Holly Cottage in the early 1900's

This is a vintage photo of Holly Cottage (which is above and to the left of the old gentleman), taken at a different angle from the photo I took the other day. I changed the exposure, got rid of some blemishes and changed it to sepia which made it much clearer (I guess it was originally sepia). I know quite a few people were interested in knowing more about the ownership etc. and I was in full research mood today! (This means the photo I had mentioned I intended to do today will be done tomorrow instead).

The earliest record of the cottage is 1617, but it was built on the site of a medieval property. It was formerly known as Holly Lodge. A miller who had his mill on the local hill owned the cottage from 1739 until 1774. He obviously carried out improvements around 1759 as his initials and this date are on a plaque on the cottage.

From medieval times to the 19th century the blacksmith's and butcher's shops were in outbuildings in the grounds of the cottage, facing south on to Church Lane (the same as the cottage does). This lane was the main shopping street in the village at this time! In the early 1900's the village post office was based in the cottage itself.

By the 1920's the cottage was occupied by the local builder and undertaker and he had his carpenter's business in the outbuildings, which you can actually see to the left of Holly Cottage and which were demolished in the mid-1960's to enable a new road to be built which crossed Church Lane and split it into two. (The large chimneys that you can see over the buildings belong to a former manor house which is now a residential home for the elderly). It provided continuity for an old road from the south of the village to give better access to the north, which was being heavily developed at this time.

We are very fortunate that most of the old buildings remain in our village. (In Worthing, there was a mass demolition of ancient cottages and buildings in the 1930's to make way for new roads and re-development. I think this happened in other towns too, but it really is scandalous how little care was taken about preservation and it upsets me to look at the 'before' and 'after' photos.)