THE ageing steps at the end of The Avenue that drop down on to Heath Road West are being repaired.
Workmen from Hampshire County Council are carrying out the work to the steps.
It’s likely they were built between the 1880s and the 1930s, when the houses were built along The Avenue and around The Heath.
But an 1870s map of The Avenue shows the road as a thin strip of land, part of a formal garden to what is now 2 to 4 Dragon Street.
It linked the bottom of the very large garden of the Dragon Street house directly to the Heath.
The difference in height of the garden and the Heath would have meant steps were needed to access either the Heath or the garden, so the steps may date back to the 1870s.
Heath Road is also shown on the 1870 map as ‘Horn Farm Lane’ and the only building was ‘Horn Farm’, now Herne House, and dating to the early 19th century and its farmyard.
Number 15 Heath Road, on the south-west corner of the Heath, is probably the earliest building in this part of Petersfield and dates to the 18th century. Otherwise the map of 1870 does not show any of the current buildings.