Cars of the Future

Future for Cars in Midhurst: Go Electric by Matthew Brandon

The age of the electric car is slowly approaching, and it is only a matter of time until the government prohibit the sale of petrol, diesel and hybrid cars in the UK by a renewed date of 2035. However, consumers are reluctant to invest in electric cars for a number of reasons, specifically cost, charge time, and vehicle range. This article aims to reassure readers about electric cars, and give a brief insight of what it’s like to own an electric car in Midhurst.

What is an electric car? An electric car uses electric motors to turn the wheels and derives all its power from large rechargeable batteries. The size of a battery correlates to its power output and range. For instance, the Tesla Model 3 comes with a 50-kWh battery as standard, with a range of 254 miles, and 0-60 in 5.3 seconds which is more than enough to beat the majority of cars at the traffic lights in Midhurst!

Why did I buy an electric car? I bought an electric car after I calculated how much I was spending every week on petrol. Granted, I had a fuel guzzling petrol engine, but travelling around West Sussex and Surrey was costing me around £80 a week, or over £4,000 a year. So without even test driving the car, I preordered a Tesla Model 3 and waited three months for it to be shipped from California. The Tesla Model 3 is a complete joy to drive around Midhurst and the surrounding area.

The car runs silently yet delivers impressive performance and more than enough grip to take on the twists and turns of the country roads.

There are also ample charging points around Midhurst and West Sussex to charge your vehicle, even two new chargers at North Street Car Park. Tesla also run their own Supercharger network across the UK, which can charge your car from 0-80% in 30 minutes whilst you’re having a coffee break.

The greatest benefit of buying an electric car is the exceptionally low running cost. I charge the car from my home using a Rolec 32A WallPod which charges my car overnight. Depending on your tariff, you can charge the car from 0-100% for as little as £7 which will give you an estimated range of over 250 miles. This is considerably cheaper than running my previous car which did 400 miles on a full tank. I have driven just over 5000 miles in my Tesla Model 3 yet only paid £150 in electricity to power the car.

Another benefit of owning an electric car is that zero emissions are produced whilst driving, meaning cleaner air and a healthier

environment. An electric car also requires less maintenance as there are fewer moving parts compared to a conventional engine, so you need not worry about expensive garage bills.

On the other hand, electric cars are expensive to buy initially, with the cost starting from £21,000 for a basic Skoda, but can easily reach the £100,000 mark for cars such as the Porsche a 6-ton load, 1.5 miles at 4mph - that was in electric storage batteries and electrical Ferdinand Porsche build an all-wheel drive, electrically driven car in 1898. By 1910 progress was restricted by infrastructure to support battery charging. Taycan or the Audi E-Tron. Another disadvantage is the practicality of owning an electric car. Electric cars have a relatively limited range, meaning more frequently stop- offs for charging on long journeys. It is also essential that the consumer has off-road parking to plug in their car at home. Domestic chargers have to be wired into the mains and cost on average £650 including the government grant of £500.

Conclusion. In my opinion, if you are considering buying a new car, buy into the electric car craze! The government grant of £3,500 will help you offset the cost of a new electric vehicle as well as the charger grant of £500 for your domestic charger. The car is better for the environment and will save

The Path to Practicality

During the 19th century many vehicles applied electric motors to propel them along. The first known one was a 7-ton locomotive that hauled 1837. That was amazing for it had only crude technology was in its infancy.

enormous amounts of money on fuel.

Internal combustion alternatives overtook those poor capabilities. It has taken decades to reach a useful state for passenger cars.

In the mid 80’s I was invited to experience a major UK national research unit’s electric research delivery van. Wow. We took off in utter silence. It did not have gears. I looked in the empty back of the van and asked what was its payload. Zero! The lead acid batteries under the floor limited its capability. I also asked how do you heat the van in winter. There being no spare heat from an engine, it was fitted with a rapid start kerosene heater! It had no capacity to use resistive heating.

Improvement to the capability resulted with the use of lithium-based batteries; not the lead acid ones still being used in cars - but soon to go to save weight. The massive drop in cost means we now hear about the phasing out of petrol and diesel fuelled cars in the foreseeable decades.

For a geophysical research project, we needed to take people and heavy items a quarter mile into a mine drive. The floor had permanently flowing red mud coming up from a shaft inside to find its way out the entrance.

We converted an old tiny Renault van by changing the drive to use four electric starter motors driving the ring gear held by the gearbox. The huge tractor electric battery drove it in and back on a charge. At one trip, covered with ladders and wooded props and carrying 4 people, it just took off and ground its way along without any feeling of stress. We called it our lemon charged van.

Peter Sydenham

The Old Market House: Not so!

By Harvey Tordoff

Not the real Market House after all

We all know about the Old Market House in Midhurst, the place where in 1672 Gilbert Hannam started a school for 12 poor Protestant boys, the origin of today's Midhurst Rother

Supposed Old Market House in 1866, Antiques were sold there then.

College. People who live in Midhurst probably pass by the Old Market House several times a week, but surprisingly there is some confusion over the identity of the building. Bridget Howard provided a detailed history in the Midhurst Society’s heritage Magazine (No 3, 2005); we quote from that article here. It is also now available in her 2006 leaflet published by the Society.

Bridget explains at length that this building couldn't have been the Old Market House, because we know that the original Market House was built in 1551 on an empty piece of land, by which time the South Street plot served as a butcher's shop. A map of 1632 shows a typical open-floor market hall in the Market Square where the Old Town Hall is today. The ground floor walls were filled in around 1760, two punishment cells were built,

Real old Town Hall when it was a fire station

and the fire engine was housed there. It became the Civic Centre, and the Law Courts and Council meetings were held on the upper floor. In due course the real Market House became the Town Hall. The stairs were moved outside in the 1840's. The cells are still there, as is the fire bell, but the ground floor is now a popular cafe.

The 'other' building has an interesting history in its own right. In 1639 it was leased to Richard Cobden, a wealthy cloth merchant and 4 times great-grandfather of the Victorian statesman and social reformer of the same name. In fact, members of the Cobden family lived there until the end of the eighteenth century, when the descendants of the first Richard moved to Dunford Farm, Heyshott, where the famous Richard Cobden was born in 1804. The property in South Street became The Swan public house, then Arthur Glazier's The Coffee Tavern, a building contractor and an antique dealer, before becoming The Coffee Tavern again in the 1960's.

It would be less confusing if the 'other' building had a name. In view of the Cobden’s long occupancy Bridget suggests it could simply be known as that: Cobdens.

ICI: Good Company By Brian Cox

‘It was from the early '60s that the ICI division, known as Plant Protection, based on the Verdley Estate at Fernhurst, researched, developed and marketed a clutch of agrochemical products that was to have a huge impact on world agriculture, notably in developing countries. The upshot was that the company started to attract young agronomists and other supporting staff who could tackle global demand.

This had an immediate impact, as young families found new homes and moved into towns like Midhurst. The children went to local schools and found their friendships there, as did their parents in the wider community.

There followed a welcome contribution to the local economy. For example, not only did the incomers buy houses and do their shopping in Midhurst, but ICI put up their many business visitors in local hotels and fed them in local restaurants. Flats were rented on the Fairway for those in need of help: new recruits still house hunting or families back from an overseas posting. But it was not just the incomers. Expansion at Fernhurst also brought jobs for local people, to the extent that for a while ICI ran a minibus service to get local people to work.

The world of computers arrived and evolved at pace. ICI recognised their importance not just in business but also in education. So, the company helped to get Midhurst Grammar School started on the new technology and then, as the company updated its own hardware, passed on some to the school.

The coming of The Grange Community Centre was another landmark. ICI contributed to the fundraising and covenanted for several years. But it was at a time when national economic slowdown encouraged some of those approaching retirement to go early. Thus, ICI

Part of the massive site as it was in 2017. www.derelictplaces.co.uk/ICI/Syngenta

gave some of these people freedom to help get it going. For instance, Richard Loversidge chaired the management committee, with Jim Strong as the centre's director; and Richard himself then served as the director for a further 13 years.

Other individuals played a part within the local community, too. One of them was Keith Moores, who took an interest in Midhurst politics and became Chairman of Midhurst Town Council. Similarly, Peter Cochrane was for several years the town clerk. Of course, there were plenty of ICI folk with interests in a variety of local activities. But they did not indulge them by any means solely because they were employed by ICI at Verdley. They would have done so whoever they happened to work for. They were just lucky that it was ICI who brought them to this idyllic piece of Sussex in the first place.’

In Addition.

ICI’s Plant Protection Division was set up in the Verdley Estate in 1945. They bought it from Miss Schuster. It consisted of the mansion (Verdley Place) gardens, pleasure gardens and five farms. This all supported practical application of its research on pest and disease (weed) control in horticulture.

This huge ICI enterprise had its Headquarters there in the 1970s and 1980s. Its activity left there in 2001. It is now the residential area called Verdley Place.

See Voices of Fernhurst, The Fernhurst Society, 2006 and their extensive archives.