The Red Lion And The Square

A Memory of Horndean.

My parents ran the Red Lion between 1953-83. I was brought up here and went to Blendworth School, Mrs Byrne was the headmistress. The pub was situated on a tight bend on the old A3 and was regularly hit by vehicles unable to make it round this corner. A blocked up archway on the left of the building had a date brick of c1750. In the Square adjacent to the Red Lion was Smith & Vospers, grocers and bakers managed by Mr Mitchell. Across the A3 was the Post Office run by the Hancock family. Baileys ran the general hardware store and Ellis's ran a store next door selling produce from their market garden in Westbourne. Further round the square was Pescotts, the butchers, their slaughterhouse was behind the shop on Blendworth Hill, across from this was the Newsagents run by Maurice Bond and then the Bedfords.