Shoreham-by-Sea

Shoreham-by-Sea
Welcome to Shoreham-by-Sea
Shoreham-by-Sea  Shoreham-by-Sea shown within West Sussex
Area	3.80 sq mi (9.8 km2)
Population	19,175 2001 Census
- Density	5,046 /sq mi (1,948 /km2)
OS grid reference	TQ220051
- London	57 miles (92 km) N
District	Adur
Shire county	West Sussex
Region	South East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	SHOREHAM-BY-SEA
Postcode district	BN43
Dialling code	01273
Police	Sussex
Fire	West Sussex
Ambulance	South East Coast
EU Parliament	South East England
UK Parliament	East Worthing and Shoreham
List of places: UK • England • West Sussex

Shoreham-by-Sea (shortened to Shoreham) is a small town, port and seaside resort in West Sussex, England. Shoreham-by-Sea railway station is located less than a mile from the town centre and London Gatwick Airport is 23 miles (37 km) away. Shoreham has a population of 17,537 according to the 2001 census, and is historically part of Sussex.

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. Shoreham civil parish covers an area of 984.88 hectares (2,433.7 acres) and has a population of 19,175 (2001 census).

History

St Mary de Haura Church.

St Nicolas' Church.

The coastline at Shoreham-by-Sea, Sussex, in 2001.

Old Shoreham dates back to pre-Roman times. St Nicolas' Church, inland by the River Adur, is partly Anglo-Saxon The name of the town has an Old English 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 (St Mary of the Haven) was built in the decade following 1103 (the Domesday Book was dated 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 was ruinous at the time of the Civil War although remnants of the original west façade survive in the Churchyard to some height.

The severe storms of the 14th and 15th centuries wreaked much damage along this part of the south coast.

The rise of Brighton, Hove and Worthing - in particular the arrival of the railway in 1840 - prepared the way for Shoreham's rise as a Victorian sea port, with several shipyards and an active coasting trade. Shoreham Harbour remains in commercial operation.

Shoreham Beach

Shoreham Beach, to the south of the town, is a shingle bank thrown up over the centuries by the sea through the process of longshore drift as an extension to Lancing parish in the west. This blocks the southerly flow of the River Adur which turns east at this point to discharge into the English Channel further along the coast at a point that has varied considerably over time. 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 officially became part of Shoreham-by-Sea in 1910. Much housing in the area was cleared for defence reasons during the Second World War and most of what remained after the war is now gone, replaced by modern houses. The Church of the Good Shepherd, built in 1913, still stands. Along the Adur mud flats adjacent to Shoreham Beach sits (and at high tides floats) a large collection of houseboats made from converted barges, tugs, mine sweepers, Motor Torpedo Boats etc. The seaside shingle bank of Shoreham beach extends further east past the harbour mouth, forming the southern boundary of the commercial harbour in Southwick, Portslade and Hove. The Monarch's Way long-distance footpath, commemorating the flight of Charles II to France after the Battle of Worcester, follows the beach westwards from Hove past Portslade and Southwick, terminating by the harbour mouth's east breakwater.

Landscape and wildlife

Transversed by the River Adur and with the downs and the sea nearby the area supports a diverse wildlife flora and fauna. The mudflats support wading birds and gulls, including the Ringed Plover which attempts to breed on the coastal shingle. The Pied Wagtail is common in the town in the winter months. Insect fauna includes dragonflies over the flood plains of the river. The south and west facing downs attract at least 33 species of butterflies including a nationally important population of the Chalkhill Blue Butterfly on Mill Hill. The underlying rock is chalk on the downs, with alluvium in the old river channels. The Adur district has a variety of habitats in a small area, including natural chalk downs and butterfly meadows, freshwater and reed beds, salt marsh and estuary, brackish water lagoons, woodland, shingle seashore, chalk platform undersea and large expanses of sand.

Farmers' Market

Shoreham-by-Sea is home to the largest Farmers' Market in Sussex^{[citation needed]} and one of the largest in the South of England, it is held in East Street on the second Saturday of each month and usually has in excess of 60 stall holders supplying local vegetables, meat, cakes and preserves.

Transport

Shoreham Airport, actually located in the neighbouring parish of Lancing, to the west of the main town, is now in private ownership. 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 Poirot stories, Lord Edgware Dies, a Crimewatch type reconstruction in 2000 by Meridian television, an episode of the BBC TV Series Tenko as well as scenes from the film of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code.

The town is also served by Shoreham-by-Sea railway station, located on the West Coastway Line.

Local bus services are provided by Brighton and Hove Buses, Stagecoach and a local town route is operated by Compass Travel

Shoreham Tollbridge crosses the River Adur in the west of the town. This bridge is a Grade II* listed building and was the last tollbridge in use in Sussex. The bridge was part of the A27 road until it was closed to traffic in 1968. The structure is now too weak to carry vehicles, but it underwent extensive restoration and was officially re-opened for pedestrians on 23 October 2008 by the Duke of York.

People

• Writer Brian Behan lived on a boat moored in the town in the late 1960s.^{[citation needed]}
• Playwright Charles Bennett was born in Shoreham-by-sea in 1899.^{[citation needed]}
• Mark Benson, former England cricketer and now a cricket umpire, was born in Shoreham-by-Sea in 1958.^{[citation needed]}
• Havergal Brian, the English composer, moved from London to Shoreham-by-Sea in 1958; he wrote twenty symphonies there over the next ten years.^{[citation needed]}
• Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, trainee barrister, artist and contestant on the fourth series of the UK TV Show The Apprentice, lives in Shoreham-by-Sea.^{[citation needed]}
• Broadcaster Chris Evans lives on Shoreham Beach.^{[citation needed]}
• Raymond O. Faulkner, philologist and compiler of the standard hieroglyphic dictionary, was born in Shoreham in 1894.^{[citation needed]}
• Chris Frame, British media tycoon, lived in Shoreham throughout his childhood.^{[citation needed]}
• Mel Hopkins, a former footballer with Tottenham Hotspur, Brighton and Hove Albion and Wales retired to Shoreham Beach.^{[citation needed]}
• Rock music photographer Peter Hill was born in Shoreham in 1981 and attended St. Nicholas & St. Mary's primary school.^{[citation needed]}
• Artist Alison Lapper lives in Shoreham.^{[citation needed]}
• The band Absent Elk live in Shoreham-by-Sea, and 4 of the 5 members were born in Shoreham, the 5th being a Norwegian now residing there.
• Francis L. Lyndhurst founded the Sunny South Film Company, which made its first commercial movie on Shoreham Beach in 1912. Lyndhurst also built film studios on The Beach.
• Broadcaster Mike Mendoza lives on Shoreham Beach.^{[citation needed]}
• Fiona Mont was 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.
• Cecil Pashley, local aviation pioneer.^{[citation needed]}
• Phyllis Pearsall, painter, writer, and creator of the A to Z map of London lived on Shoreham Beach before her death in 1996.^{[citation needed]}
• Harry Ricardo founded Ricardo Consulting Engineers in Shoreham-by-Sea, where it still has its main offices.^{[citation needed]}
• 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.^{[citation needed]}
• Leo Sayer, British singer and recording artist, was born in 1948 in Shoreham-by-Sea.^{[citation needed]}
• Hubert Scott-Paine, (the boss of R. J. Mitchell at Supermarine, who designed the Spitfire), was born in 1890 in Shoreham and had a yacht in Stowe's Yard, before moving to Southampton.^{[citation needed]}
• Gemma Spofforth, Olympic swimmer, was born in Shoreham-By-Sea.^{[citation needed]}
• Michael Standing, a professional footballer who plays for Lewes, was born in Shoreham-by-Sea in 1981.^{[citation needed]}
• Marcus Tudgay, Nottingham Forest striker, was born in Shoreham-by-Sea.^{[citation needed]}
• Playwright Judy Upton was born in Shoreham-by-Sea in 1966 and has written several plays associated with Brighton Beach.^{[citation needed]}
• Nicholas van Hoogstraten, British property tycoon, was born in Shoreham-by-Sea in 1946 and was educated at a local Jesuit school.^{[citation needed]}
• The writer Ted Walker married in Shoreham. Many works describe the Shoreham coastline and Adur estuary.^{[citation needed]}
• Nathaniel Woodard, the founder of Lancing College and the Woodard Schools, became the curate-in-charge of St. Mary's, New Shoreham in 1846 and his experience there inspired him to start creating schools to improve the level of middle class education. He also greatly developed the use of choral music in the Church.^{[citation needed]}

Twin towns

Shoreham (along with the other urban districts of Adur) is twinned with

• Żywiec, Poland
• Riom, France

See also

• Red Lion Inn, Shoreham-by-Sea
• Shoreham Redoubt
• Southwick
• Southlands Hospital
• Lancing
• Marlipins Museum

External links

• Adur District Council
• Shoreham Society
• Shoreham Port Authority
• Shoreham Herald web site