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Midhurst: a lesser-known Sussex town?
"Location."
Midhurst is in central-southern England in the western part of West Sussex county. On an east-west basis it's on the A272, about halfway between Winchester & Crawley. On a north-south basis it's on the A286 between Haslemere and Chichester.
Midhurst is nearer to Portsmouth than it is to Brighton. Its television regions are BBC South and ITV Meridian.
"What's Midhurst like?"
Midhurst has a significant old part which lies east of the main north-south road through the town. The old part is slightly reminiscent of Rye & apart from the traffic is unspoilt & something of a well-kept secret (unlike York, Windsor & Rye) for those who like quaint places with Medieval, timber-framed & Georgian buildings.
I suspect a lot of people who go to Sussex as tourists will be familiar with Chichester, Bognor, Arundel, Worthing, Brighton, Lewes, Eastbourne, Hastings & Rye, but may have overlooked Midhurst.
"History"
Midhurst began on March 30th, 1190, when King Richard I granted several lands including Esemburna cum Middeherst to Frank De Bohun.
1430: Oldest part of the SpreadEagle Hotel built.
1523: Population of Midhurst approximately 200 people.
1801: Pop.1073.
1881: Railway to Chichester opened July 11th: beginning of the end of Midhurst's era as a coaching town.
1934: Train services to Chichester ceased.
1955: Last passenger trains ran to Pulborough and Petersfield from Midhurst.
...Midhurst is unusual for a Sussex town in that it lost its train service. Counties within commutable distance of London (e.g. Sussex and Surrey) tended to hang onto their services, when less fortunate (more isolated) places outside of commuter belts had their passenger railways axed in the 1950s & '60s, in what proved to be a very short-sighted move (axing train services meant an inevitable increase in road traffic).
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