Hidden Horsham - Howard Dudley - The History and Antiquities of Horsham

In 1836 at the age of 16 Howard Dudley wrote, illustrated and printed his second book; The History and Antiquities of Horsham. It was Horsham's first history book and includes a wealth of information in the text, backed up by his own lithographic and wood-cut illustrations. Hidden Horsham has transcribed this book and republished it here

Dudley's first book, Juvenile Researches, was published in 1835. The book contained 126 pages of text and woodcuts and was featured the Sussex towns of Chichester, Easebourne, Petersfield, Petworth and Horsham

Dudley's 'The History and Antiquities of Horsham' is very rare in its original form. It has been reproduced on at least two previous occasions; once in 1973 by Cecil Cramp and another facsimile was produced in 2002 by Dick Richardson. Both give introductions about the life and times of Dudley. For some reason the unnumbered and blank pages have a different sequence in the two reproductions. Hidden Horsham has followed the sequence used by Richardson which seems more logical. Interestingly the image quality in Cramp's earlier book is far superior to the later edition

The original text, now out of copyright, has been transcribed in this feature so that future generations can appreciate the book with the benefits that the internet brings. It has been reproduced verbatim where legibility allows. This excludes the style of font, but includes capitalisation, spelling and punctuation. Page breaks, often in the middle of a short word, have been maintained in an effort to maintain the authenticity of the text. Dudley did not number all of the pages and included some blank pages, no doubt dictated by the printing process; these have been indicated within the transcription. The contents and index pages have been hyperlinked to allow rapid movement to areas of interest within the text

All of the illustrations have been scanned and link to large size images revealing the detail and workmanship associated with the text. Some images were printed in landscape but have been rotated to allow for easy viewing. The book has been further enhanced by the linking in of related pages featured on Hidden Horsham and elsewhere. In common with other pages on this site the monetary values have been translated to 2006 values allowing the reader to make comparisons with the present day:

Howard Dudley - The History and Antiquities of Horsham

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