Worthing
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Borough of Worthing | |
|---|---|
 Shown within West Sussex |
|
| Geography | |
| Status: | Borough |
| Region: | South East England |
| Historic County: | Sussex |
| Administrative County: | West Sussex |
| Area: - Total |
Ranked 335th 32.48 km² |
| Admin. HQ: | Worthing |
| ONS code: | 45UH |
| Demographics | |
| Population: - Total (2005 est.) - Density |
Ranked 227th 98,100 3,020 / km² |
| Ethnicity: Aged 75 and over: |
97.2% White 13.5% |
| Politics | |
| Worthing Borough Council http://www.worthing.gov.uk/ |
|
| Leadership: | Leader & Cabinet |
| Executive: | Conservative |
| MPs: | Peter Bottomley, Tim Loughton |
| Other | |
| Highest point: | Cissbury Ring (184m) |
  Map sources for Worthing at grid reference TQ1303
|
Worthing is the largest town and a local government district in West Sussex, England.
Contents |
[edit] Town
It has a population of almost 100,000 and is situated between the coast and the South Downs. While it is often considered a retirement town (its crematorium was once the third busiest in Europe) it has had an active underground culture for many of years, early examples being the 19th century Bonfire Boys and Skeleton Army, although the area was well known for smugglers right back to the 18th century. [1][2] The town is often known as 'Sunny Worthing' following a popular advertising campaign in the 1890s promoting the town's agreeable climate between the sea and Downs.
Historically, the inhabitants of Worthing were nicknamed "pork bolters", dating from the town's days as a fishing village with its many superstitious fishermen and their notoriously extreme avoidance of pigs.[citation needed]
In more modern times it has been home to The Worthing Workshop, a late-1960s meeting place for musicians, actors and poets whose famous patrons include The Damned’s Brian James, Leo Sayer, Billy Idol, Martin Quittenton (who wrote Rod Stewart's Maggie May) and Track Records' supremo, Ian Grant. It has also been home to Jamie Hewlett (Tank Girl), and more recently the Revolutionary Arts Groop [sic] and, since 1997, an anarchic local newsletter called The Porkbolter.
It has two MPs: Tim Loughton (Conservative) for East Worthing and Shoreham, and Peter Bottomley (Conservative) for Worthing West.
[edit] Geography of Worthing
Lying on the south coast of England, Worthing lies on the fertile flat coastal plain between the South Downs and the English Channel. The town of Worthing is dominated by the Downs, in particular Highdown Hill (81m high), to the west, West Hill (128m), to the north-west, Cissbury Ring (184m) to the north and Steep Down (149m) to the north-east. At 184 metres, Cissbury Ring is the highest point in the borough.
The culverted Teville Stream 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 (Sompting 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. In previous centuries, the hamlet of Worthing extended out further into the sea, but rising sea levels have submerged this area.
The west of the borough contains some ancient woodland at Titnore Woods, which is some of the last remaining ancient woodland on the Sussex coastal plain. The woods border Clapham Woods on the Downs, said to be the site of various UFO sightings. The south-west of the borough contains the Goring Gap, a protected area of fields and woodland between Goring and Ferring. 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 (citation needed). The borough of Worthing contains no nature reserves, the nearest being Widewater, Lancing Ring (both in Lancing) and West Beach (in Littlehampton).
[edit] Etymology
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 the first element of the name is almost certainly not worth/worō, "enclosure" (which it causes confusion with for toponymists) and -ingas "people of (reduced to -ing in the modern name). The name was recorded as Wuroininege in 1183.
[edit] History of Worthing
- There is evidence of habitation in the area since the Stone Age, when Cissbury Ring appears to have been one of the most important flint mining centres in the country. Artefacts including Bronze Age tools and metal and coins and pottery from the Iron Age have been found.
- 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).
- Roman coins, tiles and pottery have been discovered in several parts of the town.
- Following the Norman conquest, William de Braose gave the manor of Worthing (then known as Ordinges) to Robert le Sauvage.
- In the 13th century, the manor of Worthing became part of the endowment of Easebourne Priory near Midhurst. It was owned by the monastery until the dissolution of the monasteries in 1539. It then became the property of Anthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montague, whose family held the manor of Worthing for over 200 years.
- 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.
- 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). However, this looks suspiciously like the kind of punning joke on placenames which is common in England, especially since the stench of the rotting weed could be very unpleasant. An alternative explanation, undoubtedly jocular, is that it is so called because everyone there is worthy and respectable. The explanation given by place-name scholars is that the name Worthing (Ordinges) is derived from Worth (an Old English given name) + ingas (people).
- In the late 18th Century that Worthing began to attract visitors. In 1789 George Greville, 4th Earl of Warwick, bought a villa in the hamlet and it began to become fashionable. 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. 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.
- 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.
- In 1845 the railway was extended from Shoreham to Worthing, linking the town by rail with London and the railway network.
- In 1890 the town received its Royal Charter and became the Borough of Worthing. Worthing absorbed the neighbouring parish of Heene.
- In 1893 an outbreak of typhoid fever caused 200 fatalities in the town.
- 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.
- In 1933 the borough of Worthing expanded again to include the west of Sompting and the south of Findon.
- 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 the town's top hotels at the time.
[edit] Landmarks, buildings & places of interest
- Worthing Pier, opened April 1862.
- The Dome, built in 1909 as the Kursaal and converted into the Dome Cinema which opened in 1922.
- 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.
- High Salvington windmill.
- 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 Amos 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 Andrew Carnegie. West Sussex County Council built a new library in 1974 and the museum has had a checkered history ever since, fighting off closure in 2003 with the support of local residents.
[edit] Cannabis culture
Worthing, home of Chris Baldwin (a Legalise Cannabis Alliance activist), was one of the few towns in the UK to experience cannabis cafés for the first time. A date would be nice here! edited 26th Nov. 2006. Chris first opened a café in a back room of his shop, "Bongchuffa". The café was named "The Quantum Leaf". The café was so successful that he opened his second, the other side of Worthing. He named his second creation "Buddies", and simultaneously set up "The Herb Connection" - a source of cannabis for those in urgent medical need. Both cafés were subject to continuous police raids. The first café eventually came to a close when the landlord withdrew the lease for the property - shortly followed by "Buddies" closing due to heavy-handed police, who were intercepting customers on their way out of the property.
Another cannabis cafe, operating in a less obvious, but still public, manner was also opened in Worthing for over a year, by a group not associated with the LCA. It somehow survived a great deal of police raids but no longer exists.
Currently, there are no cannabis cafés which operate in the open in Worthing - although there are thought to be numerous 'open residences' for cannabis users.
[edit] Crime
While the district of Worthing is obviously not crime free, it does boast a lower crime rate than the national average. Not only that but it is also showing a downward trend in recorded crime that is falling faster than the rest of the country - a trend that is inkeeping with Sussex and the South-east of England as a whole. [3] [4]
Its worth noting that possessing cannabis is still a criminal offence in the UK, and the police do still attempt to uphold the law as they are so required.
[edit] Transport
[edit] Rail
Worthing is served by six railway stations on the West Coastway Line:
[edit] Road
Worthing is served by the following main roads:
[edit] Literary and artistic connections
[edit] Architecture
- Renowned architect Anthony Salvin, who designed Harlaxton Manor, parts of Windsor Castle and Durham Castle Keep was born in Worthing in 1799 and died in Worthing in 1881.
[edit] Comedy
- Comedian Bob Monkhouse moved to Worthing in 1939, attending school at Goring Hall in Goring.
[edit] Film and broadcast media
- David Leland's 1987 film Wish You Were Here was filmed along Worthing's seafront, and in various locations around the town most notably the town's historic Dome Cinema.
- The 1985 film Dance with a Stranger by Mike Newell, which starred Miranda Richardson and Rupert Everett was partly filmed at Worthing beach.
- Birthplace of actress Paddy Croft.
- Nicollette Sheridan, American television actress, was born in the town in 1963.
- Actor and star of Coronation Street in the 1960s and 1970s, Reginald Marsh, grew up in Worthing.
- Actor Jonathan Cake was born in Worthing in 1967 and and grew up in the town.
- Richard Vobes podcasts to the world from his studios in Worthing. His 30-minute daily show features a mix of entertainment, comedy and news.
- Home to Dave Benson-Phillips, children's television presenter.
- An episode of UK sitcom Men Behaving Badly was partially filmed and set in Worthing.
[edit] Literature
- John Selden, jurist, legal antiquary and oriental scholar was born in Salvington in Worthing in 1584. The area around Farncombe Road in Worthing was once known as Seldenville, in his honour.
- Percy Bysshe Shelley's first two works were printed in a building in Warwick Street. These were Original Poetry by Victor and Cazire in 1810 and The Necessity of Atheism in 1811.
- In the 1830s, Edward William Lane translated The Thousand and One Nights (Arabian Nights) from Arabic, whilst living at 4 Union Place in the town.
- Oscar Wilde wrote The Importance of Being Earnest in Worthing in 1884, and used the name as his character Jack's surname.
- Richard Jefferies, author and naturalist spent the last 10 months of his life living in Goring and was buried in Broadwater Cemetery in 1887.
- Author and naturalist William Henry Hudson lived in the town and is also buried in Broadwater cemetery.
- Poet William Ernest Henley lived in Chesswood Road between 1899 and 1901.
- US-born playwright and author Edward Knoblock, author of Kismet bought and lived in Beach House from 1917. His visitors whilst living in Worthing included J. B. Priestley, Arnold Bennett and Sir Compton Mackenzie.
- Novelist, poet and journalist John Oxenham (real name William Arthur Dunkerley) lived in Farncombe Road in the town.
- Playwright and poet Vera Arlett lived at Park Crescent in the town.
- Mystery author Freeman Wills Crofts died in Worthing in 1957.
- Mystery/detective author Michael Underwood (real name John Michael Evelyn) was born in Worthing in 1916.
- Playwright and screenwriter Harold Pinter wrote the script for the film The Pumpkin Eater and the play The Homecoming while living in Ambrose Place in 1963.
- Novelist and one-time writer of the New Musical Express, Mick Farren is from Worthing.
[edit] Music
- Billy Idol grew up on the Goring Hall estate housing area in Goring, near Falmer Avenue.
- Alma Cogan, 1950s recording artist, lived with her parents above their shop in Warwick Street, then moved to a large house on the corner of Lansdowne Road and Downview Road.
- Keyboard virtuoso and rockstar Keith Emerson grew up in Worthing.
- Rock band Steamhammer were formed in the town in 1968.
- Venue for Phun City Festival in 1970.
- Manager of the record company Track Records, and former manager of Big Country, The Stranglers and The Cult, Ian Grant is from Worthing.
- Ska band The Ordinary Boys were formed in the town in 2003 and attended the town's Sixth Form college.
- Luke Pritchard, lead singer and rhythm guitarist of indie band The Kooks was born in Worthing in 1983.
- Psychadelic Rock artist Paul Steel originates from Worthing, and is currently based in Brighton.
- Metal band Purge are based in Worthing.
- Musician Charles "Chuck" Stanley lives in Worthing.
- Trance producer and DJ John Fleming (or John "00" Fleming) is from Worthing.
[edit] Visual Art
- Watercolour painter Anthony Copley Fielding lived at Park Crescent from 1847 until he died in 1855.
- Seascape artist Frederick Aldridge (1850-1933) was from Worthing.
- Jamie Hewlett, a British comic book artist and designer, attended Northbrook College. He is best known for being the co-creator of the comic strip Tank Girl and co-creator of the band Gorillaz.
- Husband and wife artists Delaine Le Bas and Damian Le Bas both live in the town.
[edit] Sport
[edit] Football
Nicknamed the Rebels, Worthing F.C. is the town's main football club, playing in the Isthmian League Premier Division.
Worthing United F.C. play in the First Division of the Sussex County League
[edit] Basketball
Worthing Thunder (formerly Worthing Bears) play basketball in the English Basketball League and are the current league champions.
[edit] 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 cumulate 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 and indeed the World Bowls Championships in 1972 and 1992.
[edit] 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 side of 2006.
[edit] 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.
[edit] Ice hockey
Byron Dafoe, netminder for the Washington Capitals was born in the town in 1971.
[edit] Rugby Union
Worthing RFC were formed at York House in the town in September, 1920, they play in London 1 division in the nearby village of Angmering.
[edit] Swimming
Worthing Swimming Club was formed in 1890 in the YMCA Rooms in Warwick Street.
[edit] Tennis
Former Great Britain Davis Cup player Martin Lee is from Worthing and attended Worthing High School.
[edit] Twin Towns and Districts
Le Pays des Olonnes (in the Vendee, France)
The Elztal region (in the Black Forest, Baden Württemberg, Germany)
[edit] Worthings around the World
Worthing has given its name to several places around the world including:
Worthing, Barbados
Worthing, South Dakota- Worthing, Texas
Worthing Mine at Hallett Cove in the Flinders Ranges, South Australia
