South Street, Emsworth

Sunny walk at Emsworth but it was a tad nippy today. Like so many places on Chichester Harbour, Emsworth has a fascinating history. Reputed to have first been settled by a Saxon named Weobold around 500AD . There is a recorded mention of Emsworth as a functioning entity in the reign of King John (b.1166, d.1216) when one Aguillon paid the King a pair of gilt spurs annually as rent for the village. It fast became a market town and port, trading in Oysters, Corn and Flour. There were no less than 6 mills here, including 3 tide mills which have vast mill ponds still visible today. Most of them still in use as apartments, and one is now the Slipper Sailing Club.

One of the many famous peopled to have lived in Emsworth is P.GWodehouse who worked and played cricket here, gathering material for his future writing, especially characters and names.

These are fisherman’s cottages in South Street, leading down to the town quay. You can just see part of the Slipper Pond, one of the large enclosed mill ponds which now provides a lovely if chilly walk round to the other shore.



“I know I was writing stories when I was five. I don't know what I did before that. Just loafed, I suppose.”
― P.G. Wodehouse

“Everything in life that’s any fun, as somebody wisely observed, is either immoral, illegal or fattening.”
― P.G. Wodehouse

“As we grow older and realize more clearly the limitations of human happiness, we come to see that the only real and abiding pleasure in life is to give pleasure to other people.”
― P.G. Wodehouse, Something Fresh

“It is true of course, that I have a will of iron, but it can be switched off if the circumstances seem to demand it.”
― P.G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Morning