is a
Town and
Civil Parish in the
Arun District of
West Sussex on the south coast of
England . The parish covers an area of 1135.01ha and has a population of 25,593 persons (2001 census). It is located on the east bank at the mouth of the
River Arun .
As with other larger communities along the West Sussex coast, the conurbation includes other settlements:
Wick in the north west;
Lyminster and
Angmering to the north;
East Preston and
Rustington to the east. Wick and Toddington became part of the town in 1901.
In the seventeenth century Littlehampton had a population of only 100-150 people though it did have a ferry, smithy and alehouse. This had grown to 584 people by 1801, and by 1911 the population was 8351. In the 1930's the town was receiving 250,000 holidaymakers and day trippers every year. The town continued to expand: there were over 12,000 inhabitants by 1945, and 25,000 by 1996. The additional population was housed in the large Wickbourne and Beaumont estates.
The town began as the
Anglo-Saxon village of Hampton, in the kingdom of
Sussex , and
Roman remains have been found here. The name Little Hampton was given to it in the fourteenth century by sailors in order to differentiate it from the larger
Southampton .
The forces of
Empress Matilda landed at Littlehampton in 1139 when she began the
Civil War with
King Stephen .
The manor was given by continued to own much of Littlehampton until the 1930's.
Littlehampton Redoubt was built to guard the town in the 1750's. Littlehampton used to be a resort of artists and writers, attracted by its peaceful atmosphere compared to larger towns such as
Brighton . In particular Percy Bysshe
Shelley and Samuel Taylor
Coleridge spent a lot of time there, as well as
Lord Byron who often swam in the river.
In the 1820's Littlehampton overtook
Arundel , the oldest port on the
Arun as the river's main harbour. Littlehampton officially became a town in 1853, under the Littlehampton Board of Health. The motto "Progress" was chosen.
The arrival of the railway in 1863, by a branch line from today's main
West Coastway Line at Arundel Junction (now
Ford Railway Station changed the character of the town making the harbour less important but beginning the holiday trade. A cross-channel ferry was run from the port from the opening of the railway until 1882 when it was lost to
Newhaven .
The
RNLI station was opened in 1967, having been funded by an appeal by the television programme
Blue Peter . This was the first Blue Peter lifeboat.
Charles Pelham (1885-1940) was the first lifeboat captain.
Among Littlehampton's churches is the parish church of St Catherine, wherein lies the grave of
Katherine O'Shea ("Kitty O'Shea") (1845-1921), the wife of
Charles Stewart Parnell .
The headquarters of
The Body Shop is located in Littlehampton.
Littlehampton lies within the
Constituency of Bognor Regis and Littlehampton, the MP for which is
Nick Gibb (Conservative).
The town
Newspaper is the Littlehampton Gazette.
An important annual event is the parade organised by the
Bonfire Society . Littlehampton supports a wide range of performance groups including the Musical Comedy Society and Players Operatic Society who perform regularly throughout the year. It also holds a very popular 'Last Night of the Proms' concert performed annually by the Littlehampton Concert Band who also play regularly in the town throughout the year.
In 2004, Littlehampton was voted as being the 18th Worst Place to live in the United Kingdom by visitors to the
Idler website . The results were published in the book
Crap Towns II.
