NEWS RELEASES
An 800 Year Old Record Broken At Last!
8th January 2004
Not since the reign of King John 800 years ago, when a charter was granted to Horsham for a marketplace, has there been so much change within a generation. At Horsham Museum, for one month only, the true story of WHEN, WHAT and WHY Horsham changed is revealed – ‘warts and all’!
Our generation’s radical developments came at a cost of £230 million, involving thousands of workers, using cutting edge technology, with equipment that was drawn from across the globe. When King John was on the throne and England was a Norman colony, the creation of the marketplace transformed Horsham from a hamlet to a thriving market town. The origins of such changes are often lost in the mists of time, but now a full and revealing account can be given.
Museum staff have been able to call on the leading participants to tell their stories – and Horsham has a lot to be proud of. Using the archive of the Horsham Society, the leading civic organisation in Horsham that has been a critical friend of the development, the exhibition attempts to give an objective historical view. The controversy over the demolition of The Capitol Theatre in 1980/81, the conflict over St Mark’s church, Sainsbury’s move to its riverside location are all covered but so too are other stories. These include the creation of a town centre infrastructure fit for the 21st century, the transformation of rundown urban spaces into modern retail areas, the retention of jobs, the weathering of two recessions and the problems of traffic congestion.
National awards won by the town will be on public display for the first time ever. These awards show how not only those in Horsham can be proud of the changes, but how nationally and internationally Horsham has been recognised as achieving so much. Other towns might have been transformed within a generation, especially those destroyed by bombs in the last war, but very, very few have achieved the remarkable feat of winning so many accolades in the process. How this took place is shown in a remarkable series of photographs, more often than not unofficial ones taken by the public who thought future generations might be interested.
Around 1200-1206 beside a small hamlet, the Lord of Horsham laid out a large triangular marketplace and with it a series of speculative plots of land on which tenants would be able to build houses. This created the Borough of Horsham and gave the town some 700 years of status and growth. Now between 1975 and 2004, the new lords of the manor - democratically elected councillors - laid out a Horsham that would enable it to grow and prosper. WHEN, WHAT and importantly WHY shows how life has changed in Horsham over that generation and is told through maps, photographs, video film, and documents.
‘WWW.HORSHAM.CHANGED’ will be opened by Cllr. Vivien Lyth, Chairman of Horsham District Council, at 11.00am on the 16th January and will run until 14th February.
You lived it, now see "WHEN, WHAT, WHY HORSHAM CHANGED" at Horsham Museum.
For further information please contact: Jeremy Knight, Curator, Horsham Museum, 9 Causeway, Horsham, West Sussex RH12 1HE. Tel: (01403) 254959. Fax: (01403) 282594. Email:museum@horsham.gov.uk
Museum Opening times: Mon to Sat (ex. bank hols) 10.00-5.00pm. Admission free.