Fountain Ashurst

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The Fountain Inn is a 16th-century public house in the village of Ashurst, in the Horsham district of West Sussex, England. After a period as a farmhouse, it was converted into the village inn and was extended and given a Georgian façade in the 18th century. English Heritage has listed the building at Grade II for its architectural and historical importance.HistoryAshurst is a small village and civil parish about 3mi north of the town of Steyning. The parish covers a large area (2494acre) and consists mostly of well-spaced farms and other scattered buildings, but a small settlement had developed around the Horsham—Steyning road by the early 16th century. Many of the present buildings are 16th-century, although in some cases they replaced older buildings. Development spread along the road in the 17th century.The first inn in the parish was to the south of the main settlement, near Horsebridge Common. It existed by the 17th century and over time was known by at least three names, the last of which was The Fountain. The building occupied by the present inn of that name was one of several timber-framed, partly tile-hung farmhouses in the centre of the village, opposite the village pond. It became an inn under the sign of the Red Lion by 1788, and adopted the name Fountain Inn soon afterwards.