The Old Market Hall, Midhurst

I’ve blipped the old Market Hall in Midhurst before, from the other side. This side shows the upper floor access on the outside. The lower storey would originally have been open for market traders, You can see it stands in the middle of two roads. I’ve now found a lot more history of the building, it’s fortunes being varied.

It’s substantially a 16th century timber framed building, with modern brick infilling and origins as far back as 13th century, when traders such as dressmakers, weavers and tanners used to ply their trades here. Much later, in the 17th century, a coverlet maker named Gilbert Hannam started a school on the upper floor, Hannam’s School. It evolved over hundreds of years into the present Grammar School at the north end of town, where his name lives on.

He began the school for 12 poor boys, allotting £20 pa for teaching of Latin and Greek, Writing and Arithmetic, “if they be capable to learn …. And provided they were not Papists, papishly inclined or dissenters.” No political correctness there then.

One of the school’s most famous pupils was H.G. Wells, sent here from 1883-4 to improve his Latin when he was apprenticed to a chemist in the town. His novel Tono-Bungay might have been inspired by his time here, the story of a chemist who invents a patent tonic, bringing fame and fortune to himself and his apprenticed nephew.

Hannam, the original benefactor might not always have been as magnanimous as he would seem from his charity to the poor boys. On his death in 1678, he left for his wife a pension of £16 pa, the use of his bedstead, linen and hangings for the same (items: curtains, valance, 4 pairs of sheets, two pillows and pllow baggs), two table cloths, a dozen napkins and some pewter and brass. Did he know that her needs might not extend further than this meagre arrangement ? – she survived him by only 2 weeks.

The market hall is now an annex for staff at the Spread Eagle Hotel across the road.