Shoreham-by-Sea
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  Map sources for Shoreham-by-Sea at grid reference TQ2203
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Shoreham-by-Sea, is a town and civil parish in the Adur District of West Sussex, England.
The town is bordered to its north by the South Downs, to its west by the Adur valley and to its south by the River Adur and Shoreham Beach on the English Channel. The town lies in the middle of the ribbon of urban development along the coast between the city of Brighton & Hove and the town of Worthing.
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[edit] History
Old Shoreham dates back to pre-Roman times. The name of the town has a Saxon origin. The town and port of New Shoreham was established by the Norman conquerors towards the end of the 11th Century.
St Mary de Haura Church was built in the decade following the Domesday Book of 1086, and around this time the town was laid out on a grid pattern that, in essence, survives in the town centre. The Church is only half the size of the original - the former nave has completely fallen down.
The rise of Brighton, Hove and Worthing - in particular the arrival of the railway in 1840 - prepared the way for Shoreham-by-Sea's rise as a Victorian sea port, with several shipyards and an active coasting trade. Shoreham Harbour remains in commercial operation.
Shoreham Beach, to the south of the town, is a shingle bank thrown up over the centuries by the sea. Once the harbour mouth was stabilised it was defended by Shoreham Fort. Converted railway carriages became summer homes around the turn of the century, and Bungalow Town, as it was then known, became home for a short time to the early UK film industry. Shoreham Beach was cleared for defence reasons during the Second World War and is now completely redeveloped for modern houses. Nonetheless the Church of the Good Shepherd, built in 1913, still stands.
Shoreham civil parish covers an area of 984.88ha and has a population 19175 persons (2001 census).
[edit] Transport
Shoreham Airport, is located in Lancing to the west of the main town, is jointly managed by Brighton & Hove Council and Worthing Borough Council. It is the oldest licensed airport in the UK, the Art Deco terminal building is listed as of historical interest and has also been used as a set for the filming of one of Agatha Christie's classic Poirot stories, a crimewatch type reconstruction in 2000 by Meridian television [1]Lord Edgware Dies, as well as the scenes from the film of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code.[2]
The town is also served by Shoreham-by-Sea railway station, located on the West Coastway Line.
[edit] People
- Havergal Brian, the English composer, moved from London to Shoreham-by-Sea in 1958 at the age of 82; he wrote twenty symphonies there over the next ten years.
- Leo Sayer, British singer and recording artist, was born Gerard Hugh Sayer on 21st May 1948 in Shoreham-by-Sea. His parents were Thomas Sayer and Teresa Nolan.
- Captain Henry Roberts (1725 - 1796) was a native of Shoreham, where he raised his six children. He sailed with Captain James Cook on the second and third of the great voyages and acted as cartographer. He witnessed the death of Captain Cook, killed by natives in Hawaii in 1779. Later, whilst in command of HMS Undaunted in the West Indies, he caught yellow fever and died in 1796.
- Nicholas van Hoogstraten, British property tycoon, was born Nicholas Marcel Hoogstraten in Shoreham-by-Sea in 1946 and was educated at a local Jesuit school.
- Mark Benson, former England cricketer and now a cricket umpire, was born in Shoreham-by-Sea on 6th July, 1958.
- Harry Ricardo founded Ricardo Consulting Engineers in Shoreham-by-Sea, where it still has its main offices.
- Fiona Mont Dubbed "Britain's most wanted woman" in 2000.It was claimed she was smuggled out of the country in a light aircraft from Shoreham Airport in 1999.video [3]
- Raymond O. Faulkner, philologist and compiler of the standard hieroglyphic dictionary used by many modern Egyptologists, was born in Shoreham on 26th December 1894.
- Graham Hesketh Aerobatic pilot smuggler and parachutist that ran the "Baron flying club" at Shoreham Airport 1997 to 1999, later to marry Fiona Mont in 2006.
