Shelsley Lodge, Western Place, Worthing

When George Truefitt first acquired a weekend cottage in Worthing is unclear. In 1864 he had prepared and shown designs for a house at Worthing (qv) although whether this was for his own use is unknown. By reference to the 1:500 Town Map of Worthing, surveyed in 1875 and published in 1877, George Truefitt had certainly acquired and re-named the building at the junction of Western Place and Western Row, converting into a house for his own use. At the time this part of Marine Parade was still undeveloped save for the lifeboat station and thus Shelsley Lodge had uninterrupted views of the sea to the south. By 1879 Truefitt had added a single storey dining room with pyramidal roof as shown on his watercolour dated 4 August of that year. Next Truefitt acquired the end-terrace cottage to the west of the house and converted it into a double-height room known as “The Brown Study” in which to house his collection of curiosities. (This appears to have been subsequently converted back into a cottage No 1 Western Row.)  The Brown study was linked to the main house by a glass-roofed corridor, grandly labelled The Conservatory. By this time too the garden had been extended behind the terrace of cottages to the western leg of Western Row. 

Long’s Worthing Directory of 1892 page 114 lists George Truefitt at Shelsley Lodge 2 Western Place but in addition records his son G.H. Truefitt, and W Collier at The Cottage, 1 Western Place, which appears to have been erected on a plot immediately north of the lifeboat station and overlooking the extended garden of Shelsley Lodge.

NOTE - The name of Shelsley Lodge appears to relate to Mary Truefitt’s family connection with Shelsley Walsh, a small village in Worcestershire where George Truefitt had restored the church.

Reference           Tszwai So The Architecture of Victorian architect George Truefitt (1824-1902)” 2017