Littlehampton

A human settlement at Littlehampton can be traced back to prehistoric and Roman times, while it appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 as the small hamlet of 'Hantone'.[4] The settlement is believed to have been a fishing community around this time, appearing on a French map in around 1100 as 'Hanton'.[4] The settlement is then believed to have been given to the Abbey of St Martin de Seez in Normandy, who owned Littlehampton until around 1400. The area then passed back to the ownership of successive Earls of Arundel and Dukes of Norfolk, whose successors still reside in Arundel today.

Littlehampton began to develop as a port as a result of constant silting of the River Arun, perhaps leading to the prefix of 'Little' being added to 'Hampton', in order to distinguish it from the larger Southampton further along the coast.[4] The expansion of port activities led to a new river mouth being cut in 1735, alongside the building of a wooden harbour. At this time it was also known as Arundel Port.[5]

As the eighteenth century progressed, the town developed from a fishing community to a holiday destination, with Lord Byron, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Constable all believed to have spent time there.[4]

The Pier & Harbour Littlehampton by A. R. Quinton (postcard marked 1922)

The town's status as both a port and a holiday resort led to economic success in the nineteenth century, with a railway line and a cross-channel ferry to Honfleur in France being introduced.[6] The population of the town grew tenfold over the century, from 584 in 1801 to 5,954 in 1901.[4] Littlehampton remained as a holiday resort in the twentieth century, becoming known as 'The Children's Paradise' in the 1920s.

Post-war Littlehampton saw large-scale house building on the outskirts of the town, eventually absorbing the surrounding villages of Wick, Lyminster and Toddington, while the commercial element of the town became increasingly focused on boat building and water sports.[4]

In 1967, the town attracted attention by becoming the base for the first ever Blue Peter lifeboat.[7]

The world headquarters of The Body Shop is situated towards the north of the town, and is a major employer in the area.

A local company, Dando Drilling International Ltd, has been exporting drilling rigs from Littlehampton since 1867. Van Heyningen Brothers (VHB) salad growers was a major employer in the town from 1964 to 2003.

Littlehampton lies within the parliamentary constituency of Bognor Regis and Littlehampton, the Member of Parliament (MP) for which is Conservative Nick Gibb.

At a local government level, Littlehampton is part of Littlehampton Town Council, Arun District Council and West Sussex County Council. Littlehampton currently has 10 seats on the district council, spread across five wards – Beach, Brookfield, Ham, River and Wick with Toddington. At the district elections held in May 2011, the Conservatives won 7 of these 10 seats, Labour 2 and the Liberal Democrats 1.[8] On West Sussex county council, the town is represented by two Conservatives and a Liberal Democrat.[9]

Littlehampton has one secondary school, The Littlehampton Academy, which opened in 2009, replacing the Littlehampton Community School.

For younger children there are five primary schools — Lyminster, River Beach, St. Catherine's, White Meadows and Georgian Gardens. These schools came into existence in 2011 following a major reorganisation of primary school provision in the town, which replaced six separate junior and infant schools with three primary schools. River Beach Primary was formed from the merging of Connaught Junior with Arun Vale and Elm Grove Infants schools,[10] whilst the merger of Flora McDonald Junior and Wickbourne Infants schools brought about the creation of White Meadows.[11] Lyminster existed before the reorganisation as an infant school and has now begun a phased expansion to become a primary school.[12]

A map of Littlehampton from 1946

Littlehampton is on the A259, though this bypasses most of the town. Littlehampton is connected to the A27 south coast trunk road by the A284, which also provides the main north–south route out of the town and links to the A29 and A24. The A27 also later links with the M27. The A280 also links Littlehampton to the A24 and is a main route from the north-east.

Littlehampton is served by three railway stations: Littlehampton, Angmering and Ford.

Train services from Littlehampton are provided by Southern with direct services to Brighton, London Victoria, Gatwick Airport, East Croydon, Bognor Regis, Chichester, Portsmouth and Southampton.

The Littlehampton Ferry links the east and west banks of the Arun. The ferry operates from 31 March to 30 September between 10 am and 5 pm, although has been closed in recent years due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The ferry company also provided harbour tours.

Gatwick Airport is an hour away to the north, Southampton Airport is an hour and a half away to the west, Chichester/Goodwood Airport is 30 minutes also to the west and Shoreham Airport is 45 minutes to the east. The Port of Dover and the Channel Tunnel about three hours to the east; Portsmouth Harbour an hour to the west and the Port of Newhaven about an hour to the east.

Littlehampton has a number of bus routes operated by Compass Travel and Stagecoach South. The bus station at Littlehampton handles anything up to 1,000 passengers a day.

Littlehampton also has a small number of taxis, with taxi ranks all over the town and four different taxi companies.

Littlehampton's port is based around the River Arun, which opens onto the English Channel. A small stretch of this, 5 miles out to sea and 6 miles wide, is locally known as the "Littlehampton Channel". Littlehampton started as a fishing port but now is a thriving port for thousands of leisure craft which visit from all over the UK and Europe. In 2009, use of leisure craft at Littlehampton rose to the extent that at least 200 more moorings were required.

Littlehampton is also a commercial port, handling around 50–60 ships a year from Ireland, the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and France with cargo including marine aggregates, stone, marble chippings and timber. From the early 1920s David Hillyard built yachts in Littlehampton, and the company of David Hillyard Ltd continued here until 2009,[13] producing a total of over 850 yachts.

• Mewsbrook Park
• Brookfield Park
• Rosemead Open Space
• East Beach Green
• West Beach Nature Reserve
• Norfolk Gardens
• Middle Mead
• Water Lane Recreation Ground
• St Catherines Recreation Ground
• Southfields Recreation Ground
• Linden Park Recreational Ground

St James the Great Church

St Mary's is the Anglican parish church while St Catherine's is the principal Catholic church.[14] In the cemetery, which is on the northern side of the town, lies the grave of Katharine O'Shea ("Kitty O'Shea") (1845–1921), the wife of Charles Stewart Parnell.

There are two other Anglican churches: St James the Great on Arundel Road[14] and All Saints in Wick.[15] Littlehampton Baptist Church, Littlehampton United Church (United Reformed and Methodist), Parkside Evangelical Church, the Arun Community Church (Evangelical), Trinity Church (Evangelical) and the Quaker Friends Meeting House also serve the town.[14][16]

The Littlehampton bonfire procession, bonfire and firework display is an annual event which has been organised by the Littlehampton Bonfire Society since 1952.[17] It is part of a series of bonfire festivals organised by Sussex Bonfire Societies throughout Sussex.

Littlehampton supports a range of performance groups including Stagedoor Theatre Company, The Edwin James Festival Choir & Orchestra, The Musical Comedy Society and Players Operatic Society who perform throughout the year. It also holds a popular 'Last Night of the Proms' concert performed annually by the Littlehampton Concert Band.[18]

On screen Littlehampton

• The BBC comedy sitcom Open All Hours is claimed to be based on a shop in Norfolk Road near to where Ronnie Barker lived, although the series was not written by Barker, and had finished airing before he moved to the town. There was also speculation that one of the characters in the sitcom, Granville could have been inspired by Granville Road nearby.[19][20]

The Oyster Pond

• Character actor Stanley Holloway (1890–1982) died in The Nightingale Nursing Home, Littlehampton, in 1982 aged 91.[21]
• Littlehampton was the backdrop for Swanage for the first episode of series 2 of the comedy drama series, The Inbetweeners, with filming taking place on the promenade and River Arun. Also the fifth episode of series 2, when Simon goes to see his dad,[22] was filmed at the Travelodge by the Body Shop.
• Littlehampton is also used as the town centre for the 'Moving On' episode of the BBC sitcom Ever Decreasing Circles.
• Littlehampton was in an episode of The Hungry Sailors on ITV.[23]
• Littlehampton was mentioned in the BBC sitcom "Are You Being Served", Episode 5 of the second series made in 1974, entitled "Hoorah For The Holidays", where the character Mr Grainger mentions planning his summer holiday to Littlehampton.[24]
• Odd Man Out, a comedy TV series from 1977 starring John Inman, was based in Littlehampton. It was about a man who leaves the safety of his Blackpool fish and chip shop to take over his deceased father's seaside rock factory in Littlehampton with his step-sister Dorothy. The programme ran for one series.[25]
• Series 21 of Nick Knowles' DIY SOS - the Big Build featured a home in Littlehampton.[26]

Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC South and ITV Meridian. Television signals are received from the Rowridge transmitter and via a local relay transmitter in Findon.[31][32]

The town’s local radio stations are BBC Radio Sussex on 104.8 FM, Heart South on 96.7 FM, Greatest Hits Radio West Sussex on 102.3 FM, More Radio Worthing on 107.7 FM, and V2 Radio, an DAB radio station.[33]

Littlehampton Gazette is the town’s weekly local newspaper.[34]

The Windmill Entertainment Centre is a small theatre and single-screen cinema, with a 213-seat auditorium situated on the seafront in Littlehampton.

Littlehampton lifeboat station

Littlehampton lifeboat station is one of the UK's busiest RNLI Lifeboat stations. As well as providing local search and rescue coverage, volunteer crew members also provided humanitarian help during flooding in East Pakistan over 35 years ago.[50] The lifeboat station operates two boats: an Atlantic 85 class lifeboat, Renee Sherman (B-891) and a D Class Lifeboat, Ray of Hope (D-769).[51][52] The Arun class of lifeboats (in service 1971–2008) take their name from the Arun river, which comes to a head at Littlehampton, however no Arun-class lifeboats have been stationed at the station.[53] Until the retiring of the Atlantic 75 class lifeboat, Blue Peter 1 (B-779) in 2016, Littlehampton lifeboat station had operated a lifeboat funded by viewers of the BBC television programme Blue Peter since 1967.[54]

Littlehampton's police station is situated just outside the town centre with a CID building and the head major incidents unit in West Sussex adjoining.[55] There was also an ambulance station adjacent to the police station, although it's not in use.[56]

Littlehampton's fire station, which is near the town centre, maintains two water-tender ladders.[57] The station has a full-time immediate response appliance, with the second appliance covered by on-call retained firefighters.[57] There is another fire station in East Preston with one water-tender ladder and a Red cross support unit.[58]

Littlehampton's hospital was demolished in 2005,[59] since then its replacement has been under debate at a local and national level.[60] Neighbouring Rustington has Zachary Merton Hospital, which lacks an Emergency department. It has 31 beds and other clinics.[61] The Fitzalan Medical Group has two surgeries in Littlehampton, including the headquarters surgery just outside the town centre and one in Wick.[62]

The flints that make up Littlehampton's West Beach contain quite a few fossils.[63] The flints are formed by silica from sea sponges and diatoms from around 60 to 95 million years ago. Some of the creatures become fossilised and can be seen as patterns on the outside of the flint. These are known locally as Shepherds crowns. The Littlehampton Museum[64] occasionally organises fossil hunting walks during the school holidays.

The following people and military units have received the Freedom of the Town of Littlehampton.

Littlehampton is twinned with two towns. Each is twinned with the others:

• Durmersheim, Germany
• Chennevières-sur-Marne, France

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Littlehampton.

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Littlehampton.

• Arun District Council
• Littlehampton Town Council
• Littlehampton at Curlie
• "Littlehampton" . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911.