other stuff about Emsworth

 

 

Some interesting Facts

1. From 2001 to 2007Emsworth was home to The Emsworth Food Festival, the largest independent Food Festival in the UK with 50,000 visitors in 2005

2. The  Zen Furniture Work Shop - located off West Street produces furniture  with an emphasis on simplicity of design  in sympathy with wood, employing its natural warmth and feel. Furniture is individually designed  to commission.

3. In the nineteenth century there were thirty pubs in Emsworth now there are only nine.

4. The Victoria Cottage Hospital opened in North Street in 1897 and was closed by the Area Health Authority in 2005

5. At the end of the 19th century 100,000 oysters were landed at Emsworth every week.  The Industry entered a rapid decline in 1902 after the dean of Winchester and several of his guests died from food poisoning after eating EmsworthOysters at dinner. Currently there are plans to revive the industry.

6. Emsworth's population has grown from 1,780 in 1891 to 9,737 in 2001.

7. The oldest building in the town is thought to be St Wilfrid's Hospice Shop  dating from seventeenth century in the High Street.

9. There are 55 TPOs (Tree Preservation Orders) in Emsworth.  Full list HERE

Emsworth also has a particularly fine Gasometer visible for miles around and a useful mark for sailors returning home.  Opinion is divided as to its merit as a landscape feature and it could do with a coat of paint.

 



The Emsworth Heritage Project

The Emsworth Heritage project, a new venture for Emsworth, is at an early and formative stage.  Working closely with Chichester Harbour Conservancy, Emsworth Museum and other local partners  the main aims of the organisation will be:

To ensure the long term preservation and maintenance of "The Terror" - Emsworth's only surviving oyster boat

To establish a Heritage Trail around the village of Emsworth based on the nineteenth century and early twentieth century oyster trade, fishing and related industries for which Emsworth was once famous

To develop the educational use of the Terror and Heritage Trail for residents and visitors.

Emsworth's last remaining oyster boat now owned by The Chichester Harbour Conservancy  was restored at Dolphin Quay Boat Yard in 2006.

"Work is progressing on Terror, the Victorian oyster boat that is being restored at Dolphin Quay Boatyard. When we took-over ownership of the boat,-she was without any sails or rigging. This posed a problem and we needed to discover exactly how she was originally rigged.
At the 2006 Emsworth Food Festival, Ron Spencer approached us with some photographs of the Terror sailing in the 1960s. These have proved to be an invaluable source of information. Our surveyor has studied them closely so that we can reproduce the sails and rigging as near to the original as possible."

Follow the Oyster Trail - A walk starting from Emsworth Museum. Oysters have been fished in Emsworth harbour for centuries. At the  height of the industry (second half of the 19th century), almost 5  million oysters a year came out of  Emsworth and almost half the  locally employed population earned their living from fishing and the  industries that supported it, such as boat building. Find out about  this fascinating piece of history as well as having a pleasant walk  around the “Emsworth Oyster Trail”.

  Download the trail leaflet HERE  

More information at: www.emsworthheritageproject