Offington is a neighbourhood of

Worthing Worthing () is a seaside town in West Sussex, England, at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of Chichester. With a population of 111,400 and an area of , the borough is the second largest component of the Brighton and Ho ...

, in the borough of

West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ...

, England. It lies on the A2031 road 1.6 miles (2.5 km) northwest of the town centre. Today, the area is a residential suburb of Worthing. Offington was part of the parish of Broadwater and became part of the borough of Worthing in 1902. It is possibly best known for its large manor house, which survived from medieval times to the 1960s

Etymology

Offington means Offa's farmstead. Offington's name is of

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...

origin. The name 'Offa' would have been relatively common in the Saxon era and there is no evidence to suggest that the name is derived from

King Offa Offa (died 29 July 796 AD) was King of Mercia, a kingdom of Anglo-Saxon England, from 757 until his death. The son of Thingfrith and a descendant of Eowa, Offa came to the throne after a period of civil war following the assassination of Æ ...

of Mercia, although it is possible that Offa took control over the

Kingdom of Sussex la, Regnum Sussaxonum , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of the South Saxons , capital = , era = Heptarchy , status = Vassal of Wessex (686–726, 827–860)Vassal of Mercia (771–796) , governm ...

in the eighth century. In 1086, the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...

the settlement was recorded as ''Ofintune'' in the ancient

hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to des ...

Steyning Steyning ( ) is a town and civil parish in the Horsham district of West Sussex, England. It is located at the north end of the River Adur gap in the South Downs, four miles (6.4 km) north of the coastal town of Shoreham-by-Sea. The smaller ...

in the Rape of Bramber.Open Domesday Online: Offington
/ref>

History

In the mid-eleventh century, Offington was held by

Godwin, Earl of Wessex Godwin of Wessex ( ang, Godwine; – 15 April 1053) was an English nobleman who became one of the most powerful earls in England under the Danish king Cnut the Great (King of England from 1016 to 1035) and his successors. Cnut made Godwin the ...

. Following the successful Norman invasion of 1066, Offington, along with neighbouring settlements continued as part of the

rape of Bramber The Rape of Bramber (also known as Bramber Rape) is one of the rapes, the traditional sub-divisions unique to the historic county of Sussex in England. It is the smallest Sussex rape by area. Bramber is a former barony whose original seat wa ...

. Offington Manor House was apparently recorded in 1357. By the mid 15th century there was a large complex of buildings including at least one courtyard, a chapel, a guest-house, and a gate-house. Offington was home to Thomas West, 8th Baron De La Warr and his son

Thomas West, 9th Baron De La Warr Thomas West, 9th Baron De La Warr and 6th Baron West, KG (c. 1475 – 25 September 1554) was the eldest son of Thomas West, 8th Baron De La Warr, by his second wife, Elizabeth Mortimer, daughter of Sir Hugh Mortimer of Martley and Kyre Wyard, W ...

. The 8th Baron West was also buried in Broadwater's Parish Church. In the 1850s, Thomas Gaisford extended the house further, including a new library and a chapel. The chapel became Worthing's chief place of

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

worship until the building of Worthing first Catholic church, St Mary of the Angels. There is a local legend that a tunnel containing buried treasure led from Offington House to the ancient hill fort of

Cissbury Cissbury Ring is an biological Site of Special Scientific Interest north of Worthing in West Sussex. It is owned by the National Trust and is designated a Scheduled monument for its Neolithic flint mine and Iron Age hillfort. Cissbury R ...

to the north and was protected by a serpent. Simpson, Jacqueline, "Folklore of Sussex" (2002) Tempus The former outbuilding of Offington Manor, the Old Brewhouse in Hall Close is grade II listed. Said to date from 1150, the present structure is probably mainly 16th-17th century. Also the 18th century former stables of Offington Hall remain and are grade II listed. They were known as Offington Hall Riding School in Hall Avenue but have now been converted into living accommodation and are owned by the Offington Park Club. Actor Roger Moore was evacuated to Offington and lived with a family in Shirley Drive during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

References

{{authority control Suburbs of Worthing