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As a child, my father told me a story in connection with College Lane, recalls Harold Taylor. Born the same year as Marilyn Monroe, Harold spent his childhood days with his family in Chichester. He continues...
On the right, just before the entrance to Graylingwell Hospital, there was a triangular piece of ground separated from the road by a thick hedge. At the apex, pointing towards the town, was a high wooden gate. The east boundary was a high bank, as was the north. The ground was used by drovers to keep cattle in before and after market, whether it belonged to the market, the auctioneers, or the town, I do not know.
On the east side bank could be seen three or four grave type stones. Being young and inquisitive, I asked my father about them and he said they were the graves of people who had been hanged for sheep stealing. At the outset, this would seem out of the way, but I believe I am correct in saying that before the interference of the Duke of Richmond, this was in fact the main entrance into the town.
The old coach road came through Singleton, over the hip of the Trundle at Seven Points Cottages and along the chalk path to Lavant. Here it took Fordwater Road and entered the stream bed, coming out at Summersdale and down College Lane. The route was changed by the Duke to exclude a public road from his Estate.
Incidentally, there is a rumour that my ancestors may have owned the mill on the Trundle. One of the two persons killed by lightning in that mill in 1789 was of that ancestral family name. I have found their grave in Singleton, and also the tombstone of my maternal great great great great grandfather.
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