We were fortunate to hit one of those balmy evenings during the best spell of weather this summer when we met Simon Kerr outside Broadleys on the follow-up walk to his entertaining talk in April this year.
Starting at the Clarendon House end of the High Street where it turns into Judges Terrace Simon pointed out that virtually every house in the High Street had started life as ‘Hall’ houses and the current frontages had all been altered or added. This can be seen most clearly at the left hand end of Judges Terrace where there is a narrow passage before the High Street proper. Here you can see the timber frame of the building with a complete brickwork frontage added.
Moving on, Simon carefully stood on the plaque for the drinking fountain before asking us what we thought it was and describing the extraordinary difficulty of obtaining water in a village that was so high above the water table.
The bookshop with the unusual panels at first floor level that turned out to be made of cork was the second story about the use of this material as the story of the hidden ‘cold store’ discovered below Herbert Sports had already been described.
The gruesome story of The East Grinstead Martyrs, commemorated by a green plaque on the wall nearby was described whilst we stood on the space on which it is supposed they were burnt at the stake on a Sunday morning for maximum impact.
Walking round the back of Middle Row, built where the road originally split, The Dorset Arms is one of the last local Coaching Inns in which you can still see and walk through the coach entrance and see the remains of the stables.
Pointing out many other – often odd – features as we continued along the High Street such as window stays on the outside for windows that opened inwards to prevent passers-by hitting their heads and the iron access gratings in the pavement for logs to be loaded into the cellar on the building owned and rented out by the Landmark Trust which still used open fires for heating.
Finally we reached Sackville College which was founded as and is still Alms Houses for the poor of the district and reminded us that it was open to the public on many special occasions and that we should not miss the winter carol concert especially as the carol ‘Good King Wenceslas’ had actually been composed there!
Across the road opposite, as the light was fading we were reminded that the building virtually at the end of East Grinstead High Street called Ye Olde Lock Up was indeed the local jail.
Chris Sugg thanked Simon for his entertaining walk which had also helped to bring to life the many stories that he had told during his April talk.
