It's a lovely discrete sort of place, with nothing too flashy; mainly Victorian, though the parish church, which I have already blogged about, is much earlier, with villas, cottage ornees, and any number of terraces both grand and commonplace - penny plain and tuppence coloured. I suspect however that economic pressures are beginning to mount - M & S is opening a shop there at the end of the month and it may have a detrimental effect on the local small businesses. It certainly would be a shame if it led to the homogenisation of the local High St - after all it has a fishmongers and two each of the following: greengrocer, butcher, independent wine merchant, and also a very good ironmongers.
Anyway I was a man on a mission for nestling away on a street corner is The Princess Fountain, and I was after some research. I discovered it a year ago as I was having an explore, and it's been hovering around in my mind demanding to be painted. So there I was camera in hand attracting the interest of at least one local. It's a rather accomplished design, small but monumental. Delightful and full of presence. It dates from the 1860s and is therefore a late, very late, example of Neo-classicism.
