Welcome to the Storrington and District Museum

After being lost for many years the Storrington Roll of Honour was unveiled in its original place on the wall of the White Horse Hotel, Storrington High Street.

The watercolour by a local artist, Paul Hardy, was in a very fragile condition, and the delicate operation to stabilise the work was carried out by local art restorer Jessica Jacob, who generously carried out this work . It was important at this time to have copies that could be handled, and Ian MacWhirter provided impressive mounted photographs.

In 2014 the Heritage Lottery Fund awarded a grant to fund research into the names listed on the two panels.

 Throughout 2014 a phenomenal amount of work has been done by the research team*, led by Stuart Duncan, including detective work to recreate the third panel (which has not yet come to light and which we have had to accept may never be found). Local artist Dennis Lascelles painted the watercolour for this panel as a gift to the Museum.

Frames for the three panels were made by Cliff Wilks. Working in English Oak, he kept as close as possible to the style of the original frames as shown in contemporary photographs. Chanctonbury Lions generously helped to support the cost of this work. 

On 11 November 2014 Dr Norman Boyland, a Deputy Lieutenant of West Sussex, with members of the Royal British Legion, Storrington and Sullington Parish Council and many other members of the local community in attendance, unveiled a replica of the Roll of Honour in Storrington High Street where it hung nearly 100 years ago. After the unveiling traffic in the High Street stopped, and two minutes’ silence was observed.

During the following weekend, November 15—16, there were around 150 visitors to the Museum to see an exhibition showing the results of a whole year of intensive research by Stuart Duncan’s team. The imagination and expertise shown in the creation of the displays was impressive: the ‘field hospital’ was atmospheric and attracted much attention, as did Andrew Byford, who was tireless in answering questions about his World War One uniform and equipment. It was almost certainly the most ambitious and successful exhibition ever seen at the Museum.

* Lorraine Dale, Martin Dale, Eric Gill, Gillian Graham, Art Hutchins, Rosemary Mountjoy, Sue Setford, Cindy Waters, Julia Westgate, Kate Wise.

    ----------------------------------------------------

Research work is now being carried out on memorials of the surrounding villages of Storrington, the College (an Army crammers College (1870 - 1930) in Church Street), and compiling information on those that came home after the Great War.

If you have an interest or a relative that served we would be interested to hear from you.

Please contact us on 01903 740188 or email [email protected]