Area 18 - The Heath forms the centre piece of this area including Heath Road West, Heath Road, Heath Road East, part of Durford Road, Torberry Drive, Sussex Road, The Avenue, Weston Road, Sussex Gardens.

 

 

 

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Character Analysis
1. Location in Town

This area has never had much to do with the centre of Petersfield proper. Rather it is a series of areas which have been built on to obtain views of one of the town’s major assets, The Heath and its pond. There are four key building features which punctuate this landscape:

Heath House (demolished in the 1960s): Russel Way runs through the old gardens and the old kitchens (Galley House) and rather older chapel (Chapel Cottage), both converted suitably, are the only survivors. However, a small enclave of houses was built in the 1960s.

Heath Lodge: the gardens have been comprehensively built on as a small residential ‘estate’ for the over 60s (presently the only one in this area).

Worcester House: facing the end of the High Street, had extensive gardens culminating at The Avenue on the south side., The Heath on the eastern side and Heath Road on the northern side. This land must have been sold off in about 1900, thereby causing a rash of large Edwardian family houses.

So-called Rotten Row, a series of 8 Gammon- built houses c. 1908 - 1916 built down Heath Road, facing south, all the same design, but with details often reversed to provide variety. These dominate that side of The Heath.

In addition there seems to have been market-gardening as late as 1930 behind Heath Road East, thereby leaving all buildings in Heath Road East overlooking The Heath. Torberry Drive is a much later 1970s scheme built long after the market-gardening had gone.
2. Vistas/Views

There are spectacular views to be seen anywhere around, or on, The Heath. There are two Georgian buildings (Heath Lodge and Heath Farmhouse) and one slightly later (Mallards Way) which have been placed in the optimum position to get unsurpassed views of the South Downs. There is a splendid view of The Heath from the steps of The Avenue, as also where Heath Road. It is noteworthy, in this context, that there is open countryside on two sides of the triangular area that makes up area 18.
3. Landscaping

This area is naturally dominated by the extinct swamp that makes up The Heath Pond. Round it one of the higher zones is the continuous line running from Sussex Gardens via Heath Road West towards the crossroads at Durford Road. One would to think that this is soil extracted from the swamp; evidently Heath Road must have been dug through it. There is a slighter ridge behind the houses of Sussex Road, again opposite the Pond. There is a sense of disappointment that no one has replaced the chestnut trees in the Avenue.
4. Building Characteristics

Houses before 1940 seem to be walled in. Characteristically these have been capped by semi-circular coping bricks which at times have been stolen and replaced with inferior product. All the Edwardian houses are strikingly similar in style finished with local red brick and plain clay tiles. A touch of rendering can also be found.

Two areas outside the norm are: part of Sussex Road nearer the town (a patch of later Victoriana or earlier, now faced by some ‘ribbon development from the 1930s), Heath road East (a jumble of 1880s terracing plus a bungalow or two, some other ordinary 1930s houses and Mary Ward’s 1930’s experimental flat topped white house (ruined by someone’s enthusiasm to put a pitched roof over it). Torberry Drive skulks behind it all, a product of the 1970s.

Heath Lodge and Heath Farmhouse are the two Georgian survivors; one represent a ‘town house’ with characteristic front door and portico. This is a brick building, white painted. Heath Farmhouse is built of local stone and the front rendered. The back, interestingly, is of malmstone blocks with galleting (little spalls of ironstone set decoratively in the mortar). Here the front door has a canopy across the length of the house with contemporary iron ornament posts.

There are some miscellaneous houses in Heath Road including the former golf club which many think should have been demolished.

Sussex Road would appear to be several chapters in a saga of infilling. Some houses are substantial but only one (Maridan) has a decent area around it as a garden. As for the houses (c1925 - 1940) here, they are a mish-mash of styles from pseudo Arts & Crafts to one house that looks like it should really be on a road into Brussels. Several have been enlarged (sometimes giving gravitas to the houses in question!). Russel Way is a product of the 1970s, as is also Sussex Gardens. There is one house that is unique to this part of the world: Dairy Cottage, Heath Farm has no road to it, just a track which peters out.

It would be fair to say that the building density (most buildings are two-storeys or more: most of the Edwardian three storeys) here is about right.
5. Building Materials
 Most houses here are unadorned with cladding over the brick below. Good tiles (invariably employed up to 1970 or so) have not been used for anything later than this date when concrete tiles seem to be usual. Proportions: brick 78%, render 10%, timber cladding 12% (universal in Sussex Gardens and Russel Way).
6. Roofs
This is an area with expressive chimneys, even if they are not used. Multiple dormers and complexities of the Edwardian roofs have a striking similarity to each other.Nearly all are still finished with plain clay tiles.
7. Special Features & Landmarks

The Heath Pond and the island in it gets photographed more than anything else. Some magnificent trees are present on the Heath of which some can be made more prominent by careful clearing. There is a virtuoso Edwardian brick chimney at 5 Weston Road. Burial mounds adjacent to the cricket ground to be noted.
8. Sustainability
 It would seem that this word has not reached this area.
9. Short summary description of area
Effectively, this area is country that has been sucked into the town. It would be good manners to keep it thus. Local people on their feet are more likely going for a walk on the Heath than anywhere else in this area.
10. Main issues and recommendations

 Following on from short summary above, it is vital that area 18 is not turned into a joyless suburbia. Heath Road carries too much traffic for comfort these days with Sussex Road (once just a track going to Heath House) is now the main road to Chichester. There is a surplus of bad driving on the road suggesting that traffic calming measures are needed in order to prevent further development of this potential racetrack.

There is also the insidious danger of too many little formal signs being put up. It might well be worth removing the no-cycling signs on the Heath for all the abuse they get: no one obeys them, and old ladies are not as frightened by cycles as they wee pre-war. Perhaps they should be replaced by children only cycling signs. Alternatively introduce a managed cycle route linking Rival Moor Road with the town or at least improve the local roads to become safer for travelers on two wheels.

 

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