#2 - The Spread Eagle Hotel

A second in my occasional series of interesting Midhurst buildings.

Hot and steamy in Midhurst today, and hardly anybody about. For the first time I walked into town - and back again! Can hardly believe it. Maybe only a mile and a half in total, but a big achievement for me.

The Spread Eagle in the old part of the town is the poshest hotel in Midhurst, very nice rooms, spa and menu. It appears to date from 1430 when it was a coaching inn. It has ingle nooks 'big enough to 'boil a big bad wolf' and stained glass, and masses of beams. We are seeing here only a part of the main building on the right. The smaller brick building with its attractive herring bone brick nearer the camera is now part of it. It looks as though it might originally have housed a market, maybe the corn market for the town, or similar.

We stayed here once, when we were on a house hunting trip from Cumbria round about 2000. We thought we'd give ourselves a treat, use the spa and swimming pool and then have a wonderful meal. Didn't quite turn out that way. Someone ran into our stationary car on the way, and we spent the night in considerable pain with whiplash and only a light meal. Bummer! It's ear marked for my celebration meal when I am in remission.