To the west of the Lavant Road, Warren Farm consisted of 67 acres bounded to the north by Lavant Common, and to the south by Brandy Hole Lane. The Ecclesiastical Commissioners, having taken the land over in January 1870, sold it freehold a few months later to Robert Dendy, a local banker, for £1,137.7s. He revitalised the farm and completed a period of re- building by the early 1880s when the farm had to support six families.
The farm changed hands twice through widow Matilda Bagot in 1882 and Charles Ormerod, who inherited when Matilda died in 1889, before Henry Halsted bought it in 1894. Halsted was the owner of a local ironmongers, and iron and brass foundry in South Pallant. He died in 1911 followed by his wife Margaret in 1919.
The farm was auctioned in October 1919 but remained unsold. The 1920s was still not a good time for farming, but Chichester was expanding and there was demand for good quality housing. The property was divided into individual but generous building plots along the Lavant Road, Brandy Hole Lane, Warren Farm Lane, and what became known as Hunters Way. The Warren, its drive, buildings, grounds and Warren Lodge were excluded, as were fields on either side of the Chichester-Midhurst railway. The building plots, all with the same Restrictive Covenants, were sold off in the 1920s and 30s. (Stride’s plots on the other side of the Lavant Road, with similar covenants, were sold a few years earlier).
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In the 1860s, the Chichester to Midhurst railway was planned to cross under Brandy Hole Lane and bisect Warren Farm on its way to Lavant, Midhurst and Haslemere. It was to be a ‘contractors’ line, built by a group of speculators for sale to an established railway company. The first sod was turned by Lord Henry Lennox (MP for Chichester) in April 1865, but the Haslemere section was officially abandoned in 1868. Financial and legal wrangles continued to create severe delays and a second Parliamentary Bill
First, there are no maps in the presentation to hidden tunnels , all information is in the public domain and if we get distracted during our searches that is only natural. I will try and make this as interesting as possible and we will not be getting our boots dirty.
Why have a cellar? Having a cellar was actually quite an expensive and a time consuming affair. Most people didn't. There was no point unless there was something to store or servants to hide.
MB My mum worked 27 east street and when it flooded in the 90s they found a big cellar and you could look down into an area which was like a tunnel
The Buttery
There is rumoured to be a tunnel from the white horse to the buttery and then from the buttery to the cathedral.
Regarding a tunnel from the crypt to the cathedral. Apparently Keats while upstairs being "entertained" watched the monks lock the gate to the cathedral. Now did he have xray specs on ??? That''s the pic of the guy gesturing towards the shelves is where the door way used to be
Max T I recall that there is a short length of tunnel (blocked off at both ends) under the old White Horse pub in South St. (now Prezzo restaurant, since 2005). Story in the pub was that it was part of a tunnel running from the Cathedral up to the Guildhall in Priory Park. Although the tunnel is there, I was never sure of its true purpose or the truth of its start / finish. Thought that it was worth mentioning it on here though.
From trying to locate the areas marked on the old maps as smugglers or roman caves at the approc following locations. Our team tried to take photos as best we could.
su 85228 06608 50.8527, -0.7906 su 85255 06596 50.8526, -0.7902 su 85249 06577 50.8524, -0.7903 su 85248 06565 50.8523, -0.7903 su 85329 06661 50.8532, -0.7892 su 85359 06657 50.8531, -0.7887
The Chichester SMR holds information for 48 sites, whilst the National Monuments Record Centre holds details of a further 16 sites within the study area. An additional four sites were located through analysis of historic mapping and during the course of the walkover survey and one from aerial photographs. Full site descriptions and locations can be seen in Appendix B. Within the report, the bracketed numbers after site descriptions relate to those allocated to individual sites in Appendix B and on Figure 2.
Between The Drive’s western and southern ends, Charles Stride built a private estate in c.1905 which included a nine hole golf course designed by James Braid, a lodge (Uplands), and a mansion (Woodland Place) with tree-lined grounds which, as Rew Lane, was developed in the late 1950s. The golf course was too close to the Goodwood course to be a commercial success and it was given up for gravel extraction immediately prior to the first World War, with a mineral branch line connected later to the Chichester-Midhurst railway. His golf course and pavilion is mentioned in https://golfsmissinglinks.co.uk/index.php/england/south-east/sussex/851-sus-summersdale-golf-club-chichester
summeerdale football ,I have an update on the old newspaper article relating to Summersdale and the tunnel found under a football pitch. I sent an email to the Summersdale Residents Association, and they were extremely helpful with one of the members being able to identify a location for the site of the pitch. Looking at some old maps and combining the documents from Liam Mandville regarding subsidence etc. the area between The Avenue and Highland Road (on the Eastern side), does fit well as to the location. Many of the properties built on this site have substantial gardens so there may still be something to find that could explain what was found by the groundkeeper all those years ago? ,5f6f8e5fb6881-116345275_10157348686446892_326855352233187857_n.jpg,5f6f8e5fb7b45-116168775_10157348685396892_1033817068655264665_n.jpg
