Facts about Midhurst
General Info
Midhurst (/ˈmɪdhɜːrst/) is a market town, parish[3] and civil parish in West Sussex, England. It lies on the River Rother 20 miles (32 km) inland from the English Channel, and 12 miles (19 km) north of the county town of Chichester.
History
Midhurst developed as a Saxon village at a strategic crossroads of what are now the A272 (east-west) and A286 (north-south) routes.[27] There may have been a village there since Roman times. After the Norman Conquest Robert de Montgomery ordered the building of a motte-and-bailey castle on what is now called St Ann’s Hill, a strategic bluff on a curve of the River Rother, overlooking the cross-roads and a long stretch of Rother Valley to the north, east and the west, protecting the River Rother crossing. St Ann’s Hill may also have been the site of an Iron Age fort
Although there has been a settlement in Midhurst since at least the early Norman period, and probably from Saxon times, the buildings in the Old Town, centred on the Market Square, are principally Tudor in origin. Almost every house in this part of the town dates back to the 16th Century, and parts of a few buildings, such as the old coaching inn that is now the Spread Eagle Hotel, date to the 15th century. Even the apparently more modern North Street is lined with Tudor buildings behind classical and Georgian façades that were added during the 17th and 18th centuries, a time of prosperity for the town.[29] There are also several actual 18th-century buildings scattered throughout the town, and distinctive Victorian and Edwardian developments of terraced housing along the main routes out of Midhurst. During the mid and late 20th Century there was significant housing development to the south of the town, in the Little Midhurst, Holmbush and Fairway areas.
