When I first came to the South-east, after
a brief stopover in Crawley, I moved to
Brighton in the late 80s and, of course, it
was and is a great place to be. However,
once the boys started arriving, with
remarkable regularity it seemed, the
nice flat and laddish lifestyle suddenly
was not what was required. With
increasing regularity we were spending
our weekends in Shoreham with various
friends and it just felt like the place to be.
So we moved and nearly 20 years later,
with a couple of changes in address, we
are still here.
It is an historical town, which was settled
way back in roman times. St Nicholas
Church, which was where the old centre
of the ancient settlement used to be,
still has part of the Saxon church in
its structure. This was the site of the
original harbour and various kings have
passed through, including both King
John on his return to be crowned and
the future Charles II when escaping
from Cromwell in 1651.
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The town, and its surrounding area,
has many different aspects to it and
this is part of its attraction. The core
of the town is to this day built around
the town plan laid out by the Normans
immediately following 1066, though a
good proportion of the Norman town
now lies under water due to the silting
up of the river and formation of the spit
on which Shoreham Beach is now built.
The well-known Marlipins pub is one
of the few remaining original medieval
buildings so if you do fancy a pint in
there you can always justify it on the
basis of historical interest - I do!
Shoreham Beach itself, which used
to be called Bungalow Town due to
the style of buildings, was one of the
earliest centres of the British film
industry. The town is still used for a
variety of TV programmes and you
frequently see the art deco airport, one
of the first commercial airports in the
country, in programmes such as Poirot.
It is still a functioning airport and each
year hosts the major RAFA Airshow
when a huge variety of aircraft, both
modern and old, put on a fantastic
display over a weekend.
The airshow can be watched from a
variety of places but one of the best is
from the old toll bridge across the Adur
river, which was built by Welsh miners
in the First World War. Amazingly, this
rickety structure, which has in fact been
beautifully restored recently, used to
be the main road west to Worthing
until 1968. There used to be an annual
bathtub that passed under the bridge
and we had immense fun when my boys
were young, standing on the bridge
and throwing small bags of flour at the
participants. I should add this was part
of local tradition and not some imported
West Walian habit!
The town itself is constantly changing
and I think improving. The Ropetackle
development and arts centre has
greatly improved the west end of