The Bugle Hotel was built in the 17th Century and was converted to a hotel from a large village house. The first innkeeper was James Brown, according to the survey of 1753.

The Bugle Hotel seems to have been the centre of fashionable local life in the 18th and early 19th Centuries when 'assemblies' were held there. The Bugle was, in addition to three village breweries, the only inn to brew its own beer.

It was fashionable at certain periods in time to modernise a building by adding or removing features. During the last Century a new front was added to the hotel with double bay windows and the imitation 3rd storey windows merely added for effect. This front elevation was raised to form a parapet with these false windows on the top floor hiding the old roof line which included real dormer windows.

When Titchfield Abbey (later known as Place House) fell into disrepair, much of the building materials were used in buildings elsewhere in the village. The fireplace in the bar has a stone beam above it which is believed to have come from the Abbey.

Titchfield, back in the Middle Ages was a small port at the head of the Meon Estuary. In 1066 and 1086 the Doomsday Book recorded that Titchfield was a royal manor and also had a mill, a market and a toll. There is archaeological evidence of an Anglo Saxon Settlement dating from before the 9th Century. However this village only brgan to flourish inthe 12th Century following the Norman Conquest and with the development of the trade and commerce both at home and abroad.

By the 15th and 16th Centuries, Titchfield had become a thriving port and at one time the site of its wharves could be traced in the tanyard close to the church. After blocking of the river to shipping in th 17th Century, Titchfield lost most of its trade to Fareham. The Earl of Southampton attempted to revive the village by introducing the woolen industry, but this failed leaving Titchfield a quiet unassuming backwater designated a Conservation Area in 1968.

Titchfield also had a Market Hall which was typical of the 16th and 17th century examples found elsewhere. The upstairs was used for meetings, the open arcade underneath was used as a market place, while the end, formed a rather crude goal for miscreants of the day.

The Market Hall fell into disrepair, and was purchased by the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum at Chichester who dismantled, and restored it in sympathetic surroundings amongst many other buildings at the museum.
Photo courtesy of :
The Weald and Downland Museum