Worthing

[7] It was listed as Ordinges or Wordinges in the Domesday Book[8] and was subsequently known as Wuroininege, Wurdingg, Wording or Wurthing, Worthinges, Wyrthyng, Worthen and Weorðingas.The more obvious Middle English worth is not likely as well, as there was a dramatic Norman language influence on the spelling at the time of the Domesday Book.On 9 October 1934 violent confrontations took place in the town between protestors and Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists which subsequently became known as the Battle of South Street.Historically within Sussex, in the rape of Bramber, Worthing is built on the South Coast Plain facing the English Channel.One of the Ferring Rife's sources is in Titnore Wood, a Site of Nature Conservation Interest and one of the last remaining blocks of ancient woodland on the coastal plain.The lumps, described as "one of the best chalk reefs in Europe" by the Marine Conservation Society, are home to rare fish such as blennies and the lesser spotted dogfish.Just south of the shoreline lies remains of what was once an extensive kelp forest which until the 1980s stretched from Bognor Regis to Brighton and covered approximately 177 km2 (68 sq mi).Worthing has a younger population than the other three districts of coastal West Sussex, albeit older than the South East average.Major employers include GSK, LEMO electronics, Rayner Lenses, HM Revenue & Customs, the Environment Agency and Southern Water.[86] In October 2009, GlaxoSmithKline confirmed that 250 employees in Worthing would lose their jobs at the factory, which makes the antibiotics co-amoxiclav (Augmentin) and amoxicillin (Amoxin) and hundreds of other products.[89] 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.[100] A new £16 million municipal swimming pool, Splash Point Leisure Centre, has been designed by Stirling Prize-winning architects Wilkinson Eyre;[101] it was opened by Paralympian Ellie Simmonds in June 2013.[102] 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.[111] Worthing-based Compass Travel have routes to Angmering, Chichester, Henfield and Lancing;[112] and other companies serve Horsham, Crawley,[113] Brighton[114] and intermediate destinations.[118] 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.[124] The Worthing and Adur District Team, part of the West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service,[125] employs 60 full-time and 18 retained firefighters.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.Hudson,[135] Stephen Spender,[141] Dorothy Richardson,[142] Edward Knoblock,[143] Beatrice Hastings,[144] Maureen Duffy,[145] Vivien Alcock,[146] John Oxenham[135] and his daughter Elsie J.[148][150] Many films and television programmes have been filmed using Worthing as the backdrop including: Pinter's The Birthday Party (1968),[151] directed by William Friedkin (best known for directing The French Connection in 1971 and The Exorcist in 1973), Black Mirror (2023), Dance with a Stranger (1985),[152] Wish You Were Here (1987),[152] Stan & Ollie (2018),[153] My Policeman (2022),[154] Vindication Swim (2024)[155] and Wicked Little Letters (2024) [156] as well as the television drama series Cuffs (2015).[162] In the late 1980s and early 1990s Sterns Nightclub was a major centre for rave culture in the UK[163] and Worthing continues to have a notable electronic music scene.[135] and more recently Jamie Hewlett and Alan Martin created cult comic figure Tank Girl while at college in the town in the 1980s.Hand-painted by Gary Bevans over more than five years, English Martyrs' Catholic Church in Goring has the world's only known reproduction of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling.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".These structures surround the entrance doors of some early 19th-century houses, and take the form of a stuccoed porch with an ogee-headed roof which resembles the bottom of a boat.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.[201] 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".[199][202] The town has five miles of beach and large areas of open space on the South Downs including the Worthing Downland Estate, Cissbury Ring and Highdown Hill.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.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.