THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — these Findon Chronicles are created by Valerie Martin and contain scenes from her home village of Findon,
West Sussex, U.K.    Everyday stories about real people.

click on image to enlarge

THE RUNNING HORSE

Copyright Valerie Martin 2012

Part printed in Sussex Local in September 2008

The Great Findon Sheep Fair is held each year in September on Nepcote Green, although it is now treated as a quaint family outing and is not such a lively venue as in the past. 

Trying to stake a claim to a pitch in days gone by was a hazardous business for would-be vendors of the various colourful booths and amusements.  Frequently arguments would erupt and tempers flew.

A system was later devised whereby no one could stake out his or her pitch until a specified time of the day.  Claimants had the indignity of having to line up and wait for the whistle to blow.  With all haste they could then begin to peg out their sites.  I am told that some of the pegging would inevitably overlap and an argument would again ensue, followed by a fight.

The property on the south-west corner of the Green is from the early Georgian times in the 1700s and was probably two cottages originally.   The name of the cottages at this time evades me.  When standing out on Nepcote Green I can see how this could easily have been the case.    At some date it became one property and it is said that the pre-Raphaelite artist, John Everett Millais (1829-1896), fell in love with the house on the Green during a visit in 1851.  Did he dabble with his palette and paint a picture of the house it is wondered? 

The Steward’s notes dated 1827 include the intention of “preventing Mrs. Richardson (the Lady of the Manor being troubled by people wishing to erect booths at the forthcoming fair for selling beer and spirits, especially as the local innkeeper will beg to prevent this”.   It is not known who the "local innkeeper" could be at early date.

A well-known character to become part of Nepcote's past was George Tonken Nicholls.  He was born in Penryn, Cornwall in 1811 and later became a coastguard stationed at Southwick, Sussex and married a Findon girl, Jane Bright.

In 1841, their first-born was Eliza at Fishersgate near Shoreham-by-Sea.  Her sister, Mary Jane, arrived in 1846.  

Mr Nicholls next became a coastguard on the Dorset coast at Kimmeridge situated between Swanage and West Lulworth.  It was during these early years that the boy, Thomas Hardy (yes, the famous Thomas Hardy!), first formed a friendship with Eliza Bright Nicholls before he was sent to a school in Dorchester in 1849. 

Thomas took his first love, Eliza, on many countryside walks — one of these was to Clavell Tower on Hen Cliff above Kimmeridge Bay.   They can be imagined walking hand in hand along the lonely headland and looking down into the sea below.  The tower had been built in 1831, originally as a 3-storey summerhouse-cum-folly and perhaps it was still in use as such when Thomas and Eliza were there.   Later it became a coastguard lookout and then fell into disrepair and was used by Victorian smugglers.   It was used by P. D. James as a centrepiece for her thriller, The Black Tower, in which the hapless Victor Holroyd plummeted to his death on the treacherous rocks beneath.   The tower that was used by Thomas and Eliza is now the centre of a real cliffhanger and is only 6 ft. from the eroding cliff and seems certain of sliding the 100 ft. into the bay.

At the end of 2002, a certain Roy Buckle sent me an e-mail with a snippet of scandal.   Skeletons always come out of the cupboard eventually.    It had come to his knowledge that Eliza had a child whilst in the West Country in Penzance and this boy was fostered and Eliza banished to London.   The boy's name was Pulson and he remained in foster care until he was 14 years old and later the young Pulson Nicholls refused to see anything of his mother.

From 1856 Hardy was articled to a Dorchester Architect, John Hicks, and he rose very early each day and from 5 a.m. until 8 a.m. studied Latin and Greek.

This on the left is a rather stilted portrayal of the young Hardy, c. 1856.  

He was also writing verse and held somewhat controversial views on country life, which he wrote about.  Throughout this period he kept in contact with young Eliza.

George Nicholls' family moved when he took his last post as a coastguard at Portslade in Sussex.   Around 1856 a visit was made to Findon, maybe to see Jane's relations.  George Nicholls' health was failing and he was invalided out of the coastguard service and began to look around for a suitable occupation in his retirement.  Should the family return to Jane’s maternal home village?  This is where Findon now really enters the story. 

One of Jane’s relations, John Bright, owned the property on the south-west edge of the Green.  He was also the landlord of the cottages on the east side of Nepcote, together with the meadowland.  In 1861 George and Jane decided to move to the hamlet of Nepcote to take over this house where George described himself as “a beer shop keeper”...... and it maybe at this point that it was named "The Running Horse" for the next twenty years.

From all accounts the inn prospered.  The Sheep Fair was the highlight of the year on Nepcote Green and the pub would have enjoyed a roaring trade.  Farmers and shepherds gathered together and 12,000 or so sheep changed hands. 

In 1862 Thomas Hardy made his way to London.  Meanwhile, Eliza also just happened to be working in London in service as a lady’s maid at the home of a barrister residing near Westbourne Park Villas.

Periodic visits by both young people were made to Findon and “The Running Horse” when their work permitted.  Hardy, who was a poet as well as a novelist, wrote a group of verses known as the “He to She” poems, which are said to reflect his friendship with Eliza.

It is strange to think of Hardy walking the byways of Findon.  One particular sonnet is reputed to relate to Tolmare Dew-pond on the ridge overlooking Tolmare Farm on the A280 Long Furlong Road and their love is immortalised in this poem.   I would stress that there is no concrete foundation to this theory, but it would be nice to think it is true and related to Findon......

We stood by a pond that winter day,
And the sun was white, as though chidden of God,
And a few leaves lay on the starving sod;
They had fallen from an ash, and were gray.

This would have been a delightful spot in Victorian days, brimming with the rippling water and wildlife.  It is now hardly recognisable in its present state.  A shadow of its former self, the old dew-pond is now dried up and a tangled mess, surrounded by old lime-kilns hidden in the debris and undergrowth.

The happy young couple were virtually engaged to be married, and Hardy's early love poems deal with his experiences with Eliza.  Around this time she changed her job to nurse another member of her London employer’s family and after this person’s death in January 1865, returned once more to live in Nepcote with her parents.

Hardy visited Nepcote in 1866 and, as would have been in keeping with his architectural training, decided to sketch St. John the Baptist Church in his notebook.  I can imagine that Eliza went with him on this excursion over to the church.... 

The passionate liaison continued for another year...when alas and with much alack!......and oh! dearie me! .... suddenly Hardy's eyes roamed, and his attentions strayed, to none other than Eliza’s younger sister, Mary Jane.  How long had it been going on I wonder?   Had it not been  noticed?   No one was letting on.  No doubt “The Running Horse” witnessed some emotional scenes back in those days with a rift between the two sisters.  This new intrigue was not long-lived — whether sisterly relations were resumed I do not know.

Hardy disappeared to Dorchester (it is said for health reasons) and was busily employed on church restoration for the next three years.  He did not visit Nepcote again as far as I can discover.  

The Running Horse had a Skittle Alley at one time (the Black Horse in Findon also boasts one of these features).... and this was thought to be in the areas now comprising the Kitchen, Utility and Morning Room. 

The riotous behaviour of some of the Sheep Fair’s customers may have caused the closure of the pub around the end of the nineteenth century.  It is said that a certain publican (whose name has faded in the mists of time) was not keen on running around after his Sheep Fair day cliental as time went by and apparently he lost his licence in the process.

This is how it all came to a head.  It was during the time when the Great Findon Sheep Fair was at its height, and on hot days hordes of thirsty shepherds converged on Nepcote Green and were rampaging for refreshment.  When they exhausted the stock held in the bar, the weary landlord was forced to run up and down to his cellar to keep pace with supply and demand.  He apparently grew so bitter and tired that one day he lost his temper and slammed the pub door shut in their faces and refused to serve them.

In the process he also shut the door on his own living.   The licensing authorities thought his excuse that the cellar steps were worn and they were too much for him to contend with, was feeble.   Officialdom was not impressed with the lazy licensee — and he promptly lost his licence and "The Running Horse" was no more a public house and reverted to a five-bedroomed private residence and was soon owned by the Vicar of Findon, Reverend William Dennis Allen.  

A local resident of Findon, Nellie Skinner, knew as much about the property as anyone.  She was born further down Nepcote Lane at St. John's Cottage before moving to live on School Hill in 1914.    She was little more than 12 years old when she left the school in the village in 1926 to become the servant of the Reverend Allen at his home. 

Nellie knew the house and its rather walled garden inside out.   Hard at work with her housework, she knew better than Millais the long upstairs landing that was accentuated by an arch. 

Nellie is usually remembered for being a friendly barmaid for nineteen years and pulling pints at The Gun, including the Second World War years.  But it was the ex-public house of "The Running Horse" that she knew inside out.

This is the old pub in the summer of 2010...........

I ask you not to email and ask about this carved oak figure incorporated in the structure of the arch (mentioned above) of the old pub.   I do not know what he is supposed to represent and nor do any of the recent owners of the property.       

But please write in and tell me if YOU know....... because the arch feature is rather a mystery to us all.   

Continue if you would like to read about the Findon Sheep Fair — 1927.

THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — www.findonvillage.com is a continually growing record created by Valerie Martin exclusively for documenting life in Findon.