In August 1978, Penn’s House in Steyning was home to Richard and Sheina Batterson and six-month-old daughter Heather.

But 300 years before it had belonged to the Quakers, bought for the princely sum of £35 as a meeting house and burial ground for their growing band of village followers.

So Richard and Sheina – herself a Quaker – decided to push back their sitting room furniture and invite Quakers and Friends to worship together again in the old meeting room.

With the help of his wife’s brother, Nicholas, Richard had unearthed a wealth of history surrounding his ancient timber-framed home.

Leafing through dusty record books, he discovered its name was first linked with the Quakers in 1678 when it became known as the Meeting House Cottage.

William Penn, after whom the house was later renamed, was noted as a regular visitor.

And from a list written by the Quakers, Richard deduced about 50 people were buried under his lawn – women on one side and men on the other.

One was a certain Henry Dawson, who died in Horsham jail in 1695 for “not going to church”.

Other records showed Steyning had been making history for hundreds of years.

In the book A Description of England and Wales, published in 1770, Steyning is described as a “small, poor town adjoining to Bramber”.

The author wrote: “It does not at present contain above 150 families and of these not above 84 have a right to vote in elections for members of Parliament.

“The town is situated in fine air, and is supplied with water that proceeds from a spring about half a mile away.

“Here is a free grammar school founded in the last century by Mr Holland, a tradesman of this place.

“In the neighbourhood of the town are frequent horse races. Steyning has a market on Wednesdays and three fairs held for cattle and pedlars, and in September and October for horned cattle.

“This last is so great for Welsh cattle that 3,000 of them are said to have been sold in a day, besides an abundance of other cattle, fat and lean sheep, horses and hogs.”

But animals were not always so welcome in Steyning.

In September 1991, the town was buzzing with a real-life thriller – the Mystery of the Disappearing Doves.

Some locals believed the villains were the marksmen who had recently shot around 30 birds in a pest control exercise for Horsham Council.

The plot had begun six weeks before when the council was asked to sort out pesky pigeons who were “dive-bombing” pedestrians.

A pest control firm employed by Horsham District Council carried out a cull and shot around 30 birds.

But residents soon noticed that 15 white doves, who lived in a specially-built dove cote in the High Street, had myste riously vanished.

The doves had flown around the street for so long they had become part of the High Street scene.

When they failed to show up traders began to get suspicious.

Caroline Clement, who ran Country Kitchen Antiques, feared they might have been caught in the crossfire.

She said: “I was horrified when I found out about the cull on the birds, especially now the doves have disappeared as well.

“It appears to be too much of a coincidence that the cull and the doves’ disappearance happened at the same time.

“The doves have become part of the traditions of Steyning and a lot of people leave food out for them. We all miss them.”

But Horsham Council denied all responsibility.

A spokesman said: “They may have just flown away.”