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Nestled on Hampshire's border with West Sussex, Emsworth is a
delightful town with narrow streets, a busy harbourside, charming
pubs, restaurants and a number of specialist shops. An area of
outstanding natural beauty, Emsworth is a popular port of call with
yachtsmen, artists and naturalists as well as visitors from near
and far.
There are several picturesque short walks around the town and
it is also the starting point for coastal and country walks across
Hampshire.
Emsworth was a thriving centre for oyster fishing and boat
building. Boat building continues today, although on a much smaller
scale. Tidal mill ponds to the east and west of the town centre
play host to a variety of bird life. The mills, two on each pond,
still remain although now converted to a variety of uses.
The gradual growth of the town has resulted in many attractive
streets, which are lined by a mixture of brick and rendered
Georgian houses and these, combined with high-walled gardens, give
Emsworth a genuine feel of the past.
Emsworth developed slowly from the 13th century when it was
granted the right to hold a weekly market and annual fair. It
became a port of considerable importance, exporting wool and
importing wine, and by the 16th century most of the traffic of the
'Port of Chichester' passed through Emsworth. Even so it was never
a very large place, and in the reign of Charles II it is thought
that there were only around 50 houses in the town.
By the 17th and 18th centuries it had reached a peak of
importance and advantage was taken of its rivers and tides to
provide power for the mills which processed the grain from the
farms of the area. In the 19th century boat building and the oyster
trade became the prominent industries.
A Memorial Trail through the village from the Quay/Millpond
via the Square, north of the pedestrian subway to a Garden of
Remembrance on the south east corner of the Horndean Road
Recreation Ground, has recently been developed. As well as the
sculptures through the village, its supporting website
(
www.emsworthmemorialtrail.org.uk)
provides details and lists the names of those people from Emsworth
who have given their lives in the furtherance of peace in the
world.