp to Wildman Cattley: 12 April 1893 Newfoundout, in Reeds Lane, got its name! So, in the family tradition, Cattley had been a successful trader, ‘Cheque for quarter account duly received. Receipt herewith at a time when the business of beer and breweries was booming. with thanks’. Cramp then explains that he will release their One of the book’s strengths its its wealth of illustrations, many of which are in Graham Holter, in his excellent Sussex Breweries, tells of the correspondence to the local press, and why, and notes that ‘the colour, and Patsy and Catherine deserve congratulations for all the hard work importance of Sussex as a source of hops, and Brighton alone public have an interest in the Local Veto Bill and the way you that must have gone into assembling them. Do get hold of a copy – it would had 60 breweries in 1875. In 1882 there were 9,000 acres of hops might treat its supporters. An intelligent and impartial press may make an ideal present – and for details write to Southwater Local History growing in the county, and a little earlier, in 1871, it was reported judge between us’. Group, 12 Woodfield, Southwater, Horsham RH13 9EN. BS that Sussex hops were ‘greatly admired’ by the brewers of New Wildman Cattley to Jury Cramp: 15 April 1893 York. The Cattleys must have had a big business, and would have Cattley has been away briefly. He lets it be known that it is fine acted as middlemen between farmers and brewers. During the by him that the letters have been released, and ‘why not have a A-boards a continuing problem harvest thousands of pickers would have put London’s grime good big “tea meeting” at which a good deal of “butter” for one behind them and spent three to four weeks in the countryside, but -boards are becoming a significant problem (see Carole Sorrell’s letter in this issue) and so far we and others have found it difficult side and “brimstone” for the other might doubtless be used’. today there are fewer than 400 acres of hop gardens in the Ato get the authorities to take action. So John Steele has now written to Councillor Derek Whittington, at WSCC’s Strategic Why not ‘read out the letters from the pulpit as well; it will county, and the Sussex crop is eclipsed not just by Kent, but by Planning and Transport Department, in order to try and nail the problem. The text of the letter is set out below, and we will report on enable you to pose as a martyr in the eyes of your ultra-political, Herefordshire and Worcestershire as well. developments: tea-drinking non-conformist friends’. Finally: The disagreement between Cattley and Cramp centred around ‘I am writing to ask you to take positive action to curb the present excessive use of A-boards in Horsham town centre. This is an issue ‘PS: In spite of all I wish you well and shall yet hope that some which has concerned our members for many years but despite a number of approaches to WSCC and Horsham District Council nothing what was known as the Local Veto Bill, which proposed to of us may live to see your mind grow a little larger’. replace the authority of local magistrates, in deciding whether or has been done to deal with the problem and the prevalence of unsightly and potentially dangerous A-boards has now reached epidemic not to allow public houses to be licensed, with a vote by the proportions. Not only are traders using more boards – often several for one shop – but they are placing them even further from their Phew! The correspondence then ends with Jury Cramp declaring general public. Private consumption of alcohol was not affected, premises. Some of our town centre streets are very narrow and pedestrians have to negotiate a series of A-board chicanes. With the that ‘your feeble sneers and professed good wishes may be but a two-thirds majority vote could restrict its public sale – increasing use of mobility scooters the situation has worsened markedly in the last year or two. readily dismissed’, and while Cattley now goes silent, others although a period of three years’ notice was required before a enter the fray and the issues continue to be batted back and forth ‘The Horsham Society is opposed to all A-boards but we recognise the wishes of traders to attract custom and have therefore suggested license could be withdrawn (which seems a leisurely time span). in the columns of the paper. A London correspondent joins in, in the past a voluntary code of practice under which traders would be limited to one A-board positioned no further than one metre from Nevertheless Cattley smelled trouble, and started a vigorous and another puts pen to paper, contributing lines of doggerel – the shop front. Neither WSCC or HDC has been prepared to consider such a scheme. HDC say it is a highway matter and WSCC has exchange of letters with Jury Cramp, who he knew to be the but let’s leave them to it. previously said that as A-boards are unlawful it would be inappropriate to support a voluntary code. Meanwhile the problem gets leading local abolitionist. Cramp took a decision to release their worse. Would you back Cramp or Cattley in all this? Sober-sided folk letters to the West Sussex Times and Standard when he found out would, I am sure, go with Cramp, but by and large, at the end of ‘Unless WSCC is prepared to change its stance the Horsham Society considers it essential that you formally warn all traders that they that Cattley was ‘mentioning our correspondence to my the day, and taking everything into consideration, I think – no, I are breaking the law by using A-boards and take enforcement action against those that continue to do so. The parking enforcement disparagement elsewhere’. So here’s the gist of it: know – that I would much prefer to have a pint of beer with the officers could be used to do this at no additional cost. I look forward to hearing what you propose to do. We would still prefer a erratic and irascible Wildman Cattley than a cup of tea with the voluntary code – we understand that Brighton and Hove City Council run a voluntary scheme – but if you persist in your current view Wildman Cattley to Jury Cramp: 4 April 1893 oh-so-virtuous Jury Cramp. then it is your duty to enforce the law. I am copying this letter to Cllr Nigel Dennis and Tom Crowley, HDC Chief Executive’. Cattley demands to know if Cramp will support a candidate who would vote in favour of the Local Veto Bill. The bill, if passed, ‘will rob thousands of their money, deprive them of their living and rob shareholders in breweries’. But he then gets petty. ‘If you Town Hall turmoil answer in the affirmative, send me your account by return’. umour has it that HDC has difficulty in finding takers for its deeply unpopular plan to convert the Town Hall into a restaurant. (Remember Cramp ran a jeweller’s shop). ‘I look upon it that R And we now learn that an outfit called Davis Coffer Lyons (DCL), who act as agents for leading restaurant companies, and who anyone who supports this bill of confiscation is assisting to try have also advised the council, have suggested that it gets planning permission for changes to the building and Listed Building Consent, and rob and ruin many of his fellow countrymen’. presumably to make it more attractive to potential clients. Finally: ‘Send me a line by return’. Not only that, but DCL has now submitted a planning application on behalf of HDC. So it seems as if the council will have to decide on its own application. Are we being naive here, or is there a conflict of interest? Jury Cramp to Wildman Cattley: 6 April 1893 ‘I lose no time in replying. As a life-long abstainer and temperance John Steele, Horsham Society chairman, commented: 'The council is now paying to apply to itself for planning consent for a change worker there can only be one answer’. Cramp states that despite of use (for which there is no tenant), including costly plans to alter all three floors of the building. Instead of this futile waste of public any threat of loss of employment he could never sacrifice his money the council should admit the failure of its misconceived scheme and think again about alternative uses for the Town Hall'. Beedingwood, Cattley’s old home 82 The Horsham Society Newsletter December 2008 The Horsham Society Newsletter December 2008 87
From The Committee Letters to the Editor
Do please write in: letters for publication to Sussex captain at the time was the leg- More homes needed without permission on detached proper- demolishes this bizarre notion, leaving Brian Slyfield, Arun House, Denne Road, endary CB Fry, but he failed to turn up on ties, and on smaller homes, three metre the landlords with surely just one option. Horsham RH12 1JF the day and KS Ranjitsinhji (‘Ranji’), he government’s target to build three extensions will be allowed. There will no Let the water flow again. another great name from the past, stepped T million new homes by 2020 is not longer be a maximum volume for a rear into the breach. In the event the game was high enough to meet the growth in the extension that can be built without per- Change of use at Action on A-boards? not concluded due to bad weather, but number of elderly people and young mission, and the rules governing loft con- was intrigued to read the item in the despite this disappointment the fixture was families, according to a recent report by versions and extensions will also change. Horse and Groom? well reported, and one national paper the Town and Country Planning I October Newsletter about the problem (However it is not generally realised that rumour has it that plans are afoot to waxed lyrical: ‘Set in the midst of a rich Association. Apparently at least a further of A-boards in the town and the response for many years homeowners have been convert the Horse & Groom into a from Messrs Baldwin and Rumble that the meadow land studded with trees ... and 500,000 homes are needed in England A allowed to carry out a great deal of im- restaurant. One or two people have said matter would be included in ‘proposals for redolent with the odour of new-mown hay, within the next 12 years. The pressures provement without planning permission, that it would make an ideal gastro-pub, action that were currently underway’. the scene is one of great natural beauty, and are partly because we are living even the good folk of Horsham who came nearly including most loft conversions). for example, and it’s essentially a fine longer than expected, more women are You may care to know that in 2005 I 4,000 strong to look at their county team, building – but one which has been much having their children later and also interviewed Tom Crowley when I was a had the additional advantage of paying abused. It will probably need a good deal because long-term migrants are starting Notes on selected planning presenter for the Roundabout magazine (for court to Ranji’. of work done on it, but let’s hope a families in this country. applications and appeals the blind and partially sighted). The thorny development of this nature does take Apart from the game itself the festival became subject of A-boards was raised and I was My thanks to Mike for allowing repro- place. It has much more potential than the a highlight of the town’s social calendar, But the report also notes that, because of 90 Hurst Road (Northbrook College): assured the matter would be looked at and, duction of his photo, and do think of joining and a high old time was had by all: fancy the credit crunch, these targets will This application has been refused on the Town Hall for such a use, but care will I foolishly thought, dealt with. How wrong the Friends. Why not drop in at the dress carnival balls, amateur dramatics, con- almost certainly be impossible to achieve grounds that the proposed new building need to be taken to preserve the integrity I was! A-boards have increased to alarming Warnham Visitor Centre between 11.00 and certs, brass bands and bunting in the streets. and there is likely to be a shortfall of was too large, but there has been no serious of the building (to use a favourite archi- numbers everywhere in the town centre and 12.00 on a Sunday morning to meet other tects’ phrase). Maybe it will rise, phoenix- more than 750,000 homes by 2016. The discussion about the quality of design. I am horrified at how many there are now. members and have a cup of coffee? The author has done much homework, and number of new builds this year is expect- Demolition on the site has now taken place. like, from the ashes of its murky past. Traders seem to think it is their right to takes us through each annual event, right up ed to fall from about 170,000 per annum clutter the pavements with their advertising Review: A History Of The until 2007. There is a wealth of detail, to 120,000 and is unlikely to pick up for Norfolk Court: This application has been Pirie family member boards (some with more than one) thought- which will appeal in the main to dedicated four years. As a consequence there will be approved despite overwhelming local lessly placed, and I really believe they are a Horsham County Cricket cricket fans, but David Boorman writes severe overcrowding and soaring house opposition, including that of the Society. returns to Horsham danger to all pedestrians but especially to Festival 1908-2007 with such style and an engaging sense of prices once construction starts again. those with visual impairment. Perhaps action he statue of William Pirie, 19th humour – the dry-as-dust statistics, for ‘Even when credit conditions improve and 10 Milnwood Road: An appeal has been will only be taken if there is an accident. his excellent new book is well century Collyer’s master, with his anoraks only, are relegated to the back of mortgages again become available the lodged in respect of the first proposal for T researched and written by David donkey and cart, which stands in the open Please keep pressure on the local council to, T the book – that the general reader will find current undersupply of additional homes the site which involved a block of flats in Boorman, professionally edited and pro- the book an enjoyable read as well. space named after him, is a much loved ideally, remove – or at least substantially will quickly risk a return to spiralling place of the building now demolished. The duced to a high standard by Roger Heavens, Horsham landmark – and a magnet for reduce – the numbers of these eyesores. prices’, says the report. Society will ask to appear at the hearing the publisher. It is a handsome publication, Inevitably there is the odd error (Shilling- young children, who love to clamber over Thank you. to oppose the appeal. hard back with colour and mono illustra- lee Park was the home of Earl Winterton, the old boy. It was good news that his Carole Sorrell Christine Whitehead is Professor of Swan Close, Southwater tions, which deals with a subject of great not Lord Leconfield), but don’t let’s quib- Housing at the London School of Econo- great grandson recently visited us from local interest – one that, so far, has not been ble. This is the best local history book I mics and a co-author of the report. She Swan Walk seats New Zealand and came to Arun House, comprehensively covered – and it deserves have read for a long time, its enjoyment notes that Gordon Brown had based his here appears to be universal agree- the site of Pirie’s old school. Greg Pirie to do well. mitigated only slightly by the author’s projections on 2004 population statistics, explained his links to William: ‘Head- The Reedbed concern for the future of county cricket at Tment (except, that is, by the land- David Boorman tells the story of early but the Office for National Statistics now master William Pirie married, secondly, Horsham. But whatever that future, this is lords) that the seats outside M&S in Swan his is the title of an excellent newsletter county cricket in Sussex (the first match projects that the population in England at the age of 57 (in 1859) and produced an important record of our past, and again Walk should not have been removed and sent to members of an equally excellent played under a Sussex banner may have William Sawyer Pirie one year later. The T would make an ideal Christmas present for will grow 2.86 million more by 2026, to that they should be reinstated as soon as organisation: Friends of Warnham Local been against Kent in September 1734), and latter married in 1896, aged 36, and anyone with either a general or specialist 58.7 million. possible. They are badly needed by elderly Nature Reserve. The Friends are a relatively sketches in a little of the Horsham club’s produced John Sawyer Pirie when he was interest in the local game. BS shoppers. So far the landlords seem to be new arrival on the Horsham scene, but they own history. Sussex Weekly Advertiser So what does all this mean here in Hor- 52, in 1912. John Sawyer Pirie was married sham? A significant delay in executing turning a deaf ear to local concern, and have been quick to set up a lively programme reported a match on Hurston Common on 5 A History Of The Horsham County Cricket we suggest that all those members who in 1947, when he was 34, and migrated to of events, and are good at publicising August 1771 between ‘11 Gentlemen of Festival 1908-2007 by David Boorman, published the development plans to the west of the New Zealand the following year. I am his by Roger Heavens. Price £20 from Horsham town? But a call for even more housing in wish to draw attention to the problem themselves around the town, with a stand in Horsham and 22 Gentlemen of West son and was born in 1955, when my father Pirie’s Place at regular intervals. Chiltington’ (which seems a bit unfair) and Museum: ISBN 978 1 900592 50 5. the area when times do get better? should express their views through the letters pages of the WSCT. This was an was 43’. our club takes this as its foundation date. In the latest issue Mike Attwood, a first-rate effective course of action when the swans We learn that Horsham had its first cricket wildlife photographer, tells of how a young Planning law changes themselves were removed. week in 1888, and the driving force behind Osprey was recently seen at the pond, on its the later establishment of an annual county he Housing Minister recently an- migration path to North Africa. It’s not match here was Arthur Oddie, who had Tnounced changes to planning law, Swan Walk water unusual to find these magnificent fish- been connected with the local club since the whereby permission will no longer be eating birds of prey stopping over on the nother problem. The swans may be early 1880s and had strong links with the required for home extensions. It is claimed larger reservoirs in East Sussex and Kent county game. Oddie (who we profiled in that the consequent reduction in red tape Aback, but their water has been taken (and there was one recently down on the away. Believe it or not, the landlords claim the June 2004 issue), lived at North Lodge, will save the taxpayer up to £50 million coast at Church Norton), but to see one at a large house in North Parade – now demol- this is because of the risk of Legionnaires' by removing almost a quarter of planning Warnham is really something. As Mike ished – was keen on amateur dramatics and Disease. But in a well thought out, prop- applications from local authorities. reported: ‘About 50 feet above my head was generally well known around the town. erly researched and scientifically based was a beautiful young Osprey. It circled the As from 1 October single-storey exten- comment in the WSCT (14 November), pond for several minutes enabling me to take And so the first county match, against sions up to four metres deep can be built Nigel Friswell, a Society vice president, a dozen or so shots before disappearing’. Essex, took place on 15-17 June 1908. The
88 The Horsham Society Newsletter December 2008 Newsletter December 2008
Horsham’s green lung Clever old Waitrose aitrose is currently running a scheme called WCommunity Matters. The firm’s leaflet states that each month the Horsham branch will donate £1,000 between three local good causes chosen by the public, and every shopper gets a green token which he or she can place in a plastic box in support of a favourite cause. There’s a choice of three each time, and the more tokens a cause gets, the bigger its donation.
It’s a clever idea, and well done Waitrose for initiative. In the first month of operation, St Catherine’s Hospice was the runaway winner, no doubt because of its high profile locally, and the following month the Air Ambulance scheme was well ahead. I tend to feel sorry for the equally worthy but less popular causes, so generally drop my tokens into the slot with the smallest green pile. Need a stocking filler? Directory By The Way n the last issue we wrote about the acquisition of Horsham Park, Ifor the benefit of its townsfolk, from the Hurst family. This aerial f you’re looking for an extra Christmas gift, what could be photograph, which recently appeared in an HDC publication, I better than a copy of the Society’s latest publication: A The Horsham Society is an independent body supported by members’ graphically illustrates the value of this green lung to the community. Journey Through Horsham’s Changes by John Buchanan subscriptions, a registered charity (No.268949), affiliated to the and Annabelle Hughes. Copies are £9 each to members, Campaign to Protect Rural England and registered with the Civic Trust. New members Fringed by fine mature trees, and surrounded by houses and other It is a member of the English Historic Towns Forum. buildings, every inch of it must be protected, and sporadic attempts including delivery (normal price £9.95) and can be obtained Thanks very much to the following six new members for from Nigel Friswell, 2 Millais, Horsham RH13 6BS. Please PRESIDENT: Dr Annabelle Hughes by the council to nibble away at it must be resisted at all costs. joining: Mr and Mrs Powell, Manor Fields, Horsham; Mr and make cheques payable to ‘The Horsham Society’. VICE-PRESIDENTS: Mrs Bence, South Grove, Horsham; Mr and Mrs Posgate, Oliver Palmer, Rt. Hon. Francis Maude MP, Nigel Friswell Manor House, Causeway, Horsham. Ladybirds, ladybirds, Early warning CHAIRMAN VICE CHAIRMAN John Steele Ian Dockreay Choral concert fly away home (please) Please note that next month’s issue contains the 2 Old Denne Gardens 24 Wimblehurst Road annual subscription renewal forms, so we would be Horsham RH12 1JA Horsham RH12 2ED adybirds are usually the most endearing of insects, with their Tel: (01403) 272814 Christ’s Hospital Choral Society is putting on a concert at St grateful if everyone could do so with the January Tel: (01403) 241582 attractive colouring and variety of spots. But we took a different Email: [email protected] Mary’s on Saturday 29 November (at 7.30 pm). Two French L Newsletter. It’s a bit of a burden sending out lots of view recently, when, for a number of days in early October, one of Hon SECRETARY Romantic masterpieces by Gounod and Bizet are featured, and follow-up reminders (although to be fair the vast Hon TREASURER Sandie Brittain our bedrooms was invaded by wave after wave of the little tickets are available on the door. For more details call 01403 majority do renew – but some more quickly than Roy Bayliss 2 Fairview blighters. They seemed to think it was their territory, not ours. How 15 Patchings Horsham RH12 2PY 247434. others!) and Pat Gale would very much appreciate it Horsham RH13 5HJ they got in is a mystery in itself – no doubt through cracks in our Tel: (01403) 260915 if you could leap into action as soon as you get the Tel: (01403) 262262 elderly window frames – and the sight of dozens crawling about the NEWSLETTER DISTRIBUTION forms. Many thanks. MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY ORGANISER place, half dead and alive, was less than pleasant. No sooner had the Pat Gale Kathy Gleeson Personal & Professional Service Hoover got to work than a whole lot more appeared. 46 Bedford Road 13 Millthorpe Road from a company established Horsham RH13 5BJ Roffey RH12 4ER Did you know that there are 42 species resident in the British Isles, Tel: (01403) 253946 Tel: (01403) 210511 over 30 years the commonest being the 7-spot and the much smaller 2-spot? That Editor’s note Horsham Society website: www.horshamsociety.org Business Stationery • Brochures • Leaflets they can be red or yellow, all with black spots? That, although such Envelope Printing • Folders • Design • Mailing sweet and innocent-looking little things, they are highly predatory In the run-up to Christmas it may seem a little unseasonal to ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION RATES and destroy huge numbers of aphids and feature a story about Horsham and the temperance Individuals: £5 per year Single Pensioner: £3.25 per year Digital Printing in Colour and Black & White Family Membership: £7.50 per year Family Pensioner: £5 per year other insect pests? That their bright colours movement, but it’s a good one (see pages 84-86) and I hope Businesses: £10 per year Single Life Membership: £100 All major credit cards accepted are of a warning nature, advertising the bitter you find it interesting. It centres around Jury Cramp, a Family Life Membership: £150 taste that they carry if a hungry blackbird gets leading local abstainer, and a set-to he had with the £2.50 postage is added to the above rates for out-of-town members 7/8/9 Newhouse Business Centre, Horsham Press too many ideas? And that they exude drops of appropriately named Wildman Cattley, and we also tell Old Crawley Road, Horsham, West Sussex, RH12 4RU E-mail: [email protected] www.horshampress.co.uk pungent fluid if handled, which leave a stain something of Cramp’s life and times. All correspondence should go to the Hon Secretary in the first instance. and a long-lasting smell? You didn’t? Tut, The Newsletter is published monthly except for August. Letters and 01403 265608 tut .... Copy date for the January 2009 issue is 5 December. articles to be considered for publication should be sent to the Editor, Brian Slyfield, Arun House, Denne Road, Horsham RH12 1JF. Opinions © Individual contributors 2008. No material may be reproduced, copied or stored in a in the Newsletter, whether Editor’s or contributors’, are not necessarily retrieval system without the prior consent of the relevant contributor, which should be the policy of the Society. sought via the Editor. OUR CONCERN IS THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE OF THE TOWN