Church Street used to be known simply as Rudgwick Street, or just The Street. Old Rudgwick was at the top end of the street, almost exclusively on the west side, and is now a Conservation Area.
Holy Trinity Church is a Grade I Listed building. The tower dates from the 13th century. It is located on the ridge, and is right on the old parish boundary.
The oldest image of Holy Trinity church, before 1844, used here on a greetings card in 1958. the building in front was a barn, long since demolished, on the other side of the roadRudgwick Church, a framed drawing to be found inside the church, probably the second oldest image in existence of this 13th C Grade I listed buildingThe earliest photograph of the church taken c1900-1905. the tower is the oldest part of the structure. The west porch was removed in 1912Holy Trinity church from the north side of the churchyard, c1905, with its Horsham stone roofChurch tower viewed from the path, an iconic view, c1910Interior of church at Easter; has original ‘tortoise’ stove as only heating, replaced before 1st World WarAnother Edwardian view, without the later war memorial on south wall1905, viewed from the churchyard, where most of these graves have been removed. The back of the King’s Head & Post Office Stores show a typical Rudgwick jumble of style and agesc1924, the Post Office and Stores was next to the churchyard on the ridge top for many years. It is now a private house and (right) church office. Older residents remember it as Humphrey’s Stores (before 1915 Cowdery’s). Names: door Moses Humphrey & dau Brenda; steps Thomas John Port; left Harold & Ginny Bailey; postmen Ted Ireland, & Mr Stenning; baker’s cart Fred DewdneyThe King’s Head, before 1912, is nowhere near as old as adverts claim! Richard Jenkins is believed to have built it perhaps in c1733. Descendent John’s initials are in the brickwork of extension 1826. The lower level was used as a store for the Trinity FairThe vehicles date this to c1950. the van is visiting the church – stained glass specialists Cox & Barnard Ltd of Hove
Photo 1905, Church Hill was built as a purpose- built doctor’s house for Dr Frank Boxall in 1896. It remained a doctor’s house and surgery until the 1960s, and is little alteredA view down Church Hill to Eames House and Southdown House in 1913. Eames was the home of the village butcher, with the shop, slaughter house & stables next door at Southdown (a separate house from 1940s). Eames is a C16th hall houseThe Jubilee Hall next to Eames House (hall house 1520s) was Rudgwick’s first school room built 1863 by James Braby of Maybanks, Cox Green, and subsequently given to the parish on Victoria’s Jubilee in 1897. Still in use, the railings were removed in the warThe church and Old Parsonage from the street, with baker’s cart. A view now much altered by modern houses. Parsonage Farm was glebe land, associated with the lay rector, the land of which was on the east side, where no other houses existed until C20th building (see below)Kings was substantially remodelled c1812 by the Ann Churchman, was a private school, and is now a handsome house, but its main claim to fame is as a TB sanatorium, when a purpose-built home for patients was erected behind by Dr Annie McCallThe Sanatorium itself, now two elegant houses, was photographed by Rudgwick- born photographer WJ Waller, whose studio was in Horsham. The open windows and the breezy huts are typical of TB treatment in the early C20th. Dr Annie McCall was also noted for her work in midwifery in ClaphamRudgwick’s old cottages typify the Conservation Area: Lavender Cottage, Hencocks and Little Ames. Hencocks is all one house today. Little Ames was ‘Grinstead’s’ draper’s shopPlough Cottage, part of which was once the Plough Inn, formerly three dwellingsTwo Wells, left, and Fleming’s Stores, both close to the street, built on former roadside waste, the former, once called Ivy Cottages, dates from c1400. the shop had owners: Edmunds, Marden, Fleming & LaudetIn the C20th, the east side of Church Street was developed with houses built on former glebeland. The largest was Windacres, seen here from the air, with Church Street and the church in the background, in 1957After the arrival of the railway in 1865, the centre of the village was destined to move south. The Martlet Inn (left) opened in 1865. The Edwardian villas (right) are still an attractive backdrop to modern shops which now occupy the other side of the street.Entitled ‘Station Approach’, now Martlet Corner; the old Martlet Hotel, built by James Braby 1865 for the use of railway passengers was demolished and replaced by shops, now the Co-op & Post Office.Gaskyns was built on the site of Gaskins Farm in 1892. The Barker family held village events such as this Empire Day ‘Masque of Empire’ in 1909. From 1930 owned by David Jamilly, film pioneer. Since 1948, the house and grounds have been home to Pennthorpe School
Rudgwick Preservation Society 