The History of Horsham

It is always exciting to meet a real expert.  Someone who knows their subject widely and throughly. Such a person is Oliver Farley, and we were delighted to welcome him to our meeting on Tuesday for his talk on the history of Horsham. For those of us who consider oursevles 'Horshamites' you may be interested to see just who called this area home before us!

Oliver who is from the Horsham Society quickly introduced us to Horshamosaurus

Rudgwickensis, a cute and cuddly local dinosaur who made Horsham its home before humans were around. The first Horshamites were the Celts around 750BC, and after them, the Romans... who did a lot for us  but did not shape our language. For that we must thank the Germans as our language is stuffed full of proto-Germanic origins from those Huns who moved in to occupy these lands as the Romans abandoned us in the fifth century.

So we now have a settlement where horses were grazed, hence the name Hors(e)ham.

After this, it was the Vikings who began to stake their claim on our ground. We know them as slave traders, warriors, raiders, and intrepid sea-farers who all the while scattered their genes wherever they went... so you are quite possibly descended from these guys, although according to Oliver, their chief aim was to trade!

Horsham and the surrounding areas feature strongly in history, Oliver introduced us to King John, The Magna Carta, common law, and William de Braose who was granted lands at Bramber and Horsham by his best mate William the Conquerer. Oliver had a slender paper copy of the Bayeux Tapestry which when unfurled, astoundingly stretched the full length of St John's Hall. You can see this in the photo on the right.

Chesworth Farm featured because of the beautiful but ill-fated local Katharine Howard who grew up in the peace of Sussex before power and politics took her to court, made her Henry's wife number 5 and ultimately cost her her life.

We spoke of the Weald, of Sussex oaks, iron ore, the Hammerponds, the iron masters house and the crooked chimney.  There then followed a pause in the rush of history as Lesley Farley recited for us a beautiful, atmospheric poem, entitled 'The Hammerpond', written by her poet mother Jean Holdsworth.

Hugenots flitted across our stage to be succeeded by Shelley, resident of Denne Road, as indeed is Oliver Farley . He told us of the way people would hide their gold coins in the curtains, and how after two banks had gone bust, Shelley ripped down the curtains, retrieved the coins and fled to Italy, to join Byron and so began the era of the romantic poets.

The railway arrived in Horsham in 1849 and a year later Denne Road cemetery

opened. There were over 3000 burials during the following 50 years, (a few of whom are highlighted there on information boards.)

And then the present day caught up with us.  Sadly there was no time for more, no time for Oliver's glimpses of more recent history and we were only able to offer our sincere thanks for his amazing grasp of history and the enthusiasm with which he shared it.

After our great evening we all left for home with so much to ponder, a copy of the Horsham Society Newsletter, and a warm welcome for all or any of us to join the Horsham History walks throughout the summer as detailed below.

'Horsham Heritage Town Centre Guided Walks lead you through the history of Horsham town. These will start again on April 2nd 2025. The last walk of the season is on September 28th 2025. The walks take approximately 90 minutes, are free and take place every Wednesday and Sunday. Meet the guide outside Horsham Museum in  Causeway at 2.30pm.  No booking is required.'