The Windmill, Littleworth

A History of the County of Sussex records that the Windmill existed in 1909 and possibly earlier and was the meeting of a ‘slate club’ in 1916. The Post Office Directory of 1878 lists a Felix Thomas, beer retailer of Littleworth. The only beer retailer at Littleworth in Kelly’s Directory of 1891, 1899 and 1905 is Thom. Knight, while Barton Snelling is listed as the only beer retailer in the village in the 1911 and 1915 editions. The tendency for beer houses (those without a spirits licence) to be listed in old directories under the proprietor’s name suggests that these entries are for the Windmill. The pub is almost certainly named after Jolesfield Windmill, an eight-sided tarred smock mill that stood in the village until the early 1960s. The pub exterior is in classic hung-tile Sussex style, while the present interior layout of small public bar at the front-left, small lounge to the rear-right and quarry tiled drinking passage between the two rooms has been like this for over 50 years.

The public bar has a rustic atmosphere with scrubbed tables, old agricultural relics, bar billiards table and dartboard. The comfortable lounge, in complete contrast, is tartan carpeted with upholstered seating and houses an appropriate collection of small windmills. The public bar serving hatch, lounge bar counter and brick fireplace, porch entrance, front windows and floor tiles in the passageway all date from an interwar refit. Back shelving is probably of the same period but with some post-war additions. Flagstone floors appear modern. The landlord, Hall and Woodhouse tenant Michael Lennon, has a photo from the late 1940s showing the matchwood panelling in the front bar just as it is today. The panelling exactly matches the design of the serving hatch counter front. The pub was previously in the ownership of the now-defunct King and Barnes brewery, Horsham, and their livery can be seen over the porch entrance.

The Windmill, Littleworth Lane, Littleworth, near Partridge Green, West Sussex, RH13 8EJ

Sources:

‘West Grinstead’, A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 6 Part 2: Bramber Rape (North-Western Part) including Horsham (1986), pp. 83-89. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=18329 Date accessed: 10 August 2011.