Rustington
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Rustington is a small town and
civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...
in the
Arun District Arun is a local government district in West Sussex, England. It contains the towns of Arundel, Bognor Regis and Littlehampton, and takes its name from the River Arun, which runs through the centre of the district."Arun" in ''The New Encyclo ...
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 ...
. Rustington is approximately at the midpoint of the West Sussex coast and midway between the county town of
Chichester Chichester () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in West Sussex, England.OS Explorer map 120: Chichester, South Harting and Selsey Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publi ...
and Brighton. The A259 runs along the north of Rustington, westward to Littlehampton,
Bognor Regis Bognor Regis (), sometimes simply known as Bognor (), is a town and seaside resort in West Sussex on the south coast of England, south-west of London, west of Brighton, south-east of Chichester and east of Portsmouth. Other nearby towns i ...
and Chichester, and east to
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 ...
and Brighton. The area forms part of the
Brighton and Hove built-up area The Brighton and Hove Built-up area or Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton conurbation has a population of 474,485 (2011 census), making it England's 12th largest conurbation. This was an increase of around 3% from the 2001 population of 461,181. Na ...
. With a population of over 14,000 in 2014, it has the size and facilities of a small town, including a shopping area with a mix of independent and
chain store A chain store or retail chain is a retail outlet in which several locations share a brand, central management and standardized business practices. They have come to dominate the retail and dining markets and many service categories, in many pa ...
s. The parish of Rustington includes the
neighbourhood A neighbourhood (British English, Irish English, Australian English and Canadian English) or neighborhood (American English; American and British English spelling differences, see spelling differences) is a geographically localised community ...
of West Preston.


History

Rustington was in
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
home to a planned American aerodrome, to the east of the High Street. Intended to launch bombing raids against Germany, the airfield was incomplete when the war ende


Conservation area and information centre

Rustington contains a conservation area which extends from the south end of North Lane to ''The Lamb'' in The Street. Here, where trees are protected, are the largest number of pre-1850
listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
s in the
post town A post town is a required part of all postal addresses in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and a basic unit of the postal delivery system.Royal Mail, ''Address Management Guide'', (2004) Including the correct post town in the address increases ...
, with The Street and surrounding roads containing some of the finest 17th and 18th century Sussex flint cottages in West Sussex, some of which are
thatched Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge (''Cladium mariscus''), rushes, heather, or palm branches, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. Since the bulk of ...
. There is a village information centre at the Broadmark Lane car park, housed in the recently renovated WRVS building in the Waitrose car park. It also houses Rustington Museum, exploring the village's history from the Stone Age to the modern day with artefacts from throughout time.


Annual events

Rustington competes annually in the South-East in Bloom competition. It holds an annual carnival and fête in August. Close to Christmas Eve, Rustington has a village carol concert which is free for local residents and features local school children accompanied by the Littlehampton Concert Band.


Geography

Rustington adjoins the
English Channel The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...
, and is up to above Ordnance Datum. It has three main recreation grounds and neither woodland nor fields.


In music, literature and the media

"Rustington" is a well-known hymn tune by
Hubert Parry Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, 1st Baronet (27 February 18487 October 1918) was an English composer, teacher and historian of music. Born in Richmond Hill in Bournemouth, Parry's first major works appeared in 1880. As a composer he is be ...
, who lived and died in Rustington. Rustington achieved national fame in 1956 with the launch of Flanders and Swann's show '' At the Drop of a Hat'', in which " The Gnu Song" contains the lines:


Shopping facilities

Rustington has independent shops such as butchers, greengrocers and bakers. It has some major banks and a post office serving a population of 40,000. Pedestrianised areas benefit the Churchill Court Shopping Courtyard. On display in the high street is a large Late
Ice Age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gre ...
erratic boulder; this was brought to Rustington on ice during the last Ice Age. It was re-discovered in a local field named Stonefield having been used as a boundary marker for many years. Rustington also has a retail park on the A259 road.


Sport and leisure

Rustington has an amateur football club Rustington F.C. who play at the Recreation Ground. Also a cricket club based on the same ground and play throughout the summer with two teams on Saturdays and one on Sundays. In 2006, they didn't lose a single match, earning them a mention on
Sky Sports News Sky Sports News (SSN) is a British paid television sports news channel run by Sky, a division of Comcast. History Since 1992, Sky Sports had broadcast sports news, initially a brief ''Football Update'' and later this was expanded into a ...
on New Year's Eve. In 2017 the club celebrated its 125 Anniversary. The Saturday teams play in the West Sussex Invitation League and in 2016 the first eleven won the Division 4 title. There is also a thriving table tennis club , Woodlands TTC who are based at The Woodlands Centre who meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays.


Transport

Rustington shares Angmering railway station with Angmering and East Preston. Trains from this station go to Brighton and Portsmouth/Southampton, as well as regular services to London. Bus services to Brighton and Portsmouth are provided by the Coastliner 700 with many stops within the village itself.


In the news


Hot cross bun

*Paul Pegrum, of Pegrum's bakery (now Forfar's), created the world's biggest hot cross bun to publicise Rustington at Easter 2002. After four hours of cooking, the bun surpassed two out of the three existing records. A weights and measures inspector from Brighton and Hove Council found the bun had smashed the current weight record of , weighing in at . It is also the widest, with a diameter of .


Air speed records

Two world air speed records were set over Rustington sea front. #Set on 7 September 1946, by Group Captain Teddy Donaldson, flying a Gloster Meteor Star. Donaldson also became the first man to exceed . #Set on 7 September 1953, by Squadron Leader Neville Duke, flying Hawker Hunter WB188, at a speed of . To celebrate, on 7 September 1996, Neville Duke returned to Rustington to unveil a plaque, marking the event, joined by a Gloster Meteor and a Hawker Hunter, which flew over the sea front.


Twin towns

* Los Altos,
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
* Künzell,
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...


Notable people

*
Lindsay Anderson Lindsay Gordon Anderson (17 April 1923 – 30 August 1994) was a British feature-film, theatre and documentary director, film critic, and leading-light of the Free Cinema movement and of the British New Wave. He is most widely remembered for ...
, Indian-born English feature film, theatre and documentary director, film critic, and leading light of the
Free Cinema Free Cinema was a documentary film movement that emerged in the United Kingdom in the mid-1950s. The term referred to an absence of propagandised intent or deliberate box office appeal. Co-founded by Lindsay Anderson (but he later disdained the ...
movement and the
British New Wave The British New Wave is a style of films released in Great Britain between 1959 and 1963. The label is a translation of '' Nouvelle Vague'', the French term first applied to the films of François Truffaut, and Jean-Luc Godard among others. Styli ...
. He wrote '' If....'' while living in his mother's house on the village's Sea Estate. *
J M Barrie Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, (; 9 May 1860 19 June 1937) was a Scottish novelist and playwright, best remembered as the creator of Peter Pan. He was born and educated in Scotland and then moved to London, where he wrote several succe ...
, Scottish author and dramatist; a friend of the Llewellyn Davies family who had a house in Rustington and were the inspiration of his book ''
Peter Pan Peter Pan is a fictional character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie. A free-spirited and mischievous young boy who can fly and never grows up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood having adventures on the mythi ...
''. * Delirious?, English Christian rock and worship band members lived in the village. * Huw Edwards-Jones, cabinetmaker and five-time Guild Mark recipient, was born in Rustington. * Agnes Garrett (who, with her cousin Rhoda Garrett opened the first interior design company in Britain to be run by women) had a house in Rustington. Agnes's sister Millicent Garrett Fawcett (suffragist leader) also lived there after she was widowed. Another sister,
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (9 June 1836 – 17 December 1917) was an English physician and suffragist. She was the first woman to qualify in Britain as a physician and surgeon. She was the co-founder of the first hospital staffed by women, ...
(first woman to qualify as a doctor), also visited. * Nigel Hitchcock, saxophonist *
Stanley Holloway Stanley Augustus Holloway (1 October 1890 – 30 January 1982) was an English actor, comedian, singer and monologist. He was famous for his comic and character roles on stage and screen, especially that of Alfred P. Doolittle in ''My F ...
, English actor, comedian, singer and monologist who lived next to the sea at East Preston. * Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe, landscape architect, garden designer, architect and author, raised in Rustington. *
Sir Hubert Parry Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, 1st Baronet (27 February 18487 October 1918) was an English composer, teacher and historian of music. Born in Richmond Hill, Bournemouth, Richmond Hill in Bournemouth, Parry's first major works appeared in 18 ...
, composer of hymn melodies, some becoming templates, including '"Rustington". He lived in Sea Lane (from 1880-d.1918). * Andrew Pearson, cricketer who played for
Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. The county has been administered by three unitary authorities, Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Borough of Luton, since Bedfordshire County Council ...
. *
Ed Petrie Edward Oliver James "Ed" Petrie (born 22 August 1978) is an English actor, comedian, and television presenter. Early life Petrie was born and raised in Rustington, West Sussex. He was educated at Broadwater Manor in Worthing, West Sussex, and ...
, British comedian, actor and television presenter. He was born and raised in the village. * George Posford, English composer, most notably famed for "Good Night Vienna" *
Graham Sutherland Graham Vivian Sutherland (24 August 1903 – 17 February 1980) was a prolific English artist. Notable for his paintings of abstract landscapes and for his portraits of public figures, Sutherland also worked in other media, including printmaking ...
, English artist * Mitchell Symons, journalist and bestselling author. He has lived just outside the village since 1995. * Ben Thatcher, drummer of the popular British rock duo Royal Blood. * Brian White, cartoonist. He spent much of his later life in the village. *
Leslie Arthur Wilcox Leslie Arthur Wilcox, RI, RSMA (13 March 1904 – 11 January 1982) was an English artist known mainly for his marine works in oils. He was also a watercolourist, illustrator, poster artist, marine model-maker and author. He was for some ye ...
R.I., R.S.M.A., marine artist. He lived in Cove Road from 1963 to 1982.


References


External links


Rustington Village Website - History
{{Authority control Arun District Populated coastal places in West Sussex Towns in West Sussex Beaches of West Sussex