By Lyn Funnell
Emsworth is on the North end of Chichester Harbour.
It straddles the two counties of West Sussex and Hampshire, with the edge of it in Sussex and the main part in Hampshire.
I’d never heard of it but I thought it would be interesting to visit it, so I went on one of the Lynn’s Coaches day trips to investigate.
First stop was for a coffee. We spotted Sam’s Street Food, which is a food waggon tucked away outside the 36 On the Quay Restaurant, just off the seafront.
Our fresh coffees were £1.80, which is a really reasonable price.
They also have an interesting menu of street food.
We were surprised to see a lot of swans walking around on the beach. They seemed quite at home there.
Further inland across the main road is the Emsworth Museum. It’s in the old Corn Exchange and Town Hall.
The stairs up to the museum are very old and steep so we made sure we held on to the bannister rail tightly! It’s a very interesting, well set out museum, displaying Emsworth’s history.
In the Middle Ages the town was a busy port, importing wine.
Queen Victoria visited the town in 1842 and there are two streets named in her honour, Queen Street and Victoria Road.
It has also been a fishing village for a long time. It’s most famous catch was oysters. But in 1902 The Emsworth Oyster Scare happened.
The harvesting of oysters was banned in several areas, including Chichester Harbour, due to contamination from sewage. One lot of oysters eaten at several banquets in Southampton, Winchester and Portsmouth left two diners dead and many others seriously ill.
It was first diagnosed as typhoid, but after tests, it was found to be caused by the oysters and the oyster beds.
P G Wodehouse was a famous Emsworth resident. He wrote his Jeeves and Wooster books there.
Three months after the fatal oyster banquets he wrote a parody of the Lewis Carroll Walrus and the Carpenter poem, which was published in Punch. They’re surrounded by oyster shells;
“O Carpenter,” the Walrus said,
“I sympathise with you.
You say that you feel rather odd,
I doubt not that you do,
For, curious as it might appear,
I feel peculiar too.”
Now there is one oyster fishing boat remaining, which is used for trips around the harbour.
String and rope were another important business. See our Hailsham article; https://unknownkentandsussex.co.uk/the-sussex-stringtown/
The rope had to be twisted in one go with no joins, so ropewalks were very long.
The Emsworth ropewalk was 1200ft long and 12-18ft wide.
After exploring for a while, we all agreed that it was time for lunch.
There used to be 30 pubs in Emsworth, but now there are nine.
We chose The Coal Exchange because it had a blackboard outside, saying that its food is home-made. And oh, what a joy, it really is!
Barry was determined to have Fish & Chips. He chose Home-made beer-battered cod, chips and mushy peas, £16.95.
After checking that it really was all home-made, I had Homemade lamb & leek suet pudding, mash & a selection of veg, £11.75.
Pauline couldn’t decide, but she asked if the lasagne was freshly made, including the bechamel sauce, and not out of a packet. It came with chips & a colourful salad, £12.95.
Barry said his batter was lovely and crispy.
My meal was very good and freshly made. the vegetables were all al dente, not mushy. And the mashed potato was mashed with butter. As they have a tall steamer, all the suet puddings are made in the pub.
Pauline ate all her lasagne and said it was really tasty.
The two waitresses Abbie and Becky were both friendly and helpful.
We all thoroughly enjoyed our meals and the service.
It was time to make our way back to the coach.
There was a Farmer’s Market along the road so we had a look round it.
And then we went to wait for the coach and driver Graham, who I’ve met a couple of times before on other trips.
