This is a picture we never thought we'd see, Heene Villa - The Sportsman's Hotel & Tavern

A recent breakthrough in the hunt for the Sportsman Inn, with thanks to Alf Regis for this find, dated 1832.

"The British Sportsman’s Hotel and Tavern. With a good accustomed Tap thereto, Skittle-ground, Lawn garden, and Pleasure Ground, containing at the east end thereof (and including the passage on the south) 109 feet or thereabouts, and at the west end, 123 feet or thereabouts, and 162 feet at the south end, and lately used as a bowling-green, with ornamental trees planted therein, situate at Heene, within half a mile of that fashionable watering-place, Worthing, and may be considered a part thereof, contiguous to the sea, and commanding a delightful and uninterrupted view thereof, with every facility for bathing and beautiful rides.

These premises are copyhold. Held of the manor of Tarring rectory, subject to quit-rent of 1s 8d, herlot, and an arbitrary fine.

The fixtures, trees, shrubs, and other things in the plantation and grounds to be taken by valuations – this lot may be easily, and with a little experience, converted into a marine villa, fitting the residence of a gentleman’s family."

"I came across the information you have on your pub website regarding Heene Villa/Lodge. I thought you might like to know a bit about the Woods family who lived there, as I also have a photocopy of the building. It must have been quite an impressive and grand pub in its day.

The house belonged to Francis Benjamin Woods and his wife Maria. He was a surgeon who lived in Northamptonshire, where they raised a large family of 11. He retired to Worthing and that must be when he bought the house; he died there in May 1887 about 6 months after his wife had died, he was aged 77 which gives you some idea of when he bought the house. I see from your article that the pub was offered for sale in 1832, so I don't think they were the first to live there as a private house. After he died, his unmarried sister, who had been living with them, was the head of the household. Called Margaret Woods, she was a school teacher in the 1891 census.

Their eldest son emigrated to Australia, but their second son Edward William Woods, and his wife Elizabeth, were next to live in Heene Villa and they were there by the time of the 1901 census. He had been a solicitor in Warrington but again retired to Worthing. They had three sons and three daughters. Agnes was the eldest, born in 1873 in Cheshire, and the house was left to her. She lived there with her two sisters, Kitty and Beatrice, until she died in 1961. (The 1962 street directory is slightly out of date). Neither she nor any of her 5 brothers and sisters had any children, so there was no one to inherit the house. Edward died in 1908, but his widow lived till 1931, so she will be the Mrs Woods you mention in the 1930s.

So Agnes (the Miss Woods you mention for 1958) is the lady standing (next to her cousin called Eleanor - the seated lady in white who is also sitting in front of the house in the other photo). Writing underneath the house says that it was once a smugglers inn!

Finally, Agnes, Kitty, and Beatrice are all buried in Heene Cemetery along with their parents and grandparents, quite a lot of Woods!"

A newspaper report, dated the 21st of June 1957, tells the story of a disused cockfighting pit in the garden of number 94 Heene Road. The clipping clearly states that this building used to be a public house known as the Sportsman.

The structure is described as a Regency-style farmhouse that possibly incorporates an earlier flint cottage. The article also states that "The present kitchen was the original bar parlour."

A summer house at the bottom of the garden consisted of a floor in the form of an old millstone, possibly originating from Heene Mill in nearby Mill Road. Whilst the description doesn't exactly match that of the 1832 building, parts of it do, such as the passageway running along the southern edge, and the same for the tree position. At the time of its construction, it would have had an uninterrupted view of the sea.

The news item also stated that the property had been renamed as Heene Lodge. I've marked on the map opposite where Heene Lodge was in the 1960s (shown here as Heene Villa). Heene Lodge today exists in name only, applied to a block of flats.

Heene Road was renumbered between 1934-38, and No. 36 (Heene Lodge) became No. 94. In the 1930s it was occupied by Mrs Woods, and in 1958 a Miss Woods. Oddly, there was never a No 96.

The last street directory listing of No. 94 is in 1962 with Miss Woods still living there. It simply disappears from both the 1964 and 66 Kelly's Worthing Directories so it can be assumed that it had been demolished.

In the 1968 directory, Heene Lodge, as a block of twelve flats, appears between Nos 92 and 98, so you have it exactly right when you give that as the current site of what was No. 94, with Heene Lodge named in memory of the former home of Miss Woods.

It also proves that when Smail comments on Snewin's memory of the Sportsman in Glimpses of Old Worthing, his identification of this as Heene Lodge, No. 94 Heene Road was correct at the time (1945) - also that the numbers had not changed up to its presumed demolition c. 1964.

From D Muggleton, author of Chichester Pubs, Brewing in West Sussex, Brighton Pubs, Bognor Regis Pubs, Worthing Pubs, in which we assisted. (Amberley Publishing).
 

Time Line

A little bit more

1832 - For sale
1901 - Private residence

The Worthing Herald carried a report of a tunnel northward in the cellars of the Sportsman's Inn, then listed as at 94 Heene Road.

A fascinating tour of Worthing's pub scene, charting the town's taverns, alehouses and watering holes, from past centuries to more recent times.

Authored by D Muggleton
James Henry, and Colin Walton (of this website)

Available from Amberley Publishing and Amazon