The first reference we have to the Black Jug is from early Victorian times. The photograph here on the left is from the turn of the century.
The pub is the double-gabled building
on the right
In the late 1800's, The Black Jug was renamed The Hurst Arms. This was probably due to Robert Hurst MP buying what is now known as Park House, which was adjoining the pub. This was the perfect place to display the Hurst family coat of arms, as was their wont in those times, but the building was burnt down and rebuilt in the 1930's.
Thankfully, this horrific monolith of an office block next to the pub has since been demolished - not even Corbusier could have admired it, surely?
The pub sits in a commercial district of Horsham close to the extensive UK headquarters of Royal Sun Alliance, with various other offices scattered around, which lend the pub a very pleasing sort of professional city feel, if you like that sort of thing.
Keeping the city folk fed and watered...
The building sports the classic wooden panelling and plain wooden floors of the Edwardian period, and we have added our hallmark bookcases and old furniture. When we first visited the Jug it had no less than eight gaming machines - and very little else. The customers were a particularly attractive crowd of mostly ageing Hell's Angels, but at least lots of their bikes could get into the bijou car park.
We made some major changes, dropping the windows so that people could see in and out, and moving the kitchen from upstairs, downstairs.
We also covered part of the rear courtyard to create a sort of conservatory, but the remainder of the courtyard is still open to the sky and makes a good place to sit out on the beautiful sunny day we have during the year.
Although the pub does have a car park, it's so small it's next to useless, but there's plenty of parking around and about so it doesn't seem to matter.
