Worthing

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Worthing
—  Town and Borough  —
Borough of Worthing
Coat of Arms of the Borough Council
Nickname(s): Sunny Worthing
Motto: "Ex terra copiam e mari salutem" (Latin for "From the land plenty and from the sea health")
Worthing shown within West Sussex
Country	United Kingdom
Constituent area	England
Region	South East England
County	West Sussex
Borough	Worthing
Founded	In antiquity
Town charter	1803
Borough status	1890
Government Leadership=Mayor & Cabinet Executive=Conservative
- Type	Borough
- Mayor	Noel Atkins(C)
- Leader of Council	Keith Mercer (C)
- MPs	Peter Bottomley (C) Tim Loughton (C)
Area Ranked 307th
- Borough	12.5 sq mi (32.48 km2)
Elevation	25 ft (7 m)
Highest elevation	603 ft (184 m)
Population (July 2008 est.)
- Borough	100,200
- Density	7,990.1/sq mi (3,085/km2)
- Urban	461,181 (Greater Worthing) 183,000 (Worthing sub-urban)
- Urban Density	12,694.8/sq mi (4,901.5/km2)
- Ethnicity	94.8% White 2.1% S.Asian 1.3% Mixed Race 0.9% Black 0.9% Chinese and other
Time zone	GMT
- Summer (DST)	British Summer Time (UTC)
Postcode	BN11, BN12, BN13, BN14, BN99
Area code(s)	01903
ONS code	45UH
Highest Point	Cissbury Ring (184m)
Grid Reference	SU775075
Website	www.worthing.gov.uk

Worthing is a large seaside town with borough status in West Sussex, forming part of the Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton conurbation. It is situated at the foot of the South Downs, 10 miles (16 km) west of Brighton, and 18 miles (29 km) east of the county town of Chichester. The borough covers an area of 12.5 square miles (32.37 km²) and has a population of 100,200^[1].

The area around Worthing has been populated for at least 6,000 years and contains Britain's greatest concentration of Stone Age flint mines, which are some of the earliest mines in Europe. Lying within the borough, the Iron Age hill fort of Cissbury Ring is one of Britain's largest. Worthing means "(place of) Worth/Worō's people", from the Old English personal name Worth/Worō (the name means "valiant one, one who is noble"), and -ingas "people of" (reduced to -ing in the modern name). For many centuries Worthing was a small mackerel fishing hamlet until in the late eighteenth century it developed into an elegant Georgian seaside resort and attracted the well-known and wealthy of the day. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the area was one of Britain's chief market gardening centres.

Modern Worthing has a large service industry, particularly in financial services. It has three theatres and one of Britain's oldest cinemas. It has a historical reputation for connections with figures from the world of the arts, including Oscar Wilde, Harold Pinter and band The Ordinary Boys. The town once had the largest population of over-65s in Britain, although now has a more balanced demographic.

History

It has been suggested that this section be split into a new article titled History of Worthing . (Discuss)

Etymology

Worthing means "(place of) Worth/Weoro/Worō's people", from the Old English personal name Worth, Weoro or Worō (meaning "valiant one, one who is noble"), and -ingas (meaning "people of", and reduced to -ing in the modern name). The name was first recorded as Weoroingas in Old English; then as Ordinges in the Domesday Book of 1086, Wuroininege in 1183, Wurdingg in 1218, Wuthing in 1240, Worthinges in 1288 and Wyrthyng in 1397. Worthen was used as late as 1720.^[2]

Older local people sometimes claim that the name of Worthing is derived from a natural annual phenomenon. Seaweed beds off nearby Bognor Regis are ripped up by summer storms and prevailing Atlantic currents deposit it on the beach. A rich source of nitrates, it makes good fertilizer. The decaying weed was sought by farmers from the surrounding area. Thus the town would have become known as Wort (weed) inge (people).^{[citation needed]}

Stone age

Within 7 miles (11 km) of Worthing's town centre lie four of Britain's 14 confirmed Neolithic flint mines.^[3] The oldest of these mines, at Church Hill in Findon, may be the earliest known mine in Britain.^{[citation needed]} Thought to date from the 5th millennium BC and 4th millennium BC, these mines represent some of the oldest mines in Europe, if not the world and predate the great neolithic sights of Stonehenge and Avebury. In the Neolithic period, the South Downs above Worthing was one of Britain's largest and most important flint-mining centres.^[4] These extensive flint mines which include the considerable mines at Cissbury are in many ways comparable to the vast flint mines of Spiennes in Belgium which have been given World Heritage Site status.

The secondary southern escarpment of the South Downs close to Worthing, south of the main ridge of the Downs (formed by hills such as Steep Down, Cissbury, Church Hill and Harrow Hill) is most visible west of the River Adur and it is this flint which is especially hard and durable and hence valuable in Neolithic times.^[5] Flint from these early mines played a significant role in enabling the "Neolithic Revolution" to take place across southern Britain, gradually replacing the nomadic hunter-gatherer way of life of the mesolithic period with the settled agricultural way of life of the neolithic period as the extensive wildwood forest that covered much of Britain began to be felled.^[6] There is evidence that flint from the mines around Worthing was traded across southern Britain, particularly to the populous areas on the Wessex downland.^[5]

The flint mines were at Harrow Hill in Patching (mined from 4250 BC to 3500 BC), Blackpatch Hill in Clapham (4350 BC to 3500 BC), Church Hill in Findon (4500 BC to 3750 BC)—^[7] all outside the present borough of Worthing—and Cissbury, which is within the borough and which had between 100 and 200 mineshafts, making it Britain's second largest after Grimes Graves in Norfolk.^[4][8] Tolmere, near Findon, has been identified as a probable site.^[3] Sites at High Salvington and Mount Carvey, within the borough, and at nearby Myrtlegrove and Roger's Farm in Patching and Findon, have all been identified as possible, but cannot be confirmed because of plough disturbance.^[3] The flints would have been used to make tools such as axes, scrapers and arrow heads. At Harrow Hill, dozens of ox skulls have been found, suggesting ritual slaughter—possibly each autumn, as many animals would not have survived the winter. In the mineshafts, drawings of an Earth Spirit and phalluses may have been used to protect the fertility of the mines.^[5] At Blackpatch, remains of what appear to be miners' huts have been found. At Cissbury, there were more than 270 pits, and the flint was used locally and exported—possibly as far as the eastern Mediterranean. Some shafts extended up to 75 feet (23 m) below the surface.^[9] Four engravings, of a bull and deer, have been found in a shaft of one of the Cissbury flint mines. This is significant as few pieces of representational art survive from the British Neolithic period.^[7]

For much of the neolithic period of the stone age, it is likely that the Worthing area was at the borders of territory of two tribes, one based at the causewayed enclosure at Whitehawk Camp (in modern Brighton) and one centred on the causwayed enclosure at the Trundle (near modern Chichester).

Henges seem to have existed on the Downs near Worthing at Blackpatch, Church Hill, Cissbury and also at Cock Hill, midway between the neolithic mining areas of Harrow Hill and Blackpatch.^[7] At Cock Hill lies a henge dating from the late neolithic period, 48 metres in diameter, roughly circular, with a single entrance to the south-east. Various round barrows have been found on the Downs near Worthing close to Blackpatch and Church Hill.^[7]

Neolithic axes from the mines have been found away from the Downs in various locations across the modern town of Worthing including at Homefield Park, Heene Road, Broadwater, Pond Lane and Seldens Way. A site near the summit of West Hill in High Salvington, between Honeysuckle Lane and the covered reservoir, has been identified as the possible location of a neolithic village, possibly used by flint miners.^[10]

Bronze age

Bronze Age fort at Highdown Hill

Several Bronze Age barrows have been found within the modern borough of Worthing, close to Cissbury on the Downs. The enclosures at Highdown Hill are believed to have been built at this time. Various artefacts, including tools, metal and pottery have been found in the Worthing area. In 1877 a large collection of Bronze Age cakes, palstaves and axes was found in a Bronze Age pot near Ham Road in East Worthing.

Iron age

The hill fort at Cissbury Ring dates from this period. Covering an extensive 60 acres (24 ha),^[11] this is one of the largest iron age hill forts in Britain and indeed Europe.

In 1842 a boat made from a hollowed-out oak tree was found at low tide in the sand near to Heene Road. It was believed that the boat dated from the Iron Age.

Roman times

Roman coins, tiles and pottery have been discovered in several parts of the town. Several roads in the Worthing area date from the Roman era or earlier, including the Roman road from Noviomagus Reginorum (modern Chichester) to Novus Portus, (possibly modern Portslade near Brighton)^[12] which ran through Durrington and Broadwater.

It is likely that several of Worthing's roads were laid out during this period in a grid form marking out a field system known as 'centuriation'.^[13] Worthing's High Street lies at the south of a long straight trackway that stretches from high on the South Downs to the sea and northwards into the Weald. The track would have been used as a droveway (for transhumance) and can still be walked today along much of its length. Coming off the Downs it is now known as Charmandean Lane, which turns into a footpath known as the Quashetts, which becomes High Street and finally the Steyne before reaching the sea. The track would have touched the western shoreline of the 'broad water' that is the sea inlet from which Broadwater gets its name.^[13] The inlet would have existed for centuries but disappeared in the 18th century. It is likely that Worthing's grid system would have been based on this ancient track.^[13] The grid system would have been used to demarcate plots of land for fields and development.

The modern South Farm Road was once a track running north-south, parallel to the Quashetts path.^[13] It lies exactly 20 actus (about 710 metres) from the Quashetts path. 100 actus (about 3,550 metres) to the west of the Quashetts track lies the remains of a track that is probably Celtic in origin, also running north-south, by Stanhope Lodge, now on Poplar Road in Durrington.^[13] The track once marked the border between the parishes of Goring and Durrington. Today the line of this track marks the boundary between Clapham and Worthing. Another modern road that appears to be on the Roman grid system is Tarring Road (east-west),^[13] the ancient boundary between Heene and Tarring. South of Tarring Road (and the Teville stream is would have run alongside), the boundaries in the grid seem to be 24 actus apart from each other.^[13] The ancient boundary between Heene (later West Worthing) and Broadwater (later Worthing) lies 24 actus west of the Quashetts track. George V Avenue (north-south), the ancient boundary between Tarring (later West Worthing) and Goring lies 72 actus from the Quashetts track.

There is evidence of several buildings from the Roman era in Worthing. The town's Museum and Art Gallery is built on the site of a Roman farmhouse. A Roman settlement existed along the modern Brighton Road between Merton Road and Navarino Road. Remains of a Roman villa and bath house have been found on the site of Northbrook College's main Goring campus. A Roman milepost was found in modern Grand Avenue in West Worthing, possibly indicating another Roman road. A Roman cemetery existed between Chesswood Road and the railway line and burials dating from the early 4th century have also been found near Park Crescent. Roman pottery and coins have been found at Stonehurst Road, at land south of Ringmer Road in Tarring and on the Upper Brighton Road. Some Romano-British houses have been excavated in the Titnore Woods area of Durrington. Several small houses at the hill fort of Cissbury Ring on the Downs north of the town would have been in use during the Roman period.

Just beyond the boundaries of the modern town of Worthing, a Romano-British shrine existed at Muntham Court (now by the site of Worthing Crematorium). A Roman villa and bath-house also existed at Highdown and at nearby Angmering. The nationally-important Patching hoard of Roman coins that was found in 1997 is the latest find of Roman coins found in Britain, probably deposited after 475 AD, well after the Roman departure from Britain around 410 AD.^[14] The hoard can be found in the town's Museum and Art Gallery.

Saxon times

Around 450, Highdown was being used as a cemetery by the South Saxons. Almost 100 graves were found, possibly of Saxon warriors who died in the Saxon invasion of the area.^[15] Highdown continued to be used for some time for burials and cremations of Saxons. It is significant that Highdown was being used as a cemetery by pagan Saxons at the same time that Romano-British villa at nearby Northbrook, less than a mile away was still in use by local Celtic Christians. This suggests that Celtic Britons and Saxons were able to live side-by-side in relative harmony.^{[citation needed]}

The Saxons settled nearby Goring and Sompting and by the 13th century the settlement, then known as Wortinge, was populated primarily by farmers and mackerel fishermen. The hamlet of Worthing was originally part of the larger parish of Broadwater. Other nearby villages to later become part of Worthing include Tarring, Salvington, Goring, Heene and Durrington, as well as small parts of the parishes of Findon and Sompting.

Droveways (transhumance trackways) that extend from Tarring, Broadwater and nearby Sompting to grazing areas in the Weald via Cissbury Ring and Buncton near Wiston are believed to date from this period or earlier.^[5]

Medieval times

Following the Norman conquest, William de Braose gave the manor of Worthing (then known as Ordinges) to Robert le Sauvage, whose descendants held Worthing for around 200 years. Worthing is first mentioned in the Domesday Book as two separate hamlets, Ordinges and Mordinges, when it had a population of just 22. By 1218 the Ordinges had become known as Wordding.^{[citation needed]}

The county of Sussex was divided into administrative divisions known as 'rapes'. The manor of Worthing, in common with most of the modern borough of Worthing, was part of the rape of Bramber. In the 13th century, the manor of Worthing was owned by Margaret de Gaddesden, a descendant of Robert le Sauvage. Margaret de Gaddesden later left her husband, John de Camoys, to live with Sir William Paynel, who she later married.^[16] It is likely that as a consequence of leaving her first husband for another man she then gave the manor of Worthing to Easebourne Priory near Midhurst, while in 1332 Sir William gave the nearby manor of Cokeham to Hardham Priory near Pulborough.^[17] By giving away their property to the church it is likely that Margaret and Sir William were acting in fear of their souls as the medieval church taught damnation was likely.^[13]

In 1300 and again in 1493, Worthing is recorded as having a harbour, possibly in the estuary of the Teville stream.^[18] Worthing harbour was a member of Shoreham Port in 1324.^[18]

Worthing was owned by the Easebourne Priory until the dissolution of the monasteries in 1539. It then became the property of Anthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montagu, whose family held the manor of Worthing for over 200 years.

18th and 19th centuries

It was in the late 18th century that Worthing began to attract visitors. John Luther, from London, started the trend, building a large lodging house around 1759.^[19] In 1789, George Greville, 4th Earl of Warwick, bought the house and renamed it Warwick House.^[20] With a warm climate and calm seas, it benefited from the Edwardian fashion for sea cures. Over the course of the next century Worthing became a fashionable resort on the circuit along with the towns of Bath, Brighton, Bognor Regis, Cheltenham and Margate.

Royal visits from Princess Amelia in 1798, Princess Charlotte in 1807 and Princess Augusta in 1829 did much to make the town popular. The Prince of Wales visited his youngest sister Princess Amelia in Worthing from nearby Brighton. In 1814, Queen Caroline visited Worthing on her way back to live in Brunswick in northern Germany.^[21] In addition, Queen Adelaide, wife of King William IV stayed in the town in 1849 and in 1861 Queen Marie Amelie of France, wife of King Louis-Philippe of France stayed in the town when exiled from France.

Notable visitors to the fashionable town of Worthing in the 19th century included novelist Ann Radcliffe,^[22] the Duke of Northumberland in 1802, Henry Dundas in 1804, Jane Austen in 1805, Lord Byron in 1806,^[23] the Duke of Cumberland in 1817, George Eliot in 1855,^[24] Oscar Wilde in 1893 and 1894, who wrote his masterpiece The Importance of Being Earnest while staying in the town in 1894, and the future Emperor Maximilian of Mexico.

In 1803 Worthing's population was approximately 2,500 and the hamlet was given town status. Cross Lane was renamed Montague Street and went on to become one of the new town's key thoroughfares. A turnpike road was built around this time linking Worthing directly to Horsham and London for the first time.^[18]

In the early 1800s, a wall was built separating the fashionable town of Worthing from Heene just to the west. The wall was built from the sea to the banks of the Teville stream, which could only easily be crossed at one point - the bridge at the top of the High Street, close to the Anchor public house (today's Jack Horner). Since the Teville stream flows east and south to the sea, this effectively gave the town just one point of entry and exit, allowing 'undesirables' to be kept out.

In 1815, two infants' schools opened, mainly through the efforts of the Revd. W. Davison,^[25] from the new St Paul`s Church

In the early hours of February 22, 1832, a major smuggling foray took place when 300 kegs of contraband spirits^[26] were unloaded at the beach opposite the Steyne. Excise officers chased a group of some two to three hundred men, one of Sussex's last smuggling gangs,^[27] up the town's High Street and alleyways (known in the Sussex dialect as twittens) towards Broadwater. As the group slowed down to climb the gate guarding the bridge over the Teville stream that would take them out of Worthing into open fields, horse-mounted excise officers opened fire at point-blank range on the crowd, who were armed only with wooden staves. They shot dead William Cowerson of Steyning and injured several others.^[27] Civil unrest was feared and the military were brought into the town for two years to ensure peace was kept. As with many towns and villages in Sussex and Kent, close proximity to the Continent made the trade of smuggling a lucrative and popular business.

In 1845 the railway was extended from Shoreham to Worthing, linking the town by rail with London and the railway network.

On November 25, 1850 eleven local fishermen were drowned as they set out from the town's beach to save the crew of the barque the Lalla Rookh, a trading vessel of around 700 tons. The boat was in distress in a storm three miles off the coast, and eleven fishermen set out onbaord a small ferry, the Britannia. The Britannia capsized, and a second boat was launched, returning with the news that the Britannia was lost with all lives. Soon afterwards the town's inhabitants subscribed for the town's first lifeboat.^[28]

In 1890 the town received its Royal Charter and became the borough of Worthing. Worthing absorbed the neighbouring town of West Worthing and parish of Heene. The first meeting of the new Borough Council (replacing the Worthing Local Board and the West Worthing Commissioners) took place on 10 November 1890, when Worthing elected its first mayor, Alfred Cortis.

In 1893 an outbreak of typhoid fever caused 200 fatalities in the town, after 1,416 people caught the disease. The relatively young council took swift action, and by 1895 the town had a new drainage system.

20th century

A map of Worthing from 1946

The 20th century saw a continual expansion of the town, as it expanded to include local villages. In 1902 the borough of Worthing expanded to include parts of Broadwater and West Tarring. In 1929 the borough of Worthing expanded to include Goring and Durrington. And in 1933 the borough of Worthing expanded again to include the west of Sompting and the south of Findon.

Between 1908 and 1910, King Edward VII visited Worthing several times to stay at Beach House with the Loder family.

Following Italy's invasion of Abyssinia in 1936, Emperor Haile Selassie and his family were forced out of Ethiopia to the United Kingdom. They spent their first six weeks in the UK at the Warnes Hotel, one of the town's top hotels at the time.

During World War II, a hole was blown through Worthing Pier to prevent it being used as a landing stage in the event of an invasion. Barbed wire was spread across the beach, which was also mined. Canadian soldiers stayed in several parts of the town, including the former site of the town's rugby club in Tarring^[29] and at Park Crescent in the town centre. Courtlands, an impressive country house in the Goring area of the town was used as headquarters of the First Canadian Army.^[30] In February 1944, the British Army's 4th Armoured Brigade set up headquarters in the Eardley Hotel by Splash Point. 200 tanks arrived and troops were billeted in and around Steyne Gardens. Historic Beach House was used by the Air Training Corps. During World War II, food supplies were scarce and rationed. The people of Timaru in New Zealand donated food parcels to the people of Worthing. After the war, the people of Worthing donated a stained glass window to the people of Timaru in thanks for their efforts.

Immediately post-war, Worthing expanded with the Maybridge estate, planned by Charles Cowles-Voysey. The redbrick housing estate used Prisoner of War labour, and was built between 1948 and 1956.

In the late 20th century many of the town's historic buildings were demolished by planners eager to 'modernise' the town. Notable losses included the town's Theatre Royal, the Old Town Hall, dating from 1834, medieval Offington Hall, the mansion at Charmandean, a medieval fig garden in Tarring and dozens of Victorian villas throughout the town.

In the late 20th century, Worthing had a significant motor industry. In 1979, Octav Botnar founded Datsun UK, later Nissan UK, in the West Durrington area of the town. In the 1970s and 1980s, Dutton Cars produced kit cars from their Worthing headquarters, and for a time was the largest manufacturer of kit cars in the world. The company went on to produce two models of amphibious car, that could be 'driven' across land and sea.^[31] International Automotive Design (IAD) was one of the UK's major design houses for cars, producing prototypes for manufacturers such as Mazda, including the first Mazda MX-5. In 1994, the company was bought by Daewoo who continued to develop cars at their Worthing Technical Centre, including the Daewoo Nubira and the Daewoo Matiz plus trucks and vans, one of which became the LDV Maxus . In 2001, the Worthing centre was bought by TWR Racing which went out of business in 2003.^[32]

21st century

The town's council approved Worthing Evolution, a Masterplan for the town's regeneration, in 2006 after extensive public consultation.

Since May 2006, environmentalist protesters have been tree sitting at Titnore Woods, in the Durrington area of the town. The action is in protest at plans to build houses and a road-widening scheme through ancient woodland on the edge of the town.

From February 2008, Worthing will host the reopened public inquiry into the proposed national park for the South Downs.^[33]

In July 2009, Transition Town Worthing (TTW) was established to engage the Worthing community in responding to the twin challenges of climate change and the end of cheap oil, and encourage participation in projects to enable Worthing to become more self-reliant and sustainable.

Governance

Worthing borough shown within West Sussex

Worthing was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1890, when the towns absorbed the neighbouring civil parish of Heene.^[34] Subsequent enlargements took place in 1902, 1929 and 1933 before being reincorporated as a borough in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972.^[34] Since its inception as a borough, the authority has granted freedom of the town to some 18 individuals.^[35]

The borough's coat of arms includes three silver mackerel, a Horn of Plenty overflowing with corn and fruit on a cloth of gold, and the figure of a woman, considered likely to be Hygieia, the Ancient Greek goddess of health, holding a snake. The images represent the health given from the seas, the fullness and riches gained from the earth and the power of healing.^[36][37]

Worthing's motto is the Latin Ex terra copiam e mari salutem, which translates as 'From the land plenty and from the sea health'.^[36]

The borough is divided into 13 wards, each returning either two or three councillors to form a total council of 37 members. The borough is unparished.^[38]

As of the 2008 local elections, the authority is Conservative-controlled, with seats allocated as follows:

Worthing remains part of the two-tier structure of local government, with some services being provided by West Sussex County Council. The town currently returns 9 councillors to the county council from six electoral divisions. This will be amended from 2009 to allow for nine single-member wards in the borough following a review carried out in 2008.^[39]

The town has two Members of Parliament (MPs): Tim Loughton (Conservative) for East Worthing and Shoreham, who is Shadow Minister for Children;^[40] and Peter Bottomley (Conservative) for Worthing West.^[41] At the 2005 general election, both seats were safe Conservative seats and have been held by the incumbents since the seats' creation in 1997.

From 1945 to 1997 Worthing returned one MP. Since 1945 Worthing has always returned Conservative MPs.^[42][43] Until 1945 Worthing formed part of the Horsham and Worthing parliamentary constituency.

Geography

Cissbury Ring, the highest point in the borough of Worthing.

At 50°48′52″N 0°22′24″W / 50.81444°N 0.37333°W / 50.81444; -0.37333Coordinates: 50°48′52″N 0°22′24″W / 50.81444°N 0.37333°W / 50.81444; -0.37333 (50.8146, -0.3735), Worthing is situated on the West Sussex coast in South East England, 49 miles (79 km) south of London and 10 miles (16 km) west of Brighton and Hove. It forms part of the Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton conurbation along with neighbouring towns and villages in the county such as Littlehampton, Findon, Sompting Lancing, Shoreham-by-Sea and Southwick.^[44] The area is the United Kingdom's twelfth largest conurbation, with a population of over 460,000.^[45] The borough of Worthing is bordered by the West Sussex local authority districts of Arun in the north and west, and Adur in the east.^[46] The town is dominated by the Downs, with the highest point being at Cissbury Ring at 184 metres, which is a Site of Special Scientific Interest in the north of the borough.^[47] A further high point is at West Hill (139m) north-west of High Salvington^[48]

Lying on the south coast of England, Worthing is situated on a mix of two beds of sedimentary rock. The large part of the town, including the town centre is built upon chalk (part of the Southern England Chalk Formation), with a bed of London clay found in a band heading west from Lancing through Broadwater and Durrington.^[49] There are no major rivers within the borough, however the culverted Teville Stream begins as a spring in what is now allotments in Tarring, runs along Tarring Road and Teville Road north of the town centre, passing to the east through Homefield Park and Davison High School before meeting the sea at Brooklands where the Broadwater Brook meets the sea. To the west and also in parts culverted, Ferring Rife rises in Durrington near Littlehampton Road, passing through Maybridge, then west of Ferring into the sea.^[50]

Being located in the South Coast Plain at the foot of the South Downs, some of the undeveloped land in the north of the borough is proposed to form part of the South Downs National Park.^[51] The west of the borough contains some ancient woodland at Titnore Woods.^[52] The development along the coastal strip is interrupted by strategic gaps at the borough boundaries in the east and west, each gap falling largely outside the borough boundaries.^[53] The south-west of the borough contains part of the Goring Gap, a protected area of fields and woodland between Goring and Ferring.^[54] To the east of Worthing lies the Sompting Gap, a protected area that lies between Worthing and Sompting. This area was formerly an inlet of the sea and it is here that the Broadwater Brook (also known as Sompting Brook) flows into Brooklands Park and on into the sea. Some of the reedbeds in the Sompting Gap at Lower Cokeham have been designated a Site of Nature Conservation Importance.^[55] The borough of Worthing contains no nature reserves, the nearest being Widewater Lagoon in Lancing).^[56]

Some Stone Age flint tools has been found in the borough, but flint mines discovered at Cissbury Ring offer the most significant evidence of Stone Age development.^[57]

Marine environment

Lying some three miles off the coast of Worthing, the Worthing Lumps are a series of underwater chalk cliff faces, up to three metres high. The lumps are the best example of the unusual habitat, and are home to rare fish such as blennies and the lesser spotted dogfish.^[58][59] The site has been declared a Site of Nature Conservation Importance (SNCI) (a site of county importance) by West Sussex County Council.^[60]

Climate

Worthing has a temperate climate: its Koppen climate classification is Cfb. Its mean annual temperature of 9.6 °C is similar to that experienced along the Sussex coast, and slightly warmer than nearby areas such as the Sussex weald.^[61]

Districts

The borough of Worthing comprises many smaller districts or neighbourhoods, some of which share their names - although not necessarily boundaries - with local electoral wards:

• Broadwater
• Durrington
• Findon Valley
• Goring
• Heene
• High Salvington
• Offington
• Salvington
• (West) Tarring
• Marine
• Castle

Demography

People from Worthing are known as Worthingites.

Worthing underwent dramatic population growth both in the early 1800s as the hamlet had newly become a town, and again in the 1880s. The town experienced further growth in the 1930s, and again when new estates were built, using Prisoner of War labourers, to the west of the town from 1948.

Folklore

Midsummer Tree

As recently as the 19th century, it was believed that on Midsummer's Eve skeletons would rise up from the Midsummer Tree and dance around the tree until dawn when they would sink back into the ground.^[62] The oak tree is said to be around 300 years old and is situated close to Broadwater Green in Broadwater. The legend of the Midsummer Tree was first recorded by folklorist Charlotte Latham in 1868.

Knuckerhole

It was once believed that monsters known as knuckers lived in bottomless ponds, known as knuckerholes. There were several knuckerholes in Sussex, including one in Worthing just by the Ham Bridge (modern Ham Road) close to the railway and the Teville Stream.

Economy and regeneration

Worthing's economy is dominated by the service industry, particularly financial services. The town is home to several major employers including GlaxoSmithKline, HM Revenue & Customs, MGM Advantage and Southern Water. Another large employer, Norwich Union, have announced that there will be large redundancies at their Worthing office between 2008–2010, with the loss of around 600 jobs. It is unknown to what extent redundancies announced by GlaxoSmithKline in February 2008^[63] will affect its presence in Worthing

Dome Cinema on the seafront

In 2006, Worthing Borough Council agreed a masterplan for the town's regeneration. Much of the regeneration is focused on improving the town centre and seafront. The historic Dome Cinema was reopened in 2007 after major investment from the Heritage Lottery Fund. A new £150 million development is proposed for Teville Gate,^[64] close to the town's main railway station, which is expected to include 18-storey and 11-storey residential towers, with shopping and leisure facilities. The Grafton Centre^[65] and Lido on the seafront are also earmarked for major redevelopment and improvement. The town's major undercover shopping centre, the Guildbourne Centre, may also be rebuilt entirely and extended to Union Place, covering the site of the town's former police station. A public art strategy is being prepared for the seafront, which may be extended to cover the whole town centre, while a £70,000 piece of artwork named Suncloud has been commissioned for Splash Point on the seafront, to be installed early in 2009. A new public space and gardens should be completed around the Suncloud towards 2010.^[66] £650,000 is being spent on improvements to the public realm for Chapel Road / South Street (the town centre's major north-south route) and the seafront which will take place later in 2008.^[67] It is proposed that the seafront would also undergo major improvement. In Spring 2008, improvements started to the Splash Point Café on the beach. A new high quality café-restaurant is planned on the site of an existing seafront shelter. Marks and Spencer is due to carry out a £12 million refurbishment of its Worthing store in 2008, which will see a new store café open overlooking the seafront. Also in 2008, work started on rebuilding the Victorian Eardley Hotel on the town's seafront.^[68] There are plans to develop a new transport model linking the town centre with the Sussex coast's major trunk road, the A27.

In the longer term, a new marina has been proposed, possibly just to the east of the town centre. It is also intended to review the town's cultural and civic hub, possibly introducing new facilities, buildings and public squares around the Town Hall.^[69] The town's Museum and Art Gallery is expected to undergo a £6 million pound redevelopment in the next few years.^[70] It is expected that a new £24 million municipal swimming pool will be built in the town centre in the next few years, possibly next to the existing pool, the Aquarena, which would be redeveloped.^[71] Swiss electronics firm, Lemo are building a new £5 million UK headquarters, nicknamed "The Peanut", in North Street, due to open in 2010.^[72] It has also been proposed that Montague Place is pedestrianised and improved to better link the town centre with the seafront.

In early 2008, the town's further education college, Northbrook College announced proposals to invest £70 million to consolidate its operations onto one major campus in Broadwater.^[73] Worthing College, the town's Sixth Form college, has also had plans approved for a £35 million redevelopment of its campus close to Durrington railway station.

Although the town is perceived as prosperous, and for three consecutive years was voted the most profitable town in Britain,^[74] the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 2004 found that Worthing residents' average pre-tax pay is only £413 a week, compared to £442 for West Sussex and £474 for South East England.^[75]

Landmarks, buildings and places of interest

Worthing Pier

• Worthing Pier, opened April 1862.
• The Dome was built in 1911 as the Kursaal. Responding to anti-German sentiment during World War One, the building was renamed The Dome in 1915. In 1921 the downstairs Coronation Hall was converted into the Dome Cinema, which is preserved today.^[76] The Dome is one of Britain's oldest working cinemas.^[77]
• Castle Goring, built in the 1790s, is Worthing's most important building in terms of its architecture and is one of the town's two Grade I listed buildings.
• The Archbishop's Palace in Tarring dates from the 13th century and is Worthing's oldest secular building. It is one of the town's two Grade I listed buildings.
• High Salvington windmill and the Glynde Wind Pump.
• Cissbury Ring, an ancient hill fort located on the South Downs.
• St Paul's Church, formerly the Chapel of Ease, opened in 1812, designed by John Rebecca.
• Beach House, built in 1820 by John Rebecca.
• Park Crescent, built in 1829 by Amon Henry Wilds.
• Worthing Museum and Art Gallery built in 1908 as the town's museum and library by Alfred Cortis, the first mayor of Worthing, and the international philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. West Sussex County Council built a new library in 1974 and the museum has had a chequered history ever since, fighting off closure in 2003 with the support of local residents.

Theatre

Worthing has three council-owned theatres: the art deco Connaught Theatre, the baroque Pavilion Theatre, by Worthing Pier, and the modernist Grade II-listed Assembly Hall, which is mostly used for musical performances. The Assembly Hall is home to the Worthing Symphony Orchestra and the Worthing Philharmonic Orchestra.

Open spaces

Lake at Brooklands Park

The town contains a considerable number of parks and gardens, many laid out in the Victorian and Edwardian eras.

• Beach House Park - named after nearby Beach House the park is home to one of the world's most well-known venues for the sport of bowls. The park is also home to a possibly unique memorial to homing pigeons that served in the Second World War.
• Beach House Green - Field of hope
• Broadwater Green - Broadwater's 'village green'.
• Brooklands Park
• Denton Gardens
• Goring Green
• Highdown Gardens - a beautiful garden at the foot of the South Downs, deemed to be of national importance.
• Homefield Park - formerly known as the 'People's Park' it was once home to Worthing F.C.
• Liverpool Gardens - overlooking the graceful Georgian Liverpool Terrace, the gardens and terrace are named after Lord Liverpool. Overlooking the park from the east are four bronze heads known as Desert Quartet, sculptured by Dame Elisabeth Frink.
• Marine Gardens
• Palatine Park
• Promenade Waterwise Garden
• Steyne Gardens - which includes a sunken garden re-landscaped in 2007 with a fountain of the Ancient Greek sea god, Triton, by sculptor William Bloye.
• Victoria Park - was donated by the Heene Estate to the poor of Worthing in commemoration of the death of Queen Victoria. ( Taken from title deeds to property owned in St. Matthews Road.) The land was previously used for market gardening and once sported a paddling pool which was closed due to foot infections in the children. Victoria Park is very popular for club and casual footballers.
• West Park - has a running track and basketball court and lies next to Worthing Leisure Centre.

Annual events

In January, the ancient custom of wassailing takes place in Tarring to bless the apple trees. A flaming torchlit procession takes place down Tarring High Street culminating in hundreds of people gathering around an apple tree to shout, chant and sing to drive away evil spirits.^[78] The apple trees are toasted with wassail, apple cider and apple cake, followed by fireworks.^[79]

At the end of January 2009, Worthing will hold its first Ice Prince Arts Festival, which will commemorate the sinking of the Ice Prince in 2008 which brought many tonnes of timber to the town's beaches.^[80] As part of this festival, the annual fruit-flinging contest which is usually held on the beach each March is being brought forward from March to Sunday 25 January 2009. The contest is to mark the sinking of the 1000-ton SS Indiana off the coast of Worthing in 1901. The ship was sailing to London from Venice via Valencia and crashed into another ship off Worthing. The ship's cargo of oranges and lemons was washed up on the beach to the delight of the town's inhabitants.

Every February, to coincide with Valentine's Day, the Revolutionary Arts Group stage the We Love You festival, a small event which includes artistic interventions around the town.

On May Day, a procession and dancing takes place in Worthing town centre, culminating in the crowning of the May Queen.^[81] Also in May, the Three Forts Marathon starts and finishes at the Norwich Union building on the outskirts of Worthing before taking in the ancient hill forts of Cissbury Ring, Devil's Dyke and Chanctonbury Ring over the rough and steep terrain of the South Downs.^[82]

The Artists and Makers Festival, organised by the Revolutionary Arts Group, takes place in the first two-three weeks every July, and includes artists' open houses, studios and gardens; a textile arts trail; and music and theatre, including Rainbow Shakespeare which takes place in Highdown Gardens.

The Worthing Festival is held in the last two weeks each July with open-air concerts in the town centre and a fairground along the town's promenade.

Pier Day takes place on Worthing Pier and the nearby promenade every September.

Worthing is now the home to the International Birdman Rally (formerly hosted in Bognor Regis). The 2009 International Birdman took place on the 22 and 23 August.^[83]

Cannabis culture

Worthing was one of the first towns in the UK to have cannabis "cafés". Chris Baldwin (a Legalise Cannabis Alliance activist) first opened one in a back room of his shop, "Bongchuffa", on Rowlands Road. It was named "The Quantum Leaf" and there was so much demand that he opened another called "Buddies", and simultaneously set up "The Herb Connection". Both cafés were subject to continuous police raids. The first was shut when the landlord withdrew the lease for the property shortly followed by the second which closed due to police intercepting users on their way out of the property.

Another such establishment, operating in a less obvious, but still public manner was also opened and operated freely in Worthing for over two years, by a group not associated with the LCA and was continuously raided. The site of this cafe was reduced to rubble within months of the last raid.

Education

Schools in the borough are provided by West Sussex County Council. There are some 23 primary schools, 6 secondary schools, and two colleges of Further education. Broadly speaking, the town has a system of First-Middle-High progression, and so the 23 primary schools are made up of a combination of first, middle and combined schools.

Transport

A Southern train arrives at Worthing railway station.

A turnpike was opened in 1803 to connect Worthing with London,^[84][85] and similar toll roads were built later in the 19th century to connect nearby villages.^[85][86] Stagecoach traffic grew rapidly until 1845, when the opening of a railway line from Brighton brought about an immediate decline.^[87] The former turnpike is now the A24, a primary route which runs northwards to London via Horsham. Two east–west routes run through the borough: the A27 trunk road runs to Brighton, Chichester and Portsmouth, and the A259 follows a coastal route between Hampshire and Kent.^[88]

Most local and long-distance buses are operated by Stagecoach in the South Downs, a division of Stagecoach Group plc which has its origins in Southdown Motor Services—founded in 1915 with one route to Pulborough.^[89] Stagecoach in the South Downs operates several routes around the town and to Midhurst, Brighton and Portsmouth.^[90] Other companies serve Crawley,^[91] Worthing-based Compass Bus have routes to Angmering, Chichester,^[92] Brighton^[93] and intermediate destinations. The most frequent service, between Lancing and Durrington, was branded PULSE in 2006.^[94] National Express coaches run between London's Victoria Coach Station and Marine Parade.^[95]

The borough has five railway stations: East Worthing, Worthing, West Worthing, Durrington-on-Sea and Goring-by-Sea. All are on the West Coastway Line and are managed and operated by the Southern train operating company.^[96] Worthing opened on 24 November 1845 as a temporary terminus of the line from Brighton; it was extended to Chichester the following year, and was electrified in the 1930s.^[97] Regular services run to destinations such as London, Gatwick Airport, Brighton, Littlehampton and Portsmouth.^[98]

Shoreham Airport is about 5 miles (8 km) east of Worthing. The nearest international airport is London Gatwick, about 28 miles (45 km) to the northeast.^[88]

Notable people

The town has a long history of notable inhabitants, including pioneer Edward Henty, born in West Tarring in 1810,^[99] horticulturalist James Bateman,^[100] mathematician and inventor Thomas Shaw Brandreth^[101] and artist Copley Fielding.^[102] In the 20th century, many writers settled in the town, from poet Beatrice Hastings^[103] to playwright Harold Pinter.^[104]

Religion

St Paul's Church was Worthing's first Anglican church.

St Andrew's is the parish church of West Tarring.

The Masjid Assalam mosque serves the town's Sunni Muslim population.

According to the 2001 United Kingdom Census, 97,568 people lived in the borough of Worthing. Of these, 72.14% identified themselves as Christian, 0.75% were Muslim, 0.34% were Buddhist, 0.26% were Jewish, 0.22% were Hindu, 0.11% were Sikh, 0.46% followed another religion, 16.99% claimed no religious affiliation and 8.73% did not state their religion. The proportion of Christians was slightly higher than the 71.74% in England as a whole; Buddhism and other religions were also practised more widely in Worthing than nationally. Islam, Hinduism, Judaism and Sikhism had significantly fewer followers than average: in 2001, 3.1% of people in England were Muslim, 1.1% were Hindu, 0.7% were Sikh and 0.5% were Jewish. The proportion of people with no religious affiliation was much higher than the national figure of 14.59%.^[105]

The borough of Worthing has about 50 active Christian places of worship. There is also a mosque, which follows the Sunni Islam tradition.^[106] There are also 16 former church buildings which are either disused or in secular use.

Worthing's first Anglican church, St Paul's, was built in 1812; previously, worshippers had to travel to the ancient parish church of Broadwater. John Rebecca's Classical-style building became structurally unsound and closed in 1995.^[107] The austere design was well regarded at first, but architectural writers have since criticised it.^[108][109] Its importance derives from its status as "the spiritual and social centre around which the town developed".^[110] Residential growth in the 19th century growth led to several other Anglican churches opening in the town centre: Christ Church was started in 1840^[108] and survived a closure threat in 2006;^[111] Arthur Blomfield's St Andrew's Church brought the controversial "High Church" form of worship to the town in the 1880s—its "Worthing Madonna" icon was particularly notorious;^[112][113] and Holy Trinity church opened at the same time but with less dispute.^[113][114] Other Anglican churches were built in the 20th century to serve new residential areas such as High Salvington and Maybridge; and the ancient villages which were absorbed into Worthing Borough between 1890 and 1929^[115] each had their own church: Broadwater's had Saxon origins,^[116] St Mary's at Goring-by-Sea was Norman (although it was rebuilt in 1837),^[117] St Andrew's at West Tarring was 13th-century,^[118] and St Botolph's at Heene and St Symphorian's at Durrington were rebuilt from medieval ruins.^[119][120] All of the borough's churches are in the Rural Deanery of Worthing and the Diocese of Chichester.^[121]

The first Roman Catholic church in Worthing opened in 1864; the centrally located St Mary of the Angels Church has since been joined by others at East Worthing, Goring-by-Sea and High Salvington. All are in Worthing Deanery in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Arundel and Brighton.^[122] Protestant Nonconformism has a long history in Worthing: the town's first place of worship was an Independent chapel.^[123] Methodists, Baptists, the United Reformed Church and Evangelical Christian groups each have several churches in the borough, and other denominations represented include Christadelphians, Christian Scientists, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons and Plymouth Brethren.^[124] The Salvation Army have been established for more than a century, but their arrival in Worthing prompted large-scale riots involving a group called the Skeleton Army. These continued intermittently for several years in the 1880s.^[125][126]

Worthing's Churches Together organisation, currently chaired by Nigel O'Dwyer,^[127] encourages ecumenical work and links between the town's churches. Church leaders meet regularly to pray for the town and to organise events together through PrayerNet. A townwide youth service, CrossRoads, brings together young people from all denominations. New Song Cafe performs a similar function for the town's church musicians. Other Christian organisations include Worthing Churches Homeless Projects and Street Pastors. In October 2009, a Mission Festival Weekend was held to celebrate the range of mission agencies based in Worthing; the centrepiece was a parade from Worthing Pier to St Paul's Church.^[128]

Sport

Football

Nicknamed the Rebels, Worthing F.C. is the town's main football club. They play in the Isthmian League Division One South, having been relegated from the Premier Division at the end of the 2006/07 season.

Worthing United F.C. play in the First Division of the Sussex County League.

Eric "The Rabbit" Parsons played for West Ham United, Chelsea and Brentford in the 1940s and 1950s. He was born in Worthing and continues to live in the town.

Mark "The Flower" Jewell played for Manchester United in the 1920s as well as the early 1930s. He was born in Broadwater and remains there to this day. On September-5th 1990 he was unofficially joined with his life partner, David Taylor.

Chelsea and England goalkeeper Peter Bonetti grew up in the town, having moved to Worthing from London with his parents in 1948 and having played for Worthing Catholics in the 1950s.

Scott Harris, who used to play for Portsmouth F.C. was born in Worthing in 1985.

Basketball

Worthing Thunder, formed after local team Worthing Bears moved to Brighton, play basketball in the British Basketball League, the United Kingdom's top basketball league. Until 2008 the club competed in the English Basketball League for several years, which they won in 2005/06 and 2006/07. As the Worthing Bears, Worthing won the British Basketball League in 1992/93.

Bowling

Women's ten-pin bowling champion Lisa John lives in the town.

Bowls

Worthing is the home of the English Bowling Association (EBA). Beach House Park in Worthing is also one of the world's most famous bowls venues. Five international standard bowling greens play host to the annual EBA National Championships. These are held every summer (mid/late August) and are the highlight of the EBA calendar. Competitors come from all over England to compete in the various events which culminate in the inter-county Middleton Cup that takes place on the final day each year.

Various other representative and international bowls fixtures take place at Beach House Park from time to time including British Isles Championships, Junior Internationals. The men's World Bowls Championships were held in Worthing in 1972 and 1992 and the women's World Bowls Championships in 1977.

David Bryant, former multiple world bowls champion, lives in the town.

Cricket

Former Test cricketer Donald Smith was born in Broadwater in 1923.

Sussex cricketer Jason Lewry was born in the town in 1971 and was a member of Sussex's County Championship-winning sides of 2006 and 2007.

Former Sussex cricketer and England Under 19 captain Neil Lenham was born in Worthing in 1965.

Worthing's oldest cricket club is Broadwater Cricket Club, which was founded in 1771. In 1837 the club hosted a match on Broadwater Green between a Sussex XI and an England XI. As the town of Worthing grew separately from Broadwater in the 1800s, Worthing Cricket Club was formed in 1855.

Chippingdale Cricket Club is Worthing's oldest cricket club (if we disregard those with a geographical base). The club was founded in 1897 by Frank Sandell for the employees of his building firm. The club was the first in Worthing to achieve Clubmark status in April 2007.

Golf

• Professional golfer Gary Evans is from Worthing and now lives in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
• Golf instructor David Leadbetter is originally from Worthing and now lives in Florida.

Ice hockey

Byron Dafoe, goaltender for the Washington Capitals was born in the town in 1971.

Kitesurfing

Worthing is home to Lewis Crathern, British Kitesurfing Champion and Neil Hilder, another top UK kitesurfer.^[129] Kitesurfing takes place along the coast at Worthing and in particular at Goring Gap between the Goring area of the town and Ferring.

Rowing

Worthing Rowing Club was formed in 1880^[130] and has held an annual rowing regatta since the 19th century.

Rugby Union

Worthing RFC were formed at York House in the town in September, 1920 and play in the nearby village of Angmering. They are currently in National Division Three South and have been Sussex county champions every year from 2001-present.

Swimming

Worthing Swimming Club was formed in 1890 in the YMCA Rooms in Warwick Street.

Tennis

Former Great Britain Davis Cup player Martin Lee is from Worthing and attended Worthing High School.

Wrestling

Worthing is home to a self funded wrestling organisation called the JWF which began in 2001. a large number of local church halls and youth centres have been home to the JWF including, the Sydney Walter centre, The Glynn Owen Centre (connedcted to Worthing High School) and currently St Richards Church hall in Durrington.

Worthing has also been a main stay for Wrestling promotoer John Freemantle and his Premier Promotions wrestling bouts, these have been a staple of entertainment in both the Worthing Pavilion and the Assembly halls for years.

Public services

Centenary House is the headquarters of the West Downs division of Sussex Police.

Worthing fire station was built in 1962.

The Lyndhurst Road site of Worthing Hospital dates back to 1881.

Giles Gilbert Scott designed the gatehouse and chapel of the cemetery at the bottom of Findon Valley.

Home Office policing in Worthing is provided by the Worthing district of the West Downs division of Sussex Police.^[131] The district is divided into three neighbourhood policing teams—Town, East and West—for operational purposes. The police station is in Chatsworth Road.^[132] When the town was incorporated, a combination of beadles, coastguard officers and headboroughs kept order. By the 1840s, a five-strong police force led by a Superintendent was in place; this became part of the newly formed West Sussex Police Force in 1857. The first police station, in Ann Street, opened the following year; it has moved three times since.^[133][134] There is also a 19-cell custody suite at Centenary House in Durrington, which is the headquarters of the West Downs division.^[135][136] As of the third quarter of 2009, Worthing's three-month moving average crime rate was 7.3 crimes per 1000 people; this was similar to the rest of Sussex but higher than the equivalent quarter in 2008.^[137]

Worthing's first fire engine was bought for the town by a resident in 1815. A 29-man volunteer fire brigade was formed in 1855; by 1869 it operated three fire stations. The borough organised its own fire brigade in 1891. A new fire station was built on High Street in 1908; it closed in 1961, and the present building on Ardsheal Road in Broadwater was provided in 1962.^[134][138] Services are now provided by the Worthing and Adur District Team, part of the West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service,^[139] which employs 60 full-time and 18 retained firefighters at the Worthing station.^[140]

The town's first hospital was built in 1829 on Ann Street. A larger building opened in 1846 on Chapel Road, and was given the name "Worthing Infirmary and Dispensary" after an enlargement in 1860. In 1881, the first part of what would become Worthing Hospital was opened: an 18-bed facility was built on a former plant nursery on Lyndhurst Road, northeast of the town centre.^[141] Its range of facilities was extended in 1889, 1900, 1912 and 1923, and there were 78 beds by 1937. In 1975, a 375-bed block was added, and the oldest buildings were replaced in 1997 by a new ward of 120 beds.^[134][141] The latter extension was undertaken by the Worthing and Southlands Hospitals NHS Trust,^[141] but since 1 April 2009 Worthing Hospital has been administered by the Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust.^[142] Meadowfield Hospital,^[143] formerly Swandean Hospital, is a mental health unit based in an 1865 house in High Salvington. It was opened as an isolation hospital in 1897 and later became a geriatric unit.^[134][141] There is another mental health unit at Greenacres, near Worthing Hospital.^[141][144] Goring Hall Hospital is a private hospital operated by BMI Healthcare, with 12 day-care beds and a 38-bed ward.^[145] Princess Margaret opened the facility in 1994.^[146] The former Courtlands Hospital, opened in 1951^[147] as postoperative care unit operated by Worthing Hospital, was housed in a Grade II listed building in West Worthing^[148] until its closure in 1973.^[134][149] It was still used for healthcare functions by West Sussex County Council until 1996.^[141]

Until 1798, post bound for Worthing was conveyed by coach to Steyning and left there for collection. From then, deliveries operated via Shoreham-by-Sea, but in 1807 Worthing's first post office opened and it became a post town.^[150] The main post office—a Head Post Office between 1919 and 1985—^[151]has occupied eight different sites,^[152] but it moved to Chapel Road in 1878 and was rebuilt in Neo-Georgian style in 1930.^[134][153] Public telegraph services began in 1880, although the railway had a system in place from 1859. Worthing's telephone system began in 1890; a manual telephone exchange, once the largest in England, was established in 1912 and was supplemented by a second in Goring-by-Sea in 1929. Automatic exchanges opened in 1966 and 1972.^[151]

The town was provided with a gasworks in 1834. Situated on Lyndhurst Road, it produced gas for the whole town, Sompting and Findon by the end of the 19th century. Gas manufacture ceased in 1931, but the site was then used for storage: a gasholder was built in 1934 and survives as of 2009.^[134][154] Scotia Gas Networks now supply the town through their Southern Gas Networks division.^[155] Electricity was first generated in Worthing in 1901, when the borough spent £32,500 (£2,530,000 as of 2009)^[156] on three steam-powered generators. Surrounding suburbs, beginning with Durrington, were connected in the 1920s, and Worthing was served by the National Grid from 1930.^[134][157] The main electricity works on the High Street closed in 1958,^[157] but power was generated locally until 1961.^[134] The town had more than 500 gas lamps at the end of the 19th century,^[154] but in 1901, 110 ornate cast iron arc-light street lamps were installed;^[157] only one survives. It was saved from demolition in 1975 and is Grade II-listed.^[158][159] Electricity is now supplied by EDF Energy's South East Network.^[160]

Worthing relied on springs and wells for water until the Local Board (predecessors of the present Borough Council)^[115] authorised a water supply system in 1852. A waterworks was built in 1857 on Little High Street. Robert Rawlinson's Lombardo-Gothic structure cost £30,000 (£1,992,000 as of 2009),^[156] with a 110-foot (34 m) tower and a 110,000-imperial-gallon (500,000 l) storage tank, opened in 1857.^[161][162] It went out of use by 1897^[161] and was demolished in 1924.^[163] A larger waterworks opened in 1897, and three more supplied the borough by 1927. Southern Water took over the supply in 1974. The company moved its headquarters to Durrington in 1989.^[161] Worthing's drinking water is pumped from the chalk aquifer of the South Downs and from the western River Rother, and is classed as being hard: its calcium content is just over 100 mg per litre.^{[164][note 1]}

Worthing's typhoid epidemic of 1893, which killed 188 people, was caused by pollution of the water supply after the digging of an extra well to alleviate pressure on the waterworks interfered with an old sewer.^[165] This prompted improvements in the town's primitive sewage disposal system, which consisted of a main sewer with an outfall in the English Channel, some subsidiary drains and hundreds of cesspools. In 1894, a new pumping station and outfall were built; this was improved in 1912 and 1932. Durrington and Goring were served by a separate system from 1936. The main sewage works at West Worthing and East Worthing were rebuilt in the 1960s and 1976 respectively. Southern Water has been responsible for all sewage and drainage functions since 1974.^[134]

Worthing's main cemeteries are on South Farm Road in Broadwater (opened in 1862) and the bottom of Findon Valley (opened in 1927 on a 42-acre (17 ha) site). The latter's gatehouse and chapel were designed by Giles Gilbert Scott.^[134][166] Several churches have their own small graveyards, and one existed next to Worthing railway station until about 1908, when its graves were moved to Broadwater.^[167][168] Worthing Crematorium, north of Findon in the neighbouring district of Arun,^[169] was opened in 1967–68 on the site of Muntham Court, a mid-18th century Jacobean-style country house which was demolished in 1961.^[167][170]

Media

In the early 19th century, Worthing was served by newspapers with a wider geographical circulation, such as the Brighton Gazette, Brighton Herald, Sussex Daily News, Sussex Weekly Advertiser and West Sussex Gazette.^[171] Weekly or monthly publications such as the Worthing Visitors' List and Advertising Sheet (notorious for its condemnation of people who had displeased its owner, Owen Breads),^[172] the Worthing Monthly Record & District Chronicle and the Worthing Intelligencer^[173] provided some local coverage from the middle of the century onwards; but the town's first regular local newspaper was the Worthing Gazette, introduced in 1883.^[173] It favoured the Conservative Party at first, and supported the Skeleton Army's anti-Salvation Army riots later that decade.^[174] In 1921 its scope was extended to include Littlehampton, and it was renamed accordingly.^[173] The Worthing Herald was founded in 1920; it acquired the Gazette in 1963, but continued to publish the newspapers separately until 1981. Since then, a single newspaper has been published weekly under the Herald name, but it is officially known as the Worthing Herald incorporating the Worthing Gazette.^[173] It is now owned by Johnston Press, and has been based at Cannon House in Chatsworth Road since 1991.^[173][175] The Brighton-based daily The Argus, owned by Newsquest, also serves Worthing. An anarchic local newsletter called The Porkbolter, focusing on environmental issues, has been published monthly since 1997.^[176]

Worthing is served by the BBC South television studios based in Southampton,^[177][178] and by the ITV franchise Meridian Broadcasting, also with studios in Southampton.^[179] Television signals come from the Midhurst or Whitehawk Hill transmitters.^[180][181]

Splash FM is Worthing's local commercial radio station. Launched in 2003 and owned by Media Sound Holdings Ltd, it broadcasts from the Guildbourne Centre on 107.7FM.^[182] Heart Sussex, a Global Radio-owned commercial station, also covers Worthing.^[183] BBC Local Radio coverage is provided by BBC Sussex (formerly BBC Southern Counties Radio).^[184]

Twin towns

• Le Pays des Olonnes (the area around Les Sables-d'Olonne), France
• The Elztal region, Germany

References

Notes

Sources

Bibliography

External links

• Worthing Borough Council

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