Worthing

Heavy Haulage

Worthing West Sussex

Approximate Population: 99,600

Worthing is a large seaside town and a local government borough in West Sussex, England.   Around 100,000 people live within the borough itself and 183,000 in the urban area.   Situated in the centre of an 80 km (50-mile) wide bay on the Sussex coast, between Beachy Head and Selsey Bill, the borough of Worthing also lies at the foot of the South Downs, a proposed national park.

The area around Worthing has been populated for at least 6,000 years and contains Britain’s greatest concentration of Stone Age flint mines, which are some of the earliest mines in Europe.   Lying within the borough, the Iron Age hill fort of Cissbury Ring is one of Britain’s largest.   Worthing means “(place of) Worth/Worō’s people”, from the Old English personal name Worth/Worō (the name means “valiant one, one who is noble”), and -ingas “people of” (reduced to -ing in the modern name).

For many centuries Worthing was a small mackerel fishing hamlet until in the late eighteenth century it developed into an elegant Georgian seaside resort and attracted the well-known and wealthy of the day.   In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the area was one of Britain’s chief market gardening centres.

Heavy Haulage Worthing West Sussex

Crawley

Heavy Haulage Crawley

West Sussex

Approximate Population: 99,744

Although Crawley itself is not mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086, the nearby settlements of Ifield and Worth are recorded.  The first written record of Crawley dates from 1202, when a licence was issued by King John for a weekly market on Wednesdays.  Crawley grew slowly in importance over the next few centuries, but was boosted in the 18th century by the construction of the turnpike road between London and Brighton.   When this was completed in 1770, travel between the newly fashionable seaside resort and London became safer and quicker, and Crawley (located approximately halfway between the two) prospered as a coaching halt.

By 1839 it offered almost an hourly service to both destinations.  The George, a timber-framed house dating from the 15th century, expanded to become a large coaching inn, taking over adjacent buildings.  Eventually an annexe had to be built in the middle of the wide High Street; this survived until the 1930s.  The original building has become the George Hotel, with conference facilities and 84 bedrooms; it retains many period features including an iron fireback.

Crawley’s oldest church is St John the Baptist’s, between the High Street and the Broadway. It has 13th century origins, but there has been much rebuilding (especially in the 19th century) and the oldest part remaining is the south wall of the nave, which is believed to be 14th century.   The church has a 15th-century tower (rebuilt in 1804) which originally contained four bells cast in 1724.   Two were replaced by Thomas Lester of London in 1742; but in 1880 a new set of eight bells were cast and installed by the Croydon-based firm Gillett, Bland & Company.

The Coventry Canal terminates near the city centre at Coventry Canal Basin and is navigable for 61 km (38 miles) to Fradley Junction in Staffordshire.

Heavy Haulage Crawley West Sussex

Chichester

Heavy Haulage

Chichester West Sussex

Approximate Population: 23,731

It has been argued that Chichester was a bridgehead for the Roman invasion of Britain. The city centre stands on the foundations of the Romano-British city of Noviomagus Reginorum, capital of the Civitas Reginorum, and near to the Roman Palace of Fishbourne.

According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle it was captured towards the close of the fifth century, by Ælle, and renamed after his son, Cissa. It was the chief city of the Kingdom of Sussex. The Roman Road of Stane Street, connecting Fishbourne Palace with London, passes through the city centre.

The city streets have a cross-shaped layout, inherited from the Romans: radiating outwards from the medieval market cross lead the North, South, East and West shopping streets. Quite a lot of the city walls are in place, and may be walked along over what still remains .

An amphitheatre was built close to what would have been the city walls, outside the East Gate in around 80 AD. The remains are now buried under land currently used as a park, but the bank of the amphitheatre is clearly discernible and a notice board in the park gives more information.

Heavy Haulage Chichester West Sussex

Brighton

Heavy Haulage

Brighton East Sussex

Approximate Population: 263,464

The Royal Pavilion is a former royal palace built as a home for the Prince Regent during the early 1800s and is notable for Indian architecture and Oriental interior design. The building and grounds were purchased by the town in 1849 for £53,000.

Brighton Pier (originally and in full “The Brighton Marine Palace and Pier”, and for long known as the Palace Pier) opened in 1899.   It features a funfair, restaurants and arcade halls.   The funfair has been criticised for its prices, with rides costing up to £8. Brightonians refer to it as Palace Pier in protest at the commercialisation.

The West Pier was built in 1866 and has been closed since 1975 awaiting renovation, which faces continual setbacks, in part because the owners of the Palace Pier, the Noble Organisation, have opposed plans.[12] The West Pier is one of only two Grade I listed piers in the United Kingdom, but suffered two fires in 2003.   Plans for a new landmark in its place – the i360, a 183m (600 ft) observation tower designed by London Eye architects Marks Barfield – were announced in June 2006. Plans were approved by the council on 11 October 2006.  As of early 2009, construction had yet to begin.

Created in 1883, Volk’s Electric Railway runs along the inland edge of the beach from Brighton Pier to Black Rock.   It is the world’s oldest operating electric railway.

Heavy Haulage Brighton East Sussex