THE NEWS that Rhona Russell is closing her women’s fashion and accessories shop in The Square heralds another change of occupier for one of Petersfield’s most historic buildings.

The shop’s opening at number 24 in 2008 was the latest in a long line of varied commercial and domestic uses for the double-fronted, three-storey house which is on the south side of The Square at the corner of Sheep Street next to the entrance path to the parish church of St Peter’s.

Many older town residents will most associate the address – then known as Square House – with solicitors MacDonald Oates, now based in Walltree Court in St Peter’s Road.

MacDonald Oates opened for business in Petersfield shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War. The firm’s founders, George MacDonald and Kenneth Oates, had started out in practice in Portsmouth before moving to the town.

After military service intervened, MacDonald Oates reconvened after the war and the firm has been in Petersfield ever since. In 1954 the firm moved into Square House and stayed there for 52 years before transferring to its present purpose-built offices.

People with longer memories may recall that for two decades, from the 1930s until Macdonald Oates took over the premises, the prominent building was known as the Commercial Hotel and would have been a popular stopping-off point for traders and farmers using the regular livestock market in The Square.

Other businesses to have traded from the busy site have included a dentist and a tea shop.

Due to its position on The Square and in front of the church, it can be easily identified in photographs and postcards from Victorian times to the present day but its history goes back much further.

Until 1893, the church was obscured from The Square by buildings, including the former town hall, which formed a continuous line joining with Square House, apart from a gap to give pedestrian access to the church.

In the official Grade II listing of Square House by Historic England, which was approved in 1949, it is described as having been built in the early to middle 18th century and there is a plaque on its frontage giving information about two of its earliest owners.

These were Richard Churcher and John Small.

Richard Churcher, who lived between 1659 and 1723, was a wealthy businessman and philanthropist. He made his fortune through interests in the British East India Company and in his will left enough money to found the school in?Petersfield which bears his name – Churcher’s College.

Richard was the Churchwarden in St Peter’s for a number of years and his brother, Adam, a pewterer, lived next door.

Cricketer John Small was born at Empshott in April, 1737, and he is generally regarded as the greatest batsman of the 18th century. He and his son made cricket bats and balls which he sold from his drapers shop at 24 The Square. He was also a gifted violinist.