As with most old houses, this one has had a varied history. It was the original Holly Bush, and also butcher Slade’s shop from the early nineteenth century. Mr Wakeford took over as butcher in 1879, and his successors kept the name for business convenience. The end of the wooden beam on which the Holly Bush sign hung is still visible on the north-east corner of the building. The Historic England record implies it is a butcher shop (when last checked in 2021) however it ceased trading in the mid 1980s and has been a private house since.
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It was this place that William Cobbett described in 1822 on one of his Rural Rides from Greatham to Thursley:–
“We got to Headley, the sign of the Holly Bush, just at dusk, and just as it began to rain. There was a room full of fellows in white smock frocks, drinking and smoking and talking. I had neither eaten nor drunk since eight o’clock in the morning; and as it was a nice little public house, I at first intended to stay all night, an intention which I afterwards very indiscreetly gave up.”
For some years now it has been a private house.