Garton House in the seventeenth century
Garton House was built around 1620. A track from the river bridge towards the chapel had developed and the house was one of only a small number of buildings in the area. It stood on rising ground among farmland, gardens and scattered working properties.
The building is original timber framed. Its present frontage is later, with red brick at ground level, tile hanging above and a tiled roof. Historic England listed Garton House Grade II on 22 February 1955.
The L-shaped outbuilding in front of the house is dated by Historic England to the eighteenth century. It stands close to the road and is weatherboarded, with brick along the lower part of the south-east front, casement windows and a half-hipped tiled roof. The building was separately listed Grade II on 22 May 1985.
The Garton butchers at Fletchings
The Garton family’s connection with butchery in Loxwood can be traced to 1790. The register of duties paid on apprentices’ indentures names Josiah Garton of Loxwood as a butcher and records Hugh Mitchell as his apprentice.
Josiah Garton was then living at Fletchings on Brewhurst Lane. The land-tax chronology records him there as occupier from 1790 and as owner and occupier from 1799. His son, also Josiah Garton, followed the same trade and was living at Fletchings by the 1820s.
Josiah Garton senior died in 1826. By 1828 the younger Josiah Garton had left Fletchings and moved to Garton House on High Street, bringing the family trade from Brewhurst Lane into the roadside settlement that had grown after the opening of the canal.
Garton House and John Arthur Garton’s childhood
John Arthur Garton was born at Garton House in 1829 and was baptised at Wisborough Green on 28 June.
John Arthur Garton spent his first ten years in Loxwood. There was no Sunday school in the village, so he walked to Alfold. At about ten years old he won a Bible there. He kept the book for the rest of his life as his most treasured possession.
In 1839 the Garton family left Loxwood for London. The family packed their belongings into Mr Standen’s horse-drawn van and travelled to Tooley Street beside London Bridge.
The family settled in Tooley Street, where Josiah Garton continued the butchery business, taking advantage of the new railway. The 1841 census records Josiah Garton in Southwark as a butcher, and the Post Office Directory of 1843 lists him at 187 Tooley Street.
John Garton followed his father into the London meat trade and became highly successful. He built a substantial business, became an eminent and respected figure in the trade and later served as chairman of the Worshipful Company of Butchers.
1841-1878 – the Parsons shop and the roadside building
After the Garton family left Loxwood, John Parsons lived at the property for more than thirty years, although the name used for the house changed during that period. The 1841 census records him as a shopkeeper, using the wooden building as the shop.
In 1851 his address was written as “Loxwood Street or Magots”, where he was described as a general shopkeeper. His sons William Parsons, aged eighteen, and John Parsons, aged fourteen, were both working as shop assistants.
The name Magotts meant whimsical fancy, or an array of tempting goods.
The next household in the 1851 census was Fair Magotts, which was the neighbouring property now named Mellow. John Parsons continued to occupy Garton House and operate his shop. In 1861 he was recorded as a grocer, with George Parsons working as his assistant. By 1871 the house was known as Hope House, where John Parsons was still described as a grocer but with the added offer of a draper.
The same roadside building was also used as a small dame school. Mary Jenkins was the teacher. In 1861 she was living immediately next door at Fair Magotts, now Mellow, with her husband Charles Jenkins and their family. The dame school was operating before the purpose-built schoolhouse near Vicarage Hill opened on 7 January 1878.
At the 1881 census John Parsons senior was no longer recorded at Hope House.
1879-1893 – John Arthur Garton returns to Loxwood
John Garton returned to Loxwood in 1879, the year of his fiftieth birthday. He travelled by train to Rudgwick with family and friends and brought with them enough food to provide a substantial village feast. Hundreds attended the first celebration on the field in front of the Onslow Arms, the children were all given gifts and the food lasted families for weeks. Thea visit developed into an annual summer event.
From 1882 Loxwood Place became one of the principal festival settings. John Garton and Sarah Garton stayed there as guests of Sydney Botting, and the house and adjoining fields were used for the meals, speeches, music and children’s activities.
In 1883 Loxwood Place was decorated for the festival and a triumphal arch at its entrance carried the words ‘Welcome to your native village’. The procession formed there with the Alfold band, schoolchildren, villagers and John Arthur Garton’s carriage. Local men removed the horses and drew the carriage themselves.
From Loxwood Place the procession travelled downhill along High Street, passing the village shops and working premises. At Garton House the West Sussex County Times identified the house as the place ‘where our good friend first saw the light’.
The procession continued downhill to the canal. The old road crossed the navigation on a pronounced hump-backed bridge, to the Onslow Arms.
The celebrations continued at Loxwood Place the next day and John Cooper, described as one of the oldest villagers, told the gathering that he had known Loxwood for between seventy and eighty years and had never known such enjoyment there as during the recent annual visits.
1889 – fifty years since leaving Loxwood
The 1889 festival marked fifty years since the Garton family had left Loxwood for London in 1839. John Arthur Garton and Sarah Garton again stayed with Sydney Botting at Loxwood Place, where tents in the adjoining fields were used for the anniversary meal, speeches, music and dancing, with activities for the village children.
During the speeches the Reverend John Davies Trigge thanked the Garton family for the “handsome font” which John Arthur Garton’s children had already presented to the old Loxwood church.
The 1891 census records John Arthur Garton and Sarah Garton at Loxwood House in Philip Lane, Tottenham. In June 1891 their daughter Jessie Sophia Garton married Lewis Smith Cocking in Tottenham. The Reverend John Davies Trigge, Vicar of Loxwood, was one of the officiating clergy, and the wedding party returned to Loxwood House for the reception.
1893 – the final Garton Festival
John Arthur Garton’s final Loxwood festival was held in July 1893. He brought the Bible with him that he had won at Alfold Sunday School more than fifty years earlier and spoke about the education now available to Loxwood children and encouraged all the children to always do their best.
The proposed new parish church was also discussed. John Arthur Garton promised a financial contribution and said that he wanted ‘a brick in the wall’.
After tea at Loxwood Place, the party returned to Rudgwick Station. Their saloon carriage was attached to the eight o’clock train and they departed for London.
1894-1901 – the new church
John Garton died on 8 April 1894, aged sixty-five. A notice of proved wills published on 1 June 1894 gave the value of his estate as £30,466. The family continued to support the proposed Loxwood church. A later subscription list records £200 from Sarah Garton towards the building fund.
On 28 May 1901 a faculty authorised the transfer of fittings from the old church to the new Church of St John the Baptist, including the Garton font. The final Sunday services in the old church were held on 18 August and the new church opened on 20 August. The font was moved to the new building and remains there.
Garton House in the early twentieth century
In 1901 two households were recorded between Harry Sopp’s butchery and Penfold House. Their occupations were listed as poultry dealing, music teaching, agricultural labour and farm carting.
A photograph from about 1904 shows Garton House behind a white picket fence. Access from High Street was through a small pedestrian gate, with a narrow path leading directly to the front door. By the 1940s the road frontage had changed. The picket fence had disappeared, a hedge ran beside the pavement, and the former pedestrian entrance had been replaced by a wider driveway giving vehicles access beside the house. The change was probably made during the first half of the twentieth century as motor vehicles became increasingly common and properties along High Street required direct road access.
1955-1985 – Garton House
Garton House was listed Grade II on 22 February 1955. Two years later Colonel S. G. Caulfield, then living at the house, appealed against its valuation. The newspaper report recorded mains water and electricity but no mains drainage, and the gross and rateable values were reduced from £94 and £72 to £77 and £62.
The eighteenth-century roadside outbuilding was separately listed Grade II on 22 May 1985. Historic England records its weatherboarded walls, brick lower section, casement windows and half-hipped tiled roof.
