130 High Street
George Goffe & Co (bootmaker), Mrs J Fifett (tobacconist), Jane Welton (fancy repository and post office), Mrs M Burton (leather seller), the Sunlight Dye Works and Hughes (fried fish) are just some of the businesses that have operated from here. The Barnes family took over the chip shop from 1954-75. It is now Deep Blue.
131 High Street
Also known as ‘The Retreat’, this building has principally been a residence. Since the 1980s its use has been combined with No 130.
132 High Street
This 18th century town house was once the home of the Oviat family, who had fishing fleets in Newfoundland. They would export fish hooks and salt from Lymington and bring back Mediterranean wine. From 1831 it became the presbytery of the Catholic priest and in 1859 Joseph Weld of Pylewell had a church built in the yard immediately behind the building, for the growing Roman Catholic community. A Roman Catholic school was also built in 1859, behind the church. The school was replaced, then extended and finally relocated to Pennington in 2003.
Rev Edward Dennett lived at Nos 130 and 131 in the 1840s. His father was a coal merchant nicknamed ‘chook’ (pig).
Rev Patrick O’Connell was a Roman Catholic priest who lived at No 131 in the late 1800s and ministered at the church.
Built in 1859 in the yard immediately behind No 132, the church is essentially a two cell building comprising a nave and a chancel. The architect was Joseph Eloysius Hansom, who also invented the hansom cab. It is significant because it is probably the oldest purpose-built provincial Catholic church still in use in southern England. The church is redbrick dressed with Portland stone with Welsh slate on the roof. The stained glass windows were made by Mayer of Munich.
