History of Worthing
Within 7 miles (11 km) of Worthing's town centre lie four of Britain's 14 confirmed Neolithic flint mines.
[4] Flint from these early mines played a significant role in enabling the "Neolithic Revolution" to take place across southern Britain, gradually replacing the nomadic hunter-gatherer way of life of the mesolithic period with the settled agricultural way of life of the neolithic period as the extensive wildwood forest that covered much of Britain began to be felled.
[5] There is evidence that flint from the mines around Worthing was traded across southern Britain, particularly to the populous areas on the Wessex downland.
[1] Sites at High Salvington and Mount Carvey, within the borough, and at nearby Myrtlegrove and Roger's Farm in Patching and Findon, have all been identified as possible, but cannot be confirmed because of plough disturbance.
At Harrow Hill, dozens of ox skulls have been found, suggesting ritual slaughter—possibly each autumn, as many animals would not have survived the winter.
Such an area may have existed between the rivers Adur and Arun where the mines were situated on a block of downland that does not appear to contain any other contemporary monument.
[6] At Cock Hill lies a henge dating from the late neolithic period, 48 metres in diameter, roughly circular, with a single entrance to the south-east.
[6] Neolithic axes from the mines have been found away from the Downs in various locations across the modern town of Worthing including at Homefield Park, Heene Road, Broadwater, Pond Lane and Seldens Way.
[11] In 1842 a boat made from a hollowed-out oak tree was found at low tide in the sand near to Heene Road.
Coming off the Downs it is now known as Charmandean Lane, which turns into a footpath known as the Quashetts, which becomes High Street and finally the Steyne before reaching the sea.
George V Avenue (north–south), the ancient boundary between Tarring (later West Worthing) and Goring lies 72 actus from the Quashetts track.
Remains of a Roman villa and bath house have been found on the site of Northbrook College's main Goring campus.
A Roman cemetery existed between Chesswood Road and the railway line and burials dating from the early 4th century have also been found near Park Crescent.
It is significant that Highdown was being used as a cemetery by pagan Saxons at the same time that Romano-British villa at nearby Northbrook, less than a mile away was still in use by local Celtic Christians.
[17][18] 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.
Droveways (transhumance trackways) that extend from Tarring, Broadwater and nearby Sompting to grazing areas in the Weald via Cissbury Ring and Buncton near Wiston are believed to date from this period or earlier.
On his way across the Atlantic for the first time, William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, landed at Worthing from the Kent port of Deal with his ship, the Welcome, to pick up at least 16 people from Sussex.
John Luther, from London, started the trend, building a large lodging house around 1759[27] at the south end of High Street.
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.
Notable visitors to the fashionable town of Worthing in the 19th century included novelist Ann Radcliffe,[29] the Duke of Northumberland in 1802, Henry Dundas in 1804, Jane Austen in 1805, Lord Byron in 1806,[30] the Duke of Cumberland in 1817, George Eliot in 1855,[31] Oscar Wilde in 1893 and 1894, who wrote his masterpiece The Importance of Being Earnest while staying in the town in 1894, and the future Emperor Maximilian of Mexico.
The wall was built from the sea to the banks of the Teville Stream, which could only easily be crossed at one point – the bridge at the top of the High Street, close to the Anchor public house (today's Jack Horner).
Since the Teville Stream flows east and south to the sea, this effectively gave the town just one point of entry and exit, allowing 'undesirables' to be kept out.
W. Davison,[40] from the new St Paul's Church In the early hours of February 22, 1832, a major smuggling foray took place when 300 kegs of contraband spirits[41] were unloaded at the beach opposite the Steyne.
As with many towns and villages in Sussex and Kent, close proximity to the Continent made the trade of smuggling a lucrative and popular business.
On 25 November 1850, eleven local fishermen were drowned as they set out from the town's beach to save the crew of the barque the Lalla Rookh, a trading vessel of around 700 tons.
The boat was in distress in a storm 3 miles (4.8 km) off the coast, and eleven fishermen set out on board a small ferry, the Britannia.
[46][47] In the 1880s, Worthing was the scene of several riots and violent incidents as the Salvation Army's work in the town aroused much anger among the local population.
Later that year, Budd, who lived at Greenville, Grove Road, was elected to the town council as the independent representative of Ham Ward in Broadwater.
During World War II, a hole was blown through Worthing Pier to prevent it being used as a landing stage in the event of an invasion.
Chris Baldwin (a Legalise Cannabis Alliance activist) first opened one in a back room of his shop, "Bongchuffa", on Rowlands Road.
