Worthing | |||
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— Town & Borough — | |||
Borough of Worthing | |||
Marine Parade and beach | |||
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Nickname(s): Sunny Worthing | |||
Motto: "Ex terra copiam e mari salutem" (Latin for "From the land plenty and from the sea health") |
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Coordinates: | |||
Constituent area | United Kingdom | ||
Region | South East England | ||
County | West Sussex | ||
Borough | Worthing | ||
Founded | In antiquity | ||
Town charter | 1803 | ||
Borough status | 1890 | ||
Government Leadership Mayor & Cabinet Executive Conservative |
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• Type | Borough | ||
• Mayor | Ann Barlow (C) | ||
• Leader of Council | Paul Yallop (C) | ||
• MPs | Peter Bottomley (C) Tim Loughton (C) |
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AreaRanked 307th | |||
• Borough | 12.5 sq mi (32.48 km2) | ||
Elevation | 25 ft (7 m) | ||
Highest elevation | 603 ft (184 m) | ||
Population (July 2010 est.) | |||
• Borough | 103,200 (Ranked 224th) | ||
• Density | 8,228.4/sq mi (3,177/km2) | ||
• Urban | 183,000 (sub-urban Worthing) | ||
• Ethnicity | 94.8% White 2.1% S.Asian 1.3% Mixed Race 0.9% Black 0.9% Chinese and other |
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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 ( /ˈwɜrðɪŋ/ wurdh-ing) is a large seaside town with borough status in West Sussex, within the historic County of 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 an estimated population of 103,200.[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 18th century it developed into an elegant Georgian seaside resort and attracted the well-known and wealthy of the day. In the 19th and 20th 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. Writers Oscar Wilde and Harold Pinter lived and worked in the town.
Contents |
In the Neolithic period of the Stone Age, the South Downs around Worthing was one of Britain's chief flint mining areas, with four of the UK's 14 known flint mines lying within 7 miles (11 km) of the centre of Worthing. An excavation at Little High Street dates the earliest remains from Worthing town centre to the Bronze Age. There is also an important Bronze Age hill fort on the western fringes of the modern borough at Highdown Hill. During the Iron Age, one of Britain's largest hill forts was built at Cissbury Ring. The area was part of the civitas of the Regni during the Romano-British period. Several of the borough's roads date from this era and lie in a grid layout known as 'centuriation'. A Romano-British farmstead once stood in the centre of the town, at a site close to the town hall. In the 5th and 6th centuries, the area became part of the kingdom of Sussex. The place names of the area, including the name Worthing itself, date from this period.
Worthing remained an agricultural and fishing hamlet for centuries until the arrival of wealthy visitors in the 1750s. Princess Amelia stayed in the town in 1798 and the fashionable and wealthy continued to stay in Worthing, which became a town in 1803. The town expanded and elegant developments such as Park Crescent and Liverpool Terrace were begun. The area was a stronghold of smugglers in the 19th century and was the site of rioting by the Skeleton Army in the 1880s. Oscar Wilde holidayed in the town in 1893 and 1894, writing the Importance of Being Earnest during his second visit. The town was home to several literary figures in the 20th century, including Nobel prize-winner Harold Pinter. During the Second World War, Worthing was home to several allied military divisions in preparation for the D-Day landings.
Worthing became the world's 229th Transition Town in October 2009. Transition Town Worthing, the project exploring the town's transition to life after oil, was established by local residents as a way of planning the town's Energy Descent Action Plan.
Worthing means "(place of) Worth/Weorð/Worō's people", from the Old English personal name Worth, Weorð 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, Wording or Wurthing in 1240, Worthinges in 1288 and Wyrthyng in 1397. Worthen was used as late as 1720. The modern name was first documented in 1297.[2][3]
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 fertiliser. The decaying weed was sought by farmers from the surrounding area. Thus the town would have become known as Wort (weed) -inge (people).
Worthing was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1890, when the towns absorbed the neighbouring civil parish of Heene.[4] Subsequent enlargements took place in 1902, 1929 and 1933 before being reincorporated as a borough in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972.[4] Since its inception as a borough, the authority has granted freedom of the town to some 18 individuals.[5]
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.[6][7]
Worthing's motto is the Latin Ex terra copiam e mari salutem, which translates as 'From the land plenty and from the sea health'.[6]
The borough is divided into 13 wards, with eleven returning three councillors and two returning two councillors to form a total council of 37 members. The borough is unparished.[8]
As of the 2011 local elections, the authority is Conservative-controlled, with seats allocated as follows:
Party | Seats | Worthing Borough Council 2008– | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Conservative | 25 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Liberal Democrats | 11 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Independent | 1 |
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 9 single member electoral divisions.[9]
The town has two Members of Parliament (MPs): Tim Loughton (Conservative) for East Worthing and Shoreham, who is Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families;[10] and Peter Bottomley (Conservative) for Worthing West.[11] At the 2010 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.[12][13] Until 1945 Worthing formed part of the Horsham and Worthing parliamentary constituency.
Worthing is included in the South East England constituency for elections to the European Parliament.
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.[14] The area is the United Kingdom's twelfth largest conurbation, with a population of over 460,000.[15] 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. The town is dominated by the Downs to the north: Cissbury Ring, a Site of Special Scientific Interest, rises to 184 metres (604 ft) in the north of the borough.[16] A further high point is at West Hill (139m) north-west of High Salvington[17]
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.[18] 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.[19]
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.[20] The west of the borough contains some ancient woodland at Titnore Wood.[21] 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.[22] The southwest of the borough contains part of the Goring Gap, a protected area of fields and woodland between Goring and Ferring.[23] 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.[24] The borough of Worthing contains no nature reserves: the nearest is Widewater Lagoon in Lancing.[25]
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, described as "one of the best chalk reefs in Europe"[26] by the Marine Conservation Society, are home to rare fish such as blennies and the lesser spotted dogfish.[27][28] The site has been declared a Site of Nature Conservation Importance (SNCI) (a site of county importance) by West Sussex County Council.[29]
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.[30]
Climate data for Worthing | |||||||||||||
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Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
Average high °C (°F) | 8 (46) |
9 (48) |
11 (52) |
13 (55) |
17 (63) |
19 (66) |
22 (72) |
22 (72) |
20 (68) |
16 (61) |
12 (54) |
8 (46) |
15 (59) |
Average low °C (°F) | 4 (39) |
4 (39) |
4 (39) |
6 (43) |
9 (48) |
12 (54) |
14 (57) |
14 (57) |
12 (54) |
10 (50) |
6 (43) |
4 (39) |
8 (46) |
Precipitation mm (inches) | 58.5 (2.303) |
26.8 (1.055) |
41.5 (1.634) |
42.1 (1.657) |
35.1 (1.382) |
34.7 (1.366) |
33.2 (1.307) |
46.0 (1.811) |
40.0 (1.575) |
74.2 (2.921) |
72.4 (2.85) |
73.2 (2.882) |
577.7 (22.744) |
Source: [31] |
The borough of Worthing comprises many smaller districts some of which share their names – although not necessarily boundaries – with local electoral wards:
People from Worthing are known as Worthingites.
According to the Office of National Statistics, Worthing's population increased to an estimated 100,200 in 2008.[1] Worthing is the most densely populated local authority area in East and West Sussex, with a population density in 2001 of 30.04 people per hectare.[32] Worthing underwent dramatic population growth both in the early 19th century 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 labour, to the west of the town from 1948. The main driver of population growth in Worthing during the 1990s and first decade of the 21st century has been in-migration into Worthing; in particular Worthing is the most popular destination for people moving from the nearby city of Brighton and Hove, with significant numbers also moving to the borough from London.[33]
Year | 1801 | 1811 | 1821 | 1831 | 1841 | 1851 | 1861 | 1871 | 1881 | 1891 | 1901 | 1911 | 1921 | 1931 | 1939 | 1951 | 1961 | 1971 | 1981 | 1991 | 2001 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Population | 2,151 | 3,824 | 4,922 | 5,654 | 6,856 | 7,615 | 9,744 | 11,873 | 14,002 | 19,177 | 24,479 | 31,301 | 37,906 | 45,905 | 55,584 | 67,305 | 77,155 | 88,467 | 90,686 | 98,066 | 97,540 |
Source: A Vision of Britain through Time |
According to the UK Government's 2001 census, Worthing is overwhelmingly populated by people of a white British ethnic background at 97.2% – significantly higher than the national average of 90.9%. Other ethnic groups in the district, in order of population size, are multiracial at 0.9%, Asian at 0.9% and black at 0.3% (the national averages are 1.3%, 4.6% and 2.1%, respectively).[34] Worthing is the most ethnically diverse local authority area, (from a low overall base population) within the coastal districts of West Sussex (i.e. Chichester, Arun, Worthing and Adur) with a black and ethnic minority population equating to 4.6% of the total population.[33]
Worthing has a younger population than the other three districts of coastal West Sussex, albeit older than the South East average. In 2006, 26.7% of the population were between 25 and 44 years old, which is a higher proportion compared to the other districts in the coastal West Sussex area.[33] Over the last 20 years, Worthing has seen the sharpest decline in its population aged 65 years or more with its proportion of the total population falling by 8.1% (7,000 in real terms), at a time when this age group has actually grown across the South East region and elsewhere.[33] In contrast there have been comparatively significant increases in older families (4.5%) and family makers (4.3%) within the borough.[33] In 2010 the estimated median age of the population of Worthing was 42.8 years, 3.2 years older than the average for the UK of 39.6 years.[35]
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%.[36]
The borough of Worthing has about 50 active Christian places of worship. There is also a mosque, which follows the Sunni tradition.[37] 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.[38] The austere design was well regarded at first, but architectural writers have since criticised it.[39][40] Its importance derives from its status as "the spiritual and social centre around which the town developed".[41] Residential growth in the 19th century growth led to several other Anglican churches opening in the town centre: Christ Church was started in 1840[39] and survived a closure threat in 2006;[42] 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;[43][44] and Holy Trinity church opened at the same time but with less dispute.[44][45] 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[46] each had their own church: Broadwater's had Saxon origins,[47] St Mary's at Goring-by-Sea was Norman (although it was rebuilt in 1837),[48] St Andrew's at West Tarring was 13th century,[49] and St Botolph's at Heene and St Symphorian's at Durrington were rebuilt from medieval ruins.[50][51] All of the borough's churches are in the Rural Deanery of Worthing and the Diocese of Chichester.[52]
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.[53] Protestant Nonconformism has a long history in Worthing: the town's first place of worship was an Independent chapel.[54] 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.[55] 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.[56][57]
Worthing's Churches Together organisation, currently chaired by Nigel O'Dwyer,[58] 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.[59]
Schools in the borough are provided by West Sussex County Council. There are some 23 primarys, 6 secondarys 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.
Labour Profile[60] | ||
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Total employee jobs | 43,800 | |
Full-time | 28,000 | 63.9% |
Part-time | 15,800 | 36.1% |
Manufacturing | 3,300 | 7.5% |
Construction | 1,100 | 2.4% |
Services | 38,900 | 88.7% |
Distribution, hotels & restaurants | 9,600 | 22.0% |
Transport & communications | 1,400 | 3.3% |
Finance, IT, other business activities | 9,600 | 22.0% |
Public admin, education & health | 16,200 | 36.9% |
Other services | 2,000 | 4.6% |
Tourism-related | 3,000 | 7.0% |
Worthing's economy is dominated by the service industry, particularly financial services. Major employers include GlaxoSmithKline,[61] HM Revenue & Customs,[62] Aviva (formerly Norwich Union),[63] MGM Advantage[64] and Southern Water.[65] In June 2008, Norwich Union announced that all 660 employees at its office in Broadwater would be made redundant by 2010.[63] In October 2009, GlaxoSmithKline confirmed that 250 employees in Worthing would lose their jobs at the factory, which makes the anti-biotics co-amoxiclav (Augmentin) and amoxicillin (Amoxin) and hundreds of other products.[61][66] As of 2009, there were approximately 43,000 jobs in the borough.[67]
Although Worthing was voted the most profitable town in Britain for three consecutive years at the end of the 1990s,[68][69] the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 2009 found that Worthing residents' mean pre-tax pay is only £452 per week, compared to £487 for West Sussex and £535 for South East England as a whole.[67]
In 2008, Worthing was in the top 10 urban areas in England for jobs in each of three key sectors,thought to have a significant impact on economic performance: creative, high-tech industries and knowledge-intensive business services.[70]
In June 2006, Worthing Borough Council agreed a masterplan for the town's regeneration,[71][72] focused on improving the town centre and seafront. A new £150 million development is proposed for Teville Gate, between Worthing railway station and the A24 at the northern approach to the town centre. It is expected to include two residential towers, a multiplex cinema, hotel and conference and exhibition centre.[73] The developers are expected to apply for planning permission in the summer of 2010.[74] Redevelopment is also planned for the Grafton Street car park area;[75] and 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. Work planned for the seafront includes the installation of an artwork named Suncloud, gardens and public space.[76][77] The former Eardley Hotel, overlooking Splash Point, is being demolished and rebuilt in a similar style as luxury flats.[78][79] Swiss electronics firm LEMO are building a new headquarters in North Street; the building, nicknamed "The Peanut", is due to open in 2010.[80] In early 2008, the town's further education college, Northbrook College, announced proposals to invest £70 million to consolidate its operations on to one campus in Broadwater.[81] Worthing College, the town's sixth form college, has also had plans approved for a £42 million redevelopment of its campus near Durrington railway station. In 2009, both schemes were threatened by delays in receiving money from the Learning and Skills Council.[82]
In the longer term, the area around Worthing's museum, art gallery, library and town hall—collectively described as the "Worthing Cultural and Civic Hub"—is to be revamped to provide extra facilities and new housing.[83] In 2009, Worthing Borough Council applied for a £5 million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund to redevelop and enlarge the museum.[84] A new £24 million municipal swimming pool is being designed by Stirling Prize-winning architects Wilkinson Eyre[85] for the town centre—possibly next to the existing pool at the Aquarena, which would be redeveloped.[86] It has also been proposed that Montague Place is pedestrianised to improve the link between the town centre and the seafront.[87] Due for completion in October 2010, the Splash Point area of the seafront is undergoing a £500,000 make-over which will see its Speakers Corner reinstated.[88][89]
Completed regeneration projects include the reopening of the Dome Cinema in 2007 after major investment from the Heritage Lottery Fund, and a £5.5 million mixed-use development on the site of a former hotel near Teville Gate.[90]
A turnpike was opened in 1803 to connect Worthing with London,[91][92] and similar toll roads were built later in the 19th century to connect nearby villages.[92][93] Stagecoach traffic grew rapidly until 1845, when the opening of a railway line from Brighton brought about an immediate decline.[94] 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.[95]
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.[96] Stagecoach in the South Downs operates several routes around the town and to Midhurst, Brighton and Portsmouth.[97] The most frequent service, between Lancing and Durrington, was branded PULSE in 2006.[98] Worthing-based Compass Bus have routes to Angmering, Chichester, Henfield and Lancing;[99] and other companies serve Horsham, Crawley,[100] Brighton[101] and intermediate destinations. National Express coaches run between London's Victoria Coach Station and Marine Parade.[102]
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.[103] Worthing opened on 24 November 1845 as a temporary terminus of the line from Brighton, which was extended to Chichester the following year and electrified in the 1930s.[104] Regular services run to destinations such as London, Gatwick Airport, Brighton, Littlehampton and Portsmouth.[105]
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.[95]
Home Office policing in Worthing is provided by the Worthing district of the West Downs division of Sussex Police.[106] The district is divided into three neighbourhood policing teams—Town, East and West—for operational purposes. The police station is in Chatsworth Road.[107] The West Downs division's headquarters is at Centenary House in Durrington.[108] Worthing's fire station has been in Broadwater since 1962. The borough had been in charge of fire protection since 1891, after several decades in which volunteers provided the service. A fire station was built on Worthing High Street in 1908; it was demolished after the move to Broadwater.[109] The Worthing and Adur District Team, part of the West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service,[110] employs 60 full-time and 18 retained firefighters.[111]
Worthing Hospital is administered by the Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust.[112] The 500-bed facility on Lyndhurst Road was founded in 1881 as an 18-bed infirmary.[109][113] It replaced older hospitals on Ann Street and Chapel Road.[113] Other medical care facilities include two mental health units (Greenacres and Meadowfield Hospital)[114][115] and a 38-bed private hospital in the Grade II-listed Goring Hall.[116]
Gas was manufactured in Worthing for nearly 100 years until 1931,[109][117] but Scotia Gas Networks now supply the town through their Southern Gas Networks division.[118] Electricity generation took place locally between 1901 and 1961;[109][117] EDF Energy now supply the town.[119] Southern Water, who have been based in Durrington since 1989, have controlled Worthing's water supply, drainage and sewerage since 1974. The town's first waterworks was built in 1852.[120] Drainage and sewage disposal was poorly developed in the 19th century, but a fatal typhoid outbreak in 1893 prompted investment in sewage works and better pipes.[109][121]
There are a number of voluntary and community groups active in the town ranging from small volunteer-led groups to large well established charities. There is a Council for Voluntary Service and a Volunteer Centre funded by the local authority to support voluntary action. In 2003-4 registered charities in Worthing indicated a combined income of £56 million in the submitted accounts to the Charity Commission. The Place Survey conducted in all local authority districts by central government in 2009 found that up to 24,000 people in Worthing described themselves as giving volunteer time in the community.
There are 213 listed buildings in the borough of Worthing. Three of these—Castle Goring, St Mary's Church at Broadwater and the Archbishop's Palace at West Tarring—are classified at Grade I, which is used for buildings "of exceptional interest, sometimes considered to be internationally important".[122] Worthing Pier, Park Crescent, Beach House and several churches are also listed.[123]
Since 1896, when Warwick House was demolished, many historic buildings have been lost and others altered.[124] The town's first and most distinguished theatre, the Theatre Royal, and the adjacent Omega Cottage (the home of the theatre's first manager) were lost in 1970 when the Guildbourne Centre was built;[125][126] Warne's Hotel and the Royal Sea House burnt down;[127][128] the early bath-houses which were vital to Worthing's success as a fashionable resort were all demolished in the 20th century;[129] Broadwater's ancient rectory rotted away after it fell out of use in 1924;[96] and several old streets in the town centre had all their buildings demolished for postwar redevelopment.[126]
Pale yellow bricks have been made locally since about 1780, and are commonly encountered as a building material.[130] Flint is the other predominant structural material: its local abundance has ensured its frequent use. The combination of flint and red brick is characteristic of Worthing. In particular, walls built alongside streets or to mark out boundaries were almost always built of flint with brick dressings, especially in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.[131]
Boat porches are a unique architectural feature of Worthing. These structures surround the entrance doors of some early 19th-century houses, and take the form of an stuccoed porch with an ogee-headed roof which resembles the bottom of a boat. Historians have speculated that the cottages, examples of which are in Albert Place, Warwick Place and elsewhere, may have been built by local fishermen who used their boats as a basis for the design.[65]
The Midsummer Tree, an oak, stands near Broadwater Green and is said to be around 300 years old. Until the 19th century, it was believed that on Midsummer's Eve skeletons would rise from the tree and dance around it until dawn, when they would sink back into the ground.[132] The legend was first recorded by folklorist Charlotte Latham in 1868.[133] Since 2006, when the oak was saved from development, meetings have been held on Midsummers Eve there.[134]
It was once believed that monsters known as knuckers lived in bottomless ponds called knuckerholes. There were several knuckerholes in Sussex, including one in Worthing by Ham Bridge (on the present Ham Road), close to East Worthing railway station and Teville Stream.[135]
According to legend, a tunnel several miles long led from the now-demolished medieval Offington Hall to the Neolithic flint mines and Iron Age hill fort at Cissbury. It was said to be sealed, and there was treasure at the far end; the owner of the Hall "had offered half the money to anyone who would clear out the subterranean passage and several persons had begun digging, but all had been driven back by large snakes springing at them with open mouths and angry hisses".[133][136]
In literature, Oscar Wilde wrote The Importance of Being Earnest while staying in the town in the summer of 1894.[137] Salvington in Worthing was the birthplace of philosopher and scholar John Selden in 1584.[137] In the 1960s, playwright Harold Pinter lived wrote The Homecoming at his home in Ambrose Place.[138] Other literary figures to have lived in the town include WE Henley,[137] WH Hudson,[137] Stephen Spender,[139] Dorothy Richardson,[140] Edward Knoblock,[141] Beatrice Hastings,[142] Maureen Duffy,[143] Vivien Alcock,[144] John Oxenham[137] and his daughter Elsie J. Oxenham.[137] Jane Austen's unfinished final novel Sanditon is thought to have been significantly based on experiences from her stay in Worthing in 1805.[145]
The history of film in Worthing dates back to exhibitions on Worthing Pier in 1896, and two years later William Kennedy Dickson—inventor of the Kinetoscope, a pioneering motion picture device—visited the town to film daily life. In the early 20th century, several cinemas were established, although most were short-lived.[146][147] Other former cinemas include the Rivoli (1924–1960), the 2,000-capacity Plaza (1933–1968) and the 1,600-capacity Odeon (1934–1986).[147] The Kursaal was built in 1910 as a combined skating rink and theatre by Swiss impresario Carl Adolf Seebold. It was renamed The Dome in 1915 in response to anti-German sentiment during World War I. Seebold opened the 950-capacity Dome Cinema in place of the skating rink in 1922;[146] it is still open, and is one of Britain's oldest operational cinemas.[148] The Connaught Screen 2 cinema (formerly The Ritz, and before that Connaught Hall) was established in 1995.[147][149]
Many films and television programmes have been filmed using Worthing as the backdrop including: Pinter's The Birthday Party (1968),[150] Dance with a Stranger (1985).[151] and Wish You Were Here (1987).[151]
Theatre has been performed in Worthing since 1796. Thomas Trotter, the early promoter and manager at the town's temporary venues,[137] was asked to open a permanent theatre in 1807; his Theatre Royal opened on 7 July of that year and operated until 1855. The building survived until 1870. The 1,000-capacity New Theatre Royal in Bath Place, run by Carl Adolf Seebold for several years, lasted from 1897 until 1929.[125] Several other venues have been used for theatrical productions,[152] but as of 2012 Worthing has three council-owned theatres: the Art Deco Connaught Theatre, the Baroque Pavilion Theatre[125] and the Modernist, Grade II-listed Assembly Hall, which is mostly used for musical performances (including since 1950 an annual music festival).[153][154] The Assembly Hall is home to the Worthing Symphony Orchestra and the Worthing Philharmonic Orchestra.[154]
Worthing Museum and Art Gallery was built in 1908 as the town's museum and library. Alfred Cortis, the first mayor of Worthing, and the international philanthropist Andrew Carnegie funded the construction.[155] West Sussex County Council built a new library in 1975[156] and the museum has had a chequered history ever since, fighting off closure in 2003 with the support of local residents.
In the visual arts, painter Copley Fielding lived at 5 Park Crescent in the mid-18th century.[137] and more recently Jamie Hewlett and Alan Martin created cult comic figure Tank Girl while at college in the town in the 1980s.[157] The town has a famous work by sculptor Elisabeth Frink. Uniquely in England, Desert Quartet (1990), Frink's penultimate sculpture, was given Grade II* listing in 2007, less than 30 years from its creation. It may be seen on the building opposite Liverpool Gardens.
For three days in 1970 a field on the outskirts of Worthing was the site of the Phun City music festival, the UK's first large-scale free music festival.[158]
The town contains a considerable number of parks and gardens, many laid out in the Victorian and Edwardian eras.
Worthing Open Houses is an annual festival of arts and crafts. The 2010 event was the largest so far, 45 venues and over 200 artists on the last two weekends in July.[159]
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.[160] The apple trees are toasted with wassail, apple cider and apple cake, followed by fireworks.[161]
On May Day, a procession and dancing takes place in Worthing town centre, culminating in the crowning of the May Queen.[162] 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.[163]
The Worthing Transition Festival 2010, was held between 4 June and 26 June at the Heene Gallery, Heene Road, Worthing. Being the first of its kind in Worthing, the Festival provided a month-long showcase for art inspired by themes such as climate change, sustainable transport, local food, and the end of cheap oil. There was a photographic competition based on 'local food', and visitors to the Heene Gallery were invited to help create a Timeline for Worthing between 2010 and 2030.
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.
Worthing is now the home to the International Birdman competition (formerly hosted in Selsey and Bognor Regis). In 2011 the Worthing International Birdman will be held on the 13 & 14 August.[164]
September 2011 will see the next The End of the Pier International Film Festival, which is held at various venues across Worthing, including the town's two cinemas. Pier Day takes place on Worthing Pier and the nearby promenade every September.
In October 2010, Worthing hosted the inaugural "Wukulele Festival" – the south coast's international ukulele festival. This three day event presented concerts by international performers, ukulele workshops for all levels, school performances and a festival fringe with free events in and around the town centre.
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.[165] 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),[166] the Worthing Monthly Record & District Chronicle and the Worthing Intelligencer[167] 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.[167] It favoured the Conservative Party at first, and supported the Skeleton Army's anti-Salvation Army riots later that decade.[168] In 1921 its scope was extended to include Littlehampton, and it was renamed accordingly.[167] 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.[167] It is now owned by Johnston Press, and has been based at Cannon House in Chatsworth Road since 1991.[167][169] 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.[170]
Worthing is served by the BBC South television studios based in Southampton,[171][172] and by the ITV franchise Meridian Broadcasting, also with studios in Southampton.[173] Television signals come from the Rowridge or Whitehawk Hill transmitters.[174][175]
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.[176] Heart Sussex, a Global Radio-owned commercial station, also covers Worthing.[177] BBC Local Radio coverage is provided by BBC Sussex (formerly BBC Southern Counties Radio).[178]
Worthing's location between the sea and the downs makes the area a popular location for outdoor recreation. Its wide open water and five miles of coastline provides for many types of watersport, especially catamaran racing, windsurfing and kitesurfing and the town has held a regatta for rowing since at least 1859. The South Downs is popular for hiking and mountain-biking, with around 22 trail-heads within the borough. Two of Worthing's three golf clubs, including Worthing Golf Club are also located on the Downs, which is also the location for the Three Forts Marathon, a 27-mile ultramarathon from Broadwater to the three Iron Age hill forts of Cissbury Ring, Chanctonbury Ring and Devil's Dyke.
Formed in 1886 and 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. who are nicknamed 'the "Mavericks" play in the First Division of the Sussex County League.
Home to Bowls England, Worthing is, with Johannesburg, one of only two locations in the world to have hosted the men's World Bowls Championships twice. The events were held in 1972 and 1992, both at Beach House Park, which is sometimes known as the spiritual home of bowls, and is also the venue for the annual National Championships each August.
Club | Nickname | Sport | League | Venue | Established |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Worthing Cricket Club | Cricket | Sussex Premier League | Manor Sports Ground | 1855 | |
Worthing Football Club | The Rebels | Football | Isthmian League Division One South | Woodside Road | 1886 |
Worthing Rugby Football Club | Raiders | Rugby union | National League 2 South | Roundstone Lane, Angmering | 1920 |
Worthing United Football Club | The Mavericks | Football | Sussex County League Division 2 | Robert Albon Memorial Ground | 1988 |
Worthing Thunder | Thunder | Basketball | English Basketball League | Worthing Leisure Centre | 1999 |
Notable inhabitants include pioneer Edward Henty, born in West Tarring in 1810,[179] horticulturalist James Bateman,[180] mathematician and inventor Thomas Shaw Brandreth[181] and artist Copley Fielding.[182] In the 20th century, many writers settled in the town, from poet Beatrice Hastings[183] to playwright Harold Pinter.[184] Actress Nicollette Sheridan who starred in recent American television drama 'Desperate Housewives' was born in Worthing.
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