In 1913, the Worthing firm of AG Linfield & Sons purchased a dilapidated dairy farm at Thakeham from the trustees of the late Admiral Sir William Loring. Town House Farm was very run down, and even the old farmhouse had been dismantled and removed to a new location near Midhurst a year or so earlier (Fig 1). Arthur George Linfield (1859-1938) was one of the pioneer glasshouse growers in Worthing, having established his fruit growing business in the town in the early 1880s. Hothouse grapes were his most important crop, but after a few years he started to experiment with mushrooms, mainly by growing them as a catch crop beneath his grape-vines. Although mushroom growing in those days was a speculative and risky business, the profits could be high and their cultivation also provided work for the nursery workers during the quieter months of late Autumn and early winter.