This property is the former Wagon and Lamb public house.
A recent owner of the house believed that the original frontage of the house was one room back, with a yard in front of the house for waggons to park; or with the road running further to the north than its current course, thus allowing a yard in front of the farmhouse opposite. If this is correct the new front was added after 1642 and probably when the Georgian rebuilding took place.
1500-1600s
This house was an Ale House, probably from the late fifteen hundreds right up until 1939. The earliest record lies in the Chichester Mayor’s Court of February 1604, granting licences to seven innkeepers and thirty-four ale housekeepers. One was to George Mitchell, a pensioner of St Bartholomew’s on Westgate. Only two licenced premises were then in the parish of St Bartholomew’s: an inn, the White Horse, (abutting the West Gate itself) and this house, an ale house, with George Mitchell as the first recorded licensee.
1700s
Records are sparse until the 18th century. However, no. 34 was originally the Mitre and renamed the Wagon and Lamb in 1780. Cullen’s papers on the ale houses of Chichester states that in 1780 William Parker was the owner of the Waggon and Lamb. In his will of the 5th of January 1817, he left “My freehold messuage or tenement in the parish of St Bartholomew’s to my wife and after her, to my son William”. His estate was charged with £80 to be divided equally between three daughters: Mary, Lydia and Fannie. His son William succeeded him as owner of the Alehouse.
1800s
As has been noted elsewhere, the nearby round church of St. Sepulchre had been destroyed during the Civil War. Until the rebuilding of St Bartholomew’s in 1832 the business of the parish (known as the Vestry) was conducted from this public house. In 1851 and 1861, Henry Ide, a painter/publican is recorded as the publican, his wife running the business while he was at work.
There are various mentions in local newspapers during the 19th century of functions at the Waggon and Lamb. In 1874 The West Sussex Gazette reported that:
“A shoe club supper took place at the Wagon and Lamb in Westgate at which 40 sat down. Mr J. Vaughan took the chair. After supper was over the members enjoyed themselves in singing and several amusing toasts were given.”
Weds 19 January 1881: clearing snow outside the Wagon and Lamb.
Will we ever see snow like this again? This entire stretch of properties is now protected a protected view under the Chichester conservation area agreement.
1900s
In 1939, the Brewers Henty and Constable, operating further down the street, closed a number of pubs in Chichester – including The Waggon and Lamb.
Upon ceasing to be a pub, the landlord George William Davis, a retired naval Chief Petty Officer, had his licence transferred to the Crown Inn in Whyke Road.
Following its closure, the house was occupied by various tenants, some reputedly taking in the occasional “men of the road”.
It is now a handsome private residence.
Richard Brownfield 2025