Emsworth

P G Wodehouse lived in Emsworth between 1904 and 1913, and based many of his locations and characters on local places and people. With its attractive jumble of streets, lanes and alleys and its colourful, yacht-filled harbour, this is very much a seafaring town. On the left is the imposing Crown Hotel.
An extract from from"Hampshire Revisited Photographic Memories".

Today St Peter’s Square is home to several coffee shops as well as the new Emsworth library, a butcher’s, and a baker’s that makes delicious cheesecakes. There is also a greengrocer, a newsagent, bookshops and several estate agents. Nearby is Emsworth marina, which was created in 1964 from a log pond.
An extract from from"Hampshire Living Memories".

During the 18th and 19th centuries Emsworth was an important port along this stretch of coast, and it became successful mainly through corn milling, boat building, fishing and a flourishing oyster industry. Caroline, Princess of Wales, bathed in the sea here while staying at Emsworth in 1805, and the town had thoughts of becoming a royal watering place.
An extract from from"Hampshire Revisited Photographic Memories".

The old tide mill overlooking the quay at Emsworth, once Chichester Harbour’s main port and an important centre for the oyster trade. Caroline, Princess of Wales, bathed in the sea here while staying at Emsworth in 1805, and the town had thoughts of becoming a royal watering place.
An extract from from"Hampshire Photographic Memories".

The cenotaph in the High Street commemorates those who died in battle but whose remains lie elsewhere. It is of unusual and classic appearance; it was designed by the architect Harry Inigo Triggs, who had travelled and studied in Italy. The detailing is borrowed from the eight blank panels in the Medici chapel in Florence; on these panels are carved the names of the town’s dead of the First World War. (Plaques were added after the Second World War commemorating the 54 young men who died on duty away from home during that conflict). After much deliberation over an appropriate location for the town’s memorial, it was erected by the mason Andrew Perryman of Dragon Street in its present position early in 1922 - a position in the Square was discounted. In the wake of the war, under the auspices of the Housing Act of 1919, the country set about building ‘homes fit for heroes’. The first of these were built in Noreuil Road, which was named after a little village of some 100 inhabitants near Arras in France. Petersfield had adopted the village to help with its reconstruction, and a letter thanking the town for gifts of parcels of clothing and coloured wall maps to brighten the schoolroom was signed by J Nicholai, the schoolmistress at Noreuil. The Electricity Supply Act of 1919 gave rise to an application by Dr R J Cross, Mr T A Crawter and Mr C W Seaward, who wanted to form a company to supply electric light to Petersfield. The plan was for a generator on land located to the rear of the Volunteer Arms (now Meon Close), with a frontage on Frenchmans Road. (Note that the company was only to supply electric light, not power). With houses having only 40-watt lamps, it is unlikely that a supply greater than 20 kilowatts would be required. Tom Crawter’s house, Clare Cross, was the first house in Petersfield to be lighted by electricity. Nevertheless, there was enough power to supply the Electric Theatre with the town’s first film shows. The first cinema stood at the corner between Chapel Street and Swan Street - in fact, the demolition of the Swan public house made way for the Electric Theatre. That first cinema was replaced by the Savoy Cinema in 1935, and is now a nightclub.
An extract from from"Petersfield - A History & Celebration".