Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for WORTHING

WORTHING, a town, two chapelries, and a district, in Sussex. The town stands on the coast, adjacent to the South Coast railway, 11 miles W by S of Brighton; is in Broad water parish; was only a small fishing-village till about the end of last century; came into notice as a watering-place, through visits to it of the Princess Amelia in 1798 and the Princess Charlotte in 1807; grew steadily in public favour from the excellencies of its climate and of its bathing-facilities; was visited, in 1849, by the Dowager Queen Adelaide; is now a seat of-petty sessions and a polling place; occupies flat ground, sheltered by an amphitheatre of chalk downs; comprises spacious, well built, cleanly streets; includes an open space of 3 acres called the Steyne, and a shore-esplanade nearly 2 miles long; carries on a fishery of herrings and mackerels, chiefly for the London market; and has a head post-office,‡ a r. station with telegraph, two banking offices, four hotels, good bathing-appliances, good sanitary arrangements, baths and assembly-rooms of 1866, a corn exchange, a coastguard station, an iron-pier 960 feet long, erected in 1862 at a cost of £4,182, three churches of 1812, 1843, and 1868, three dissenting chapels, a literary institution with library and reading room, four public schools, a school-college, two suites of alms houses, and a weekly market on Saturday. The pop., in 1869, was estimated at 7,500; the house s, at 1,250. Pop. in 1851, 5,370; in 1861, 5,805. Houses, 1,051.-The chapelries are Worthing and Christchurch; and the latter was constituted in 1855. The living of W. is a p. curacy, and that ofis a vicarage, in the diocese of Chichester. Valne of W., £150; of C., £300. Patron of both, the Rector of Broadwater.—The district comprehends Broadwater, Little Hampton, and Arundel sub-districts. Acres, 42,457. Poor rates in 1863, £9,673. Pop. in 1851, 18,746; in 1861, 18,921. Houses, 3,722. Marriages in 1866, 158; births, 620,-of which 38 were illegitimate; deaths, 432,-of which 121 were at ages under 5 years, and 12 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 1,22 9; births, 4,966; deaths, 3,372. The places of worship, in 1851, were 25 of the Church of England, with 8,682 sittings; 3 of Independents, with 1,280 s.; 3 of Wesleyans, with 802 s.; 3 undefined, with 451 s.; and 1 of Roman Catholics with 80 s. The schools were 22 public day-schools, with 1,666 scholars, 35 private day-schools, with 753 s.; 23 Sunday schools, with 1,572 s.; and 1 evening school for adults, with 12 s. The district includes East Preston and Arundel poor-law unions, and parts of two others; and has workhouse s in East Preston and Arundel.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a town, two chapelries, and a district"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Worthing Tn/CP       East Preston RegD/PLU/Inc       Sussex AncC
Place: Worthing

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