What's In A Name?

Not everything is what it seems in the West Sussex town of Petworthas Clive Agran discovers

- Clive Agran

Street names matter to Peter Jerrome and, as he shuts the front door on Trowels in Pound Street, he explains the street is so named because there was a cattle pound down the road back in the days when Petworth was a bustling market town.

We stroll uphill in the summer sunshine, and I get the feeling that Peter, who has lived here for many years and is chairman of the Petworth Society, loves the town and is a popular figure around these parts. He stops several times for a brief chat with fellow residents before we eventually arrive in Golden Square. “It used to be Beast Market but was then re-named after Golden Square in London,” he explains. Apparently the beasts were mostly pigs and so maybe someone in authority thought it needed rebranding.

Leconfield Hall is a fine stone building overlooking the square. There is a bust of William of Orange halfway up one wall which I admire as Peter dashes off to fetch a key that will let us in. Built at the end of the 18th century, Leconfield Hall fell into disrepair and was mercifully restored in the 1990s with the help of lottery funding and a significant contribution from the estate of the late Gwenda Morgan, a former local resident and renowned wood engraver.

With a large auditorium, the hall is now used for a rich variety of events including the society’s famous book sale, held on the second Saturday of every month. Curiously, there’s a Canadian flag hanging on a wall. This same flag previously flew above the Canadian Parliament building in Ottawa and was presented to the Petworth Society by the Toronto Scottish Regiment, which was stationed near here during World War II and forged a close relationship with the town that continued long after hostilities ceased.