 |
||||||||||||||
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
||||||||||
In Medieval times the inns were sometimes known as ‘hospitos’. They were places of rest for weary travellers and it is thought that there was a hospito on the site in the 15th century. It might have been connected with a monastery and the monks could have stayed there for a while on the long journeys by foot right across the country. At the rear of the original building there was a small building which was thought to have been a chapel where the travellers, resting in the hospito, could worship. It is now a cottage called ‘The Chapel’.
The old Chequers Inn was medieval but refurbished with a Georgian stone front in the 18th century. One George Nye was the landlord in 1760 and he was followed in 1773 by Richard Clements. On 2nd September 1808 there was a Conveyance made for consideration of £400 between William Chapman of Brighton, Common Brewer, and John Chapman, Gent also of Brighton, to James Penfold of Goring, Builder, and others, and their Trustee, William Blunden, Esq. Of Combe Land, Pulborough, for ‘A tenement, buildings, and one acre land called Butchers in Pulborough, abutting on a messuage, late a common Inn called The Chequer’. It seems that towards the end of the 18th century the inn was converted into a cottage. In the 1860s Mary Ann Byham, when she was church organist, lived there with her two daughters for about eight years. For a time it was the home of Annie Cole until 1902 and it was then sold to Mr and Mrs Newland Tomlins for £450. The Newland Tomkins remained there until 1914 when they moved to a house on Church Hill.
Mrs Elizabeth Searancke and her husband, the owners of the Chequers Inn were devastated by their loss estimated to be in the region of £30,000. Mrs Searancke had taken over the Chequers Inn two years before in 1960, and also owned the annex. The site of the present Chequers was once a property known as Braziers or Brasiers and it was a freehold of the rectory manor. It was originally built in 1548. It was sold in 1628 to Richard Gibsone of Pulborough, miller, for £25 and in 1675 by George Aylward, Shoemaker, to Richard Parham of Pulborough, butcher, for £80. At the time of the Tithe map of 1841 the property was owned by John Markwich or Markwick and the occupier was John Nash. It isn’t documented when it became a shop but in 1866 George Frederick Morris had a grocers and linen drapers shop here. He died about 1880 and the business was taken over by Charles Grantham. There have been several owners since then and it was still a shop ‘Church Stores’ owned by Donald Mackie at the beginning of the Second World War. Luckily the premises had been bought in 1960 by Mr and Mrs Searancke as an annexe so, when the fire destroyed the old Chequers and there was little hope of restoring the old Chequers, the premises in old Rectory Lane were refurbished and became the small but flourishing hotel it is today with its national and even international reputation. Some of the licensees or owners over the years:
The Chequers Hotel, Old Rectory Lane, Pulborough, West Sussex RH20 1AD |
||||||||||||||
The present Chequers is now The Chequers Hotel and is found at the western end of old Rectory lane where it has been since 1963 when the old Chequers burnt down. The latter was situated across the road in Church Place, which was, at one time called Upper Street. 
In the 16th century there was an inn here called ‘The Cinders Inn’ and in 1530 a man called Richard Coghort or Coqhort lived here. Towards the end of the century the name of the inn became ‘The Chequers Inn’. Chequer or checker is linked with a game of draughts and usually the inn sign is a black and white chequered draughts board. But in the 17th and 18th centuries such an inn sign indicated that the inn had a chequered board which would allow them to work out their calculations or business transactions. This old method of exchange is retained in our language with the words cheques and exchequer. In the 1700’s Manor Courts sometimes called Courts Baron, were held in the Chequers Inn but have long since fallen into disuse. They consisted of the freeholders of a manor and were presided over by the Lord of the Manor. They were called for punishing misdemeanours and settling disputes.
Before the coming of the railway in 1858, there was still a regular coach service passing through Pulborough on its way to Billingshurst and on to London. Mr L.N Corden gave the following account of what used to happen. ‘When the coach reached the top of Church Hill the new horses, which had been changed at the Swan Hotel, had to have a breather. On the east side of the road was a bakers shop and, on the west, The Chequers Inn. Now ‘The custom of the road’ – a law no one dare break – was for the passengers on the coach to go into the bakers shop, buy a hot meat pie and take it across the road to Chequers for a glass of stout. But, often, before they could eat their pies the cry would sound ‘Take your seats! Take your seats!’ and the consequence was that the pies were often left. Mr Jesse Greenfield, who was the Parish Clerk for nearly fifty years, stated that they used to carry a nice clean white napkin, wrap their pies in it and eat it as they went along.
By 1930 the Chequers had reverted partly to its original status and had become Chequers Tea and Guest House. In 1940, when Mr and Mrs V Stormont were the owners, Mr Ashley Courtenay wrote an article for a magazine which was full of praise for the Chequers and for Mr and Mrs Stormont. He described it as a model Hotel in miniature of outstanding merit in every respect where practically everything was homemade. He wondered how such excellent food and exceptional comfort could be offered at such a moderate price (The figure of four guineas a week was mentioned). At the end of his article he describes Pulborough ‘as a delightful place to stay at any time of the year, including the winter, when the climate is mild and sunny, and the district is particularly attractive and completely rural.
On Friday 15th November 1963 tragedy struck the Chequers Inn. At 1am that morning, a maid smelled smoke and not knowing what to do she managed to phone Pulborough Police Station. The sole guests were seven elderly ladies. Dr David Whyte Venables, who lived next door in church house, saw flickering flames coming from the hotel and rushed to help. He found the front door locked and tried to get in to assist those inside by smashing one of the front windows, cutting his hand in the process. Just as he was about to enter, the front door burst open and a stream of people rushed out. The seven guests managed to get out, clad only in their night clothes. Two of them had been rescued by the local policeman, PC Penfold, who had run up the stairs as the flames were licking the staircase and bought the two ladies downstairs and out to safety. Fire brigades arrived from Petworth, Billingshurst and Storrington and it took them over five hours to get the fire under control. The noise from the burning timbers of the old building was heard for a considerable distance. The cobbler’s shop of Mr A Campbell which was built into the hotel on the London Road was also damaged by smoke and water. The guests who had lost all their belongings, were seen by Dr H Whyte Venables, Dr David’s Father, and then spent the rest of the night in the Chequers annex across the main road in Old Rectory Lane.
There are two items of interest on the present site. An oak tree, a little mutilated in the storm of 1987, which is on the south side of Old Rectory Lane and which was planted by Mrs Bagallay, the wife of the then rector, to commemorate the coronation of King George V in 1911. The second is in the wall of Chequers car park and there are some large stones which are double cubes in shape and it is said that they were part of a roman station near this spot.