Saxted House
Saxted House, or No.5 Tower St, is a Grade II listed building of late C18th early C19th construction. It was built by Benjamin Holloway, and occupied successively by his son Joseph, then his two daughters Frances and Elizabeth. The Holloways were a major land owning family in Emsworth, having derived their wealth from shipping and merchant activities. In 1779 Major Beeble, who traded with Spain and Portugal in fruit, bought a house immediately to the south of Saxted, and the Holloways then disposed of all of the land lying between the two properties. By 1800 there were three more houses near the bend in Tower St, followed soon afterwards there was a total of eight running from Saxted down to the bend. These were eventually numbered 7 to 21, with Beeble’s house being 23.
These eight properties survived until 22.00 on the 17th April 1941 when a magnetic mine landed in the garden of Saxted. Whether this was by choice, through error or jettisoning is not known, but nevertheless it caused considerable damage, in particular it demolished all of the fill-in houses! Subsequently, of these only Little Saxted was rebuilt, with the re-allocated number 7, so that the numbering on the west side of Tower St now runs 1,3,5,7,23, much to the consternation of innumerable delivery people looking for No.23 !
| Key Dates | Occupier/Function |
|---|---|
| 1820 | Frances Holloway, house & garden £16.15.00 CR |
| 1838 | House and Garden. Owner,Occupier: Frances Holloway CRT549 |
| 1841-61 | Frances and Elizabeth Holloway. C |
| 1914 | James Goodchild, owner occupier, rateable value £48 |
The photographs show the view along Tower Street towards the High Street one before and one afteer the bomb blast. Saxted is some distance down on the left hand side of the street. Not such a good view of Saxted then, more an indication of the surrounding damage in this incident.
The third photograph, taken in 1937, again shows the same limited view of Saxted House but is included here because we liked the car - a Morgan.