Known informally as the Tannery Cottages, nos. 39–59 Westgate form a neat row of 10 workman’s cottages.
Originally occupied by tannery workers, these were bought – probably after 1871 – by the Henty family and used for their brewery employees. No information has yet been found of their construction date.
This map shows how they were built at the heart of our industrial zone of 19th century Westgate, sandwiched as they are between Shippams and the Tannery, with the Brewery facing them from the opposite side of the Portsmouth Road. This must have been quite a busy stretch.
There were also 4 more cottages on the opposite bank of the original course of the Lavant, which flows behind the Westgate row into the Tannery site to this day. These additional dwellings are shown on the 1846 Tithe Map but not on the 1874 O.S. map. All of them, by 1846, were owned by the Shippam family.
It appears that one survived into the 20th century, known as the Tannery Cottage, as Tony Keating recounts and where his friend David Heaton lived.