39 Facts About Worthing

Worthing is a seaside town in West Sussex, England, at the foot of the South Downs, 10 miles west of Brighton, and 18 miles east of Chichester.

Worthing was a small mackerel fishing hamlet for many centuries until, in the late 18th century, it developed into an elegant Georgian seaside resort and attracted the well-known and wealthy of the day.

From around 4000BC, the South Downs above Worthing was Britain's earliest and largest flint-mining area, with four of the UK's 14 known flint mines lying within 7 miles of the centre of Worthing.

Worthing remained an agricultural and fishing hamlet for centuries until the arrival of wealthy visitors in the 1750s.

Worthing became the world's 229th Transition Town in October 2009.

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Local government for the borough of Worthing is shared between Worthing Borough Council and West Sussex County Council in a two-tier structure.

Since 2014, Worthing has been within the area of the Greater Brighton City Region.

Until 1945 Worthing formed part of the Horsham and Worthing parliamentary constituency.

Worthing is situated in West Sussex in South East England, 49 miles south of London and 10 miles west of Brighton and Hove.

The borough of Worthing is bordered by the West Sussex local authority districts of Arun in the north and west, and Adur in the east.

Worthing is situated on a mix of two beds of sedimentary rock.

The borough of Worthing contains no nature reserves: the nearest is Widewater Lagoon in Lancing.

Worthing has a temperate climate: its Koppen climate classification is Cfb.

Worthing is the second most densely populated local authority area in East and West Sussex, with a population density in 2011 of 33.

Worthing underwent dramatic population growth both in the early 19th century as the hamlet had newly become a town and again in the 1880s.

Worthing has a younger population than the other three districts of coastal West Sussex, albeit older than the South East average.

Protestant Nonconformism has a long history in Worthing: the town's first place of worship was an Independent chapel.

The Salvation Army have been established for more than a century, but their arrival in Worthing prompted large-scale riots involving a group called the Skeleton Army.

Worthing has 22 primary schools, six secondary schools, one primary and secondary special school, two independent schools, one sixth form college and one college of higher and further education.

The town's sixth form college, Worthing College, is located on a 8-hectare campus in Broadwater.

West Sussex County Council provides six state secondary schools: Bohunt School Worthing in Broadwater is a coeducational academy school, Durrington High School and St Andrews High School and Worthing High School are all coeducational, with St Andrew's taking in girls from 2021.

Davison High School in East Worthing is a girls' school.

Worthing's economy is dominated by the service industry, particularly financial services.

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.

Worthing-based Compass Travel have routes to Angmering, Chichester, Henfield and Lancing; and other companies serve Horsham, Crawley, Brighton and intermediate destinations.

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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.

Home Office policing in Worthing is provided by the Worthing district of the West Sussex division of Sussex Police.

Worthing Hospital is administered by the University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust.

Salvington in Worthing was the birthplace of philosopher and scholar John Selden in 1584.

Two of Percy Bysshe Shelley's earliest works were printed in Worthing, including The Necessity of Atheism in 1811, which resulted in Shelley's expulsion from Oxford University and falling out with his father.

Artists from Worthing include Alma Cogan, Royal Blood and The Ordinary Boys.

Worthing was home in the late 1960s to the Worthing Workshop, a group of artists and musicians who included Leo Sayer, Brian James of The Damned, Billy Idol and Steamhammer, whose guitarist, Martin Quittenton, went on to co-write Rod Stewart's UK number one hits "You Wear It Well" and "Maggie May".

For three days in 1970 a field on the outskirts of Worthing was the site of the Phun City music festival, the UK's first large-scale free music festival and organised by two former Worthing residents, UK underground musician and author Mick Farren and Gez Cox.

Worthing Artists' Open Houses is an annual festival of arts and crafts.

From 2008 to 2015, Worthing was the home to the International Birdman competition.

The Worthing Herald was founded in 1920; it acquired the Gazette in 1963, but continued to publish the newspapers separately until 1981.

Worthing is served by the BBC South television studios based in Southampton, BBC South East from Tunbridge Wells, and by the ITV franchise Meridian Broadcasting, with studios in Southampton.

Worthing United F C nicknamed 'the "Mavericks" were playing in the Division One of the Sussex County League in 2013.

Alongside Johannesburg and Adelaide, Worthing is one of only three locations in the world to have hosted the men's World Bowls Championship twice.