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Worthing,
Sussex
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Worthing
is one of the largest towns and the biggest seaside resort
in West Sussex, but it was once no more than a little fishing
village.
The town
lies on the coastal plain bounded to the north by the spectacular
South Downs and to the south by the English Channel. It is
west of Brighton and has over 5 miles of coastline.
Worthing
has been settled since the Stone Age Tools such as axes- which
date from 3000 years BC - have been found in the town centre.
The area was once the centre of the most important flint mining
industry in the country, and there have been local discoveries
of Bronze Age implements; metal and coins and pottery from
the Iron
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Age. Roman coins,
tiles and pottery have been discovered in several parts of the town
and the museum in Chapel Road was built on the site of a Roman settlement.
The Saxons
settled nearby Goring and Sompting
Worthing's first
mention in history is in the Domesday Book 1086 with a community
of just 22 and a manor belonging to Willian Braose which had two
estates, Ordinges and Mordinges. By the 13th Century the township
has been throught several iteration of names - including Wurddingg
and Werthingit - and was now known as the hamlet of Wortinge. At
that time, the village supported farmers and a number of small mackerel
fishing communities. For centuries, this little hamlet remained
largely unchanged.
Around the mid
1700's visitors from nearby Brighton began to explore along the
Sussex coast and found Worthing which at that time had sandy beaches.
In the late 1700s, early 1800s Worthing began to attract visitors.
The township boasted a warm climate and calms seas and acquired
its reputation as a genteel resort after King George III sent his
youngest daughter, Amelia there for recuperation on the advise of
his physicians. This patronage put it on the map during the height
of the Edward fashion of sea cures and over the next century the
town developed into a large Regency and Edwardian town, popular
for it's beaches and pier. A number of fine residences, hotels and
boarding houses sprung up, and by 1803 Worthing's population had
boomed to around 2,500 and the hamlet was given town status. Over
the course of the century, Worthing's place as a fashionable seaside
resort was secured. The new town received a number of royal visits
- the Prince Regent coming to see his youthful daughter, Princess
Charlotte, who first stayed at Warwick House in 1807.
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Like other
resorts Worthing developed quickly and soon outgrew its 'parent'
village of Broadwater. It could soon boast a range of hotels
and cheaper accommodation, Assembly Rooms, a theatre, baths,
chapels, a bandstand, libraries and shops for the entertainment
of the visitors, but unlike places like Brighton and Eastbourne,
the atmosphere was much more relaxed and gentle.
The coming
of the railway in 1845 made it much easier for people to follow
the trends set
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by Royal Family
and Worthing turned into a boomtown. Holidaying families from all
over the country were attracted to the warm climate, beaches,
bathing in the sea and South Downs. The small terraces of fishermen's
cottages with their 'boat porches' were supplemented with vast numbers
of Victorian structures.
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A private
company built a pier in Worthing in 1862, only the thirteenth
in the whole country, and promenading became highly fashionable.
In 1890
- with a population of 14,500 - it received its Royal Charter
and became the Borough of Worthing. The same year it extended
its boundaries and was joined with the ancient parishes of
Tarring and Broadwater. Around the same time, some of the
more sigificant buildings such as the libary and the Town
Hall were erected.
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Many
of the visitors liked it here so much that they decided to
settle and companies built everything from bungalows to villas
between Lancing and Ferring
in an attempt to keep up with demand. In 1929 Durrington and
Goring by Sea were incorporated.In
1933 parts of the parish of Findon and also Sompting were
added.The
post-war prosperity fuelled the growth and soon the nearby
hamlets of Durrington, Broadwater, Salvington and West Tarring
were encroached.
Worthing
continues to be a popular seaside resort, for holiday makes
all over England. On the back of its tourism industry, it
has grown to be the second largest town in West
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Sussex with a population
of over 100,000 permanant residents. It now has a busy pedestrianized
shopping precinct, and it famous peer built in 1862 continues .
Industry
Prior to it becoming a 'resort town', Worthing had two key industries
- fishing and market gardening. Fishing was one of the most important
industries in Worthing for many years and there was a fish market
just to the east of the pier until the middle of the twentieth century.
One of the main catches was mackerel which were sometimes caught
in vast quantities. Fishing is still important in Worthing and fresh
fish can be bought from many stands along the seafront. For many
years vast areas of Worthing and the surrounding areas were covered
with greenhouses. By 1850 the town had developed a fine reputation
for grapes, figs and cucumbers, but was particularly famous for
its tomatoes. Production was on such a large scale that a special
depot for glasshouse produce was built beside West Worthing Station.
Despite the
tourists, for over a century it remained the towns main industry
and on the back of WW2 production needs - which saw many glasshouse
workers were given exemption from military service - by 1946 the
region had over 130 acres of greenhouses. The post war population
boom saw a lot of land sold off for residential development and
only three years later in 1949, the market gardening industry declined
to only 42 acres.
A literary
tradition
Worthing is renowned for its literary associations. Born in 1792
in Warnham near Horsham, the poet P B Shelley had a number of connections
with the town. His family were landowners here and in nearby Goring
and some of their land was used in the 19th Century as the site
for the town hall. But more famously, Shelley's first two works
were printed in a Warwick Street building in 1810 and 1811. When
the second piece, The Necessity Of Atheism, came off the press it
led to his expulsion from Oxford University and a rift with his
father which was never healed. The novelist and playwright Oscar
Wilde is another famous literary connection - he wrote The Importance
Of Being Earnest in Worthing in 1884.
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