Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for ARUNDEL

ARUNDEL, a railway station, a town, a castle, a parish, a hundred, a subdistrict, and a rape in Sussex. The railway station is on the Horsham and Arundel rail way, 2 miles NNE of Ford junction, and 8½ S by W of Pulborough; superseded a previous station, 2 miles S, on the Brighton and South Coast railway; and has a telegraph. The town stands on the right bank of the Arun, on the irregular ascent of a considerable hill, ½ a mile W of the station. It takes its name from the vale of Arun, Arun-dale, a word probably of ancient British origin; and it is supposed to have been influenced by the Roman station Ad Decimum at Bignor, and by the Roman Portus Adurni, which may have been within the mouth of the river; but it is first mentioned in the will of King Alfred, who bequeathed it to his nephew Adhelm. It consists of one street going steeply up from the Arun to the castle, and two others going off from this at right angles. It is a small place of little intrinsic interest; but it has always derived much consequence, in many ways, from the castle. Its houses, in general, are well built. A neat bridge of three arches spans the river. The town hall was erected by Bernard, Duke of Norfolk, at a cost of £9,000. The parish church is a cruciform edifice, of flint and stone, 190 feet long, with a low central tower, surmounted by a short leaden spire. It occupies the site of a Benedictine priory, founded, soon after the Conquest, by Roger de Montgomery; and it was built in 1380, and made then collegiate for a master and twelve canons, under the name of the college of the Holy Trinity. It is entirely perpendicular English; it has a college chapel E of the chancel, and a Lady chapel N of the former; and it contains six grand monuments of Earls of Arundel and several brasses. A Maison Dieu, a quadrangular edifice, with chapel and refectory, was built at the foot of the town, about the same time as the church; but only some fragments of it now exist. There are two dissenting chapels, a Roman Catholic chapel, a work house, and a considerable inn. The town ranks as a head sea-port, and vessels drawing 13 feet water come up to it; but the real head-port, and now the place of the custom-house, is Little Hampton, 3½ miles distant, at the mouth of the river. The vessels belonging to the port, at the beginning of the year 1868, were 34 small sailing vessels, of aggregately 995 tons, and 42 larger sailing vessels, of aggregately 6,845 tons. The sailing-vessels that entered in 1867 were 432 of 40,590 tons, in the coasting trade; 4 of 2 46 tons, from British colonies; and 36 of 3,883 tons, from foreign countries. Chief imports are coal and fruit; and chief exports, corn, timber, and oak-bark. The amount of customs, in 1867, was £606. The town has a head post office.† a telegraph station and two banking offices; and it publishes a weekly newspaper. A fortnightly market is held on Monday; and fairs on 14 May, 21 Aug., 25 Sept., and 17 Dec. Arundel is a borough by prescription; and it sent two members to parliament from the time of Edward I. till 1832; but it was half disfranchised by the reform act of 1832, and wholly disfranchised by the act of 1868 for increasing the representation of Scotland. The town is governed by a mayor, four aldermen, and twelve councillors; and it is a seat of petty sessions, and a county polling-place. Real property, £11,055. Assessed taxes, £1,879. Pop., 2,498. Houses, 528.

Arundel Castle is the chief seat of the Duke of Norfolk. It stands adjacent to the church, at the head of the town, on the verge of a platean which stoops precipitously, on two sides, at least 90 feet, to the low bank of the Arun. Its position is a strong one, in a military view; and was well fitted, in the old times, to maintain high command over the surrounding country. The original pile is said to have been built, in the Saxon times, by Bevis, a hero of romance; the next pile, possessing much military strength, was built, soon after the Conquest, by Roger de Montgomery, who was related by blood to the Conqueror, and led the centre division of the victorious army at the battle of Hastings; and the greater part of the present pile, 250 feet long and 250 feet broad, was built, in 1791 and succeeding years, by Charles, eleventh Duke of Norfolk. The castle was visited, in 1097, by William Rufus; it was besieged in 1102 by Henry I., and taken then from Robert de Belesme, Robert de Montgomery's heir, who had rebelled against the Crown; it was inhabited by Henry I.'s widow, Queen Alice or Adeliza, and gave hospitable shelter, under her, in 1139, to the Empress Maud; it passed from Queen Alice, by marriages, to successively the De Albinis, the Fitzalans, and the Howards; it was declared by act of parliament, in the second year of Henry VI., to confer the title of Earl of Arundel without creation; and it was besieged and captured, in 1643, by the Parliamentarian forces under Sir W. Waller, recaptured by the Royalists, and again captured, in 1644, by Waller. The structure, in its present state, covers an area of five acres. The entrance gate way is magnificent, in the Norman style, machicolated, and flanked by two imposing towers; was commenced in 1861; and leads into a quadrangle, with extensive remains of the ancient castle on the one side and the grand Gothic pile of the modern mansion on the other. A towered gateway, a raised causeway, a steep flight of steps, and a spacious courtyard with four flanking towers, lead up to the keep. The towers have four stages, with dungeons below; and one of them, called the Bevis tower, is so clad with ivy as to look like a tall green pyramid. The keep is proximately circular; stands on an artificial steep mound, raised above a fosse; measures from 8 to 10 feet in thickness of wall, and variously 59 feet and 67 feet in diameter; and appears to be of late Norman architecture, with Caen-stone facings; but is almost all mantled with ornamental foliage and rich ivy. The modern mansion displays mixtures of Gothic, in Whitby freestone, and is far from being congruous, but has a grandly imposing effect in its general mass. The library is 120 feet by 24, with eight tall walls; the dining-room, 45 feet by 24, with a window 20 feet by 10; the drawing-room, 54 feet by 28; the long gallery, 195 feet by 12, with groined ceiling; the baron's hall, 115 feet by 35, with a window of stained glass, representing the signing of Magna Charta, and eight other window's containing figures of the barons connected with the signing. The castle contains a splendid collection of family portraits and other pictures. The park is 7 miles in circuit; contains many hundreds of deer; and affords rich scenes and beautiful prospects.

The parish of Arundel, as also the hundred, is co-extensive with the limits of the borough. Its area is 1,968 acres; and most of this is within the ducal park. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Chichester. Value, £222.* Patron,-the Earl of Albemarle. The subdistrict comprises also six other parishes and parts of two more; and is in the district of Worthing. Acres, 14,090. Pop., 3,797. Houses, 789. The rape extends northward from the English channel to Surrey; is bounded on one side by the river Arun; and contains the hundreds of Avisford, Bury, Poling, Rotherbridge, and West Easwrith. Acres, 129,928. Pop. in 1851, 30,709; in 1861, 29,975. Houses, 5,936.


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

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a railway station"   (ADL Feature Type: "railroad features")
Administrative units: Arundel AP/CP       Sussex AncC
Place: Arundel

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