THIS IS FINDON — these Findon Chronicles, created by Valerie Martin, contain scenes from her home village of Findon, West Sussex, U.K.

A bus stops outside the Gun Inn at Findon early in the 1900s.

THE EARLY 1900s AT THE GUN INN

Copyright Valerie Martin 2002.

1901

In 1901 the Worthing Town Council put forward a plan to introduce an electric tram system.  It was planned with four different tram lines, including one that ran all the way out to the Gun Inn at Findon.  It is hardly surprising that the idea did not come to fruition.

The date is c.1904 and the place is Worthing.   This is a Milnes Daimler charabanc.   I wonder if it ever made a trip to Findon and stopped in The Square at the Gun Inn?

I guess that the profits of the Gun Inn dropped during 1901.   The population of Findon was 656 and this was a decrease of 119 inhabitants compared with 1891.   One observer of the time noted...

"The decrease in village population, due chiefly to the depression in agriculture, will surely be arrested by the slow process of urbanisation".

 

post 1905.   Hilaire Belloc, the French born writer with 150 books to his credit was also a poet, Liberal Member of Parliament for 4 years and historian.     He bicycled to nearby Shipley in 1905.    Here he found a house to purchase, together with a smock windmill and 5-acres of land.    He moved into the property in 1906 and lived in the 8-sided windmill for forty years and is said to have frequented the Gun Inn at Findon during this time.   Whether he cycled to Findon I do not know!

 

1905  The Gun Inn by the artist A. Elliott....

click to enlarge

 

1908

 In July 1908 the proposal was for the speed limit —

..... "from the Northern Boundary to the old Pay Gate, and from the Gun Inn to the top of the hill in School Lane.  Application to be made to the local Government Board for this".

 

c. 1909

George F. Thorne was the innkeeper and his name appeared on the windswept swinging sign displayed outside the premises.

Pre 1909 A gathering of Hunt spectators in The Square, Findon.

 

1909

It is not always remembered that in 1909, a public inquiry was conducted in the village to decide whether a 10 mph speed limit should be imposed on vehicles travelling along the High Street (then considered a busy thoroughfare long before the thought of constructing the A24 bypass.

 

1912

The Gun Inn exterior was beginning to appear a little worn and the worse for wear. Competition for business arose from the neighbouring establishment across School Hill. This property, now the Village House, advertised itself in 1912 as a "Private House" with bed and breakfast accommodation.

 

1913

The hunt gathering outside the Gun Inn in The Square on Thursday 9th January 1913.   George Thorne, the landlord, would have probably served the "stirrup cup".

 

 

Another Hunt gathering outside the Gun Inn around this era.

The Gun Inn façade received a facelift. The renovations in 1913 uncovered the late medieval and early Tudor timber work. The distinctive Tudor style feature now appeared on the front of the tavern and the window frames were renewed with elegant replacements.

View down School Hill to the Gun Inn. Building work in progress on a hot summer's day in 1913 at the inn. Telephones had been installed the previous year in Findon and the telegraph posts had popped up like toothpicks along the highway.

It is amusing to note that readers saw in the Worthing Gazette back in June 1913 an indignant letter from a maiden lady about "masculine bathers" on the nearby Worthing seafront ....

I can see them plainly through a telescope.

Whatever next!

The next week, readers learned that it was proposed to erect a canvas barrier at one of the public seafront bathing stations to solve the embarrassment of the goings on down on the shore to the public.   Those were the days!

A gathering of youths outside the Gun Inn.

 

The Gun Inn some time around 1914 with the constabulary prominently on duty outside. The Tudor distinguishing feature has now been uncovered on the front of the tavern.

 

1914/15

Frederick George Blann, born in Steyning in 1875, was the tenanted landlord at the Gun Inn and was employed by Steyning Breweries Limited.  Without a doubt he would have poured the stirrup cup for the hunting fraternity before they departed from the Gun Inn for fox-hunting expeditions in the past.

Continue if you would like to read about The 1920s at the Gun Inn.

This is Findon Village — is a continually growing record created by Valerie Martin exclusively for documenting life in Findon.

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Do let me know of anything you hear about Findon - not too controversial.   Please note that opinions expressed in the Findon Chronicles are not necessarily reflective of my own thoughts.... but sometimes they are!