IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Bishopric, HORSHAM, RH12 1QR

Tile-hung pub in the town centre at the western end of Horsham's West Street.

One of my earliest memories is of sitting here listening to the priest talking about Colin Cowdrey's century against South Africa. Having consulted my Wisden this must have been in 1965.

Occupying the ground floor of the office building and spreading out into the two storey building to the left this pub-restaurant fills the north quarter of the area around the Image The corporate design is unlike any other pub in Horsham. Seen from the end of West Street.

The trail is 54½ miles. It starts at Shelley's Fountain, known locally as the "Pearl" and not active in this picture.

This is a J D Wetherspoon pub so, as you would expect, is it enormous, and does a roaring trade in both drink and food. Not only does it take up the ground floor of the multi-storey building on the corner, but it also spreads into the ground floor of the building on its left. It opened on the 24th March 1998. According to the Wetherspoon web site, "The Lynd Cross was the 14th-century name of the junction between the Bishopric and Springfield Road, which is now the site of this Wetherspoon pub. The first record of a building at this address is in the 1930s, when it was the Old Horsham Bakery". Image

Part of the huge J D Wetherspoon pub, which opened in 1998. As can be seen, there is a small outside seating area from which customers can watch the world go by, as well as gazing at the nearby "Rising Universe" artwork. Image

This bizarre and highly controversial piece of public art, dominates the area, being 28 feet high, and 45 feet wide at its base. It was financed by Sainsbury's, although it appears they had little involvement, other than meeting the cost. The artist, Angela Conner, designed it to commemorate the bi-centenary of the poet Shelley's birth. He was born locally in 1792. It is intended to reflect his forward thinking. The artwork is a water feature, but since it was unveiled in 1996, there have been continual problems with the mechanisms which move the globe part up and down. Additionally it has frequently been turned off because of water supply concerns, and there is also a continual net loss of water when it operates. The area around the artwork has been altered considerably since Elliott Simpson took his photograph in January 2008:- Image For more information about the artwork and a positive response to it, it is worth looking at that photo. For more information about the controversy around the artwork, follow this link:- Image Image