IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Oakhurst Lane, BILLINGSHURST, RH14 0QR

I was going to have lunch here. I've no idea when it closed but I hadn't been this way for over ten years. Why do we expect to find the past where we left it? Opposite Pigbush Lane which leads to Image

Both sides of the sign are shown as they are significantly different.

Next to Image this closed shop (due to fire damage) gives a depressing air to the focal point of the hamlet. There's nothing else but houses and fields.

Just south of Alfold, set back from the B2133, is this public house known as Sir Roger Tichborne. It has been a public house since 1873, but was closed for several years, but in April 2009 it re-opened, with the addition of a restaurant. It appears to have gone somewhat upmarket from its previous life, judging by Andy Potter's 2006 photograph, taken when it was closed:- Image The vegetation smothering the building has gone and the car park has been remade and much improved. The single storey building on the right has either been replaced or restored to provide the restaurant. The pub is named after a Victorian gentleman who was lost at sea. His mother and other people refused to accept that he had died and when a man claiming to be him emerged, they accepted him as the missing Sir Roger Tichborne. This led to a famous Victorian court case. It all ended in tears with the imposter imprisoned and a few years after his release he died in poverty. More details of the pub and the story here:- http://www.thetichborne.co.uk/

This public house re-opened in April 2009. Unfortunately when photographed the sun was out and the lighting fitment has cast a shadow across Sir Roger's face. However a 2006 photograph by Andy Potter shows this side of the sign and the other, which very unusually is different. The other side shows Arthur Orton, who pretended to Sir Roger, when the latter disappeared at sea. Despite the facts that Sir Roger spoke French fluently and was slim, whereas Arthur Orton spoke no French and was over weight, some people happily accepted him as the genuine article. Image; Image It seems that in its previous life the pub was a King & Barnes house. The main difference between the two pub sign photos is that the K & B logo, on the top of the sign, had been removed by the time the 2009 photo was taken.

An attractive timber-framed pub, parts of which dates back to the late medieval period.

The camera is at the west end of Pigbush Lane. See http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/243629 for a 2006 picture. This is in West Sussex.