The first known well in ancient Brighthelmstone was dug in Elizabethan days or even earlier. It was positioned on the north side of North Street, near the Windsor Street entrance. At this point it must be about 200 feet above sea level and a monumental task for those early labourers to dig it with rudimentary tools. North Street predated the well having developed above the town from farmhouses, barns, labourers’ cottages, etc. The well was dug near the entrance to a farmyard, later known as Unicorn Yard, although Dr Pelham, in 1761, describes it ‘…in the middle of North Street’. It was greatly used by the townsfolk but in need of some protection and a court roll dated 1619 states: ‘…that a building which Richard Scrase has erected over the common well in the upper end of North Street shall not convey to the said Scrase, or his heirs, any right in the said well, more than as an inhabitant’. This may be the well erroneously described as being in West Street that was ‘stopped up’ in 1792 for becoming dangerous after being the town well ‘since time immemorial’.

A new well was then dug in Brighton Place in 1803. A few yards up from Unicorn yard a farmhouse had been converted into the White Lion inn around 1757 and stood where ‘Boots’ stands today (the picture above shows it in about 1858 after its 1821/22 rebuilding). It soon became successful – coaches from London via Steyning stopped here, there was an army barracks behind it and it became popular with pack carriers and hucksters. Seeing the potential, a relative of Smithers the brewers turned the farmhouse in Unicorn Yard into the Unicorn Inn, although it is not mentioned until the theatre was being built in 1773 across the street. An old town saying went: ‘The Lion and the Unicorn, fighting for the Crown’ (money). The picture centre shows it in about 1865 before its 1892 rebuilding when it was set back by about 6 feet, in line with the other buildings and for pavement widening. The map picture below is the area in 1799. The North Street theatre is now in Duke Street (1790) and the Unicorn that was opposite still retained its farming links at that time hence its omission.

Laurie Keen