Шорхем-бай-Си: История приморского города в Западном Сассексе.

Town in West Sussex, England

Shoreham by Sea (often shortened to Shoreham) is a coastal town and port in West Sussex, England. The town is bordered to its north by the South Downs, to its west by the Adur Valley, and to its south by the River Adur and Shoreham Beach on the English Channel. The town lies in the middle of the ribbon of urban development along the English south coast, approximately equidistant from the city of Brighton and Hove to the east and the town of Worthing to the west. Shoreham covers an area of and has a population of 20,547 (2011 census).

Old Shoreham dates back to pre Roman times. St Nicolas' Church, inland by the River Adur, is partly Anglo Saxon in its construction. The name of the town has an Old English origin. The town and port of New Shoreham was established by the Norman conquerors towards the end of the 11th century. St Mary de Haura Church (St Mary of the Haven) was built in the decade following 1103 (the Domesday Book was dated 1086), and around this time the town was laid out on a grid pattern that, in essence, still survives in the town centre. The present church is approximately half the size of the original structure – the former nave was already in ruins by the time of the English Civil War, although evidence of the original west façade survive in the churchyard to this day. Muslim geographer Muhammad al Idrisi, writing c. 1153, described Shoreham as "a fine and cultivated city containing buildings and flourishing activity". An 18th century naval chartist and artist, Captain Henry Roberts, who was once a lieutenant under Captain Cook, was a native of Shoreham. The rapid growth of the neighbouring towns of Brighton, Hove and Worthing – and in particular the arrival of the railway in 1840 – prepared the way for Shoreham's rise as a Victorian sea port, with several shipyards and an active coasting trade. Shoreham Harbour remains in commercial operation today. The area became an urban district, with Shoreham Town Hall as its headquarters, in 1910.

Originally the people of Kingston Buci may have lived at Thundersbarrow. This may have been the centre of a large estate in the post Roman Dark Ages. However, in early or mid Saxon times, the people may have re located down off the hill to Kingston Buci , which sits to the east of Shoreham by Sea. It has a medieval church, rectory, manor house, and huge old barn which still make it a remarkable cluster – and, like Cissbury (where the people came off the hill to form Findon) and at Mount Caburn (where people re located down at Beddingham), this stranded settlement is three quarters of a mile from the Downs. The church here was extensively re modelled in the thirteenth century when the shifting river estuary temporarily made Kingston a port town. The 'king' of the name 'Kingston' may have referred to a Saxon king of Sussex. The 'Buci' part of the name comes from the Anglo Norman owners' hometown of Bouce in Normandy.

Shoreham Beach, to the south of the town, is a shingle spit deposited over millennia by longshore drift. This blocks the southerly flow of the River Adur which turns east at this point to discharge into the English Channel further along the coast at a point that has varied considerably over time. During the 17th and 18th centuries, the mouth of the river shifted eastwards which restricted trade to the port; by 1810, it was almost opposite Aldrington church. In 1816, work had been completed to fix the position of the river in its present position, flowing into the sea between two piers. Once the harbour mouth was stabilised, it was defended by Shoreham Fort, which was built in 1857. Converted railway carriages became summer homes around the start of the 20th century, and 'Bungalow Town', as it was then known, became home to the early British film industry. Francis L. Lyndhurst founded the Sunny South Film Company, which made its first commercial movie on Shoreham Beach in 1912 and built a film studio there. Shoreham Beach officially became part of Shoreham by Sea in 1910. Much of the housing in the area was cleared for defence reasons during the Second World War and most of what remained after the war is now long gone, having been replaced by modern houses. The Church of the Good Shepherd, built in 1913, still stands. Along the Adur mud flats adjacent to Shoreham Beach sits (and at high tides floats) a large collection of houseboats made from converted barges, tugs, mine sweepers, and motor torpedo boats. The seaside shingle bank of Shoreham beach extends further east past the harbour mouth, forming the southern boundary of the commercial harbour in Southwick, Portslade, and Hove. The Monarch's Way long distance footpath, commemorating the escape route of Charles II to France after the Battle of Worcester, follows the beach westwards from Hove past Portslade and Southwick, ending by the harbour mouth's east breakwater.

The River Adur, the downs, and the sea support a diverse wildlife flora and fauna in the area. The mudflats support wading birds and gulls, including the ringed plover which attempts to breed on the coastal shingle. The underlying rock is chalk on the downs, with alluvium in the old river channels. The Adur district has a variety of habitats in a small area, including natural chalk downs and butterfly meadows, freshwater and reed beds, salt marsh and estuary, brackish water lagoons, woodland, shingle seashore, chalk platform undersea, and large expanses of sand. Southwick Hill and the smaller sites connected to it are the second biggest surviving complex of ancient Down pasture on the entire plateau of the Brighton Downs (the biggest is around Castle Hill, near Woodingdean). :209

The town is the end point of the Monarch's Way, a long distance footpath, based on the escape route taken by King Charles II in 1651 after being defeated by Cromwell in the Battle of Worcester.

Mill Hill is also known as Shoreham bank, as the hillside falls sharply to the River Adur. It is a Local Nature Reserve and has been famous for its butterflies since the 1820s. In May, the hillside is dusted yellow with horseshoe vetch: the butterflies' food plant. In August, the hillside is colourful with knapweeds, pink centaury, the tiny white pinpoints of eyebright, and the white umbels of wild carrot, wild parsnip, St John's wort, and wild thyme. The Hill is known for its dingy skippers and grizzled skippers in the spring, and in summer the chalkhill blue and Adonis blue are 'flagship' species of this Hill. From Mill Hill it is possible to see Applesham Farm, which was a village at the time of the Domesday Book in 1086. To the north end is another Saxon farm, Old Erringham, which King Alfred's successors fortified to defend the estuary. To the south is the Norman church of Old Shoreham, almost on the banks of the Adur, and next to it are the wooden piers of the 1781 toll bridge, which collected traffic tolls up to the 1960s.

Erringham Hole is the bushy combe to the east of Thundersbarrow, whose Celtic villagers built the huge field lynchets, parts of which are up to 12 feet in height. It was called 'Erringham Hole' because it was part of Old Erringham Farm. Old Erringham Hole (not to be confused with Whitelot Bottom, which is the ploughed land further east down the combe) has flowery chalk grassland, scrub, rank grassland, and lots of rabbits. The rabbits encourage rabbit resistant plants like tall woolly mullein (complete with mullein moth caterpillars, hound's tongue, ground ivy, and eyebright. Until 25 years ago, the combe remained substantially open and the ancient lynchet system was plain to see, but cessation of grazing and a lack of scrub control has allowed the species rich Down pasture to be lost to simplified scrub and even secondary woodland. It was presumably built as a defence against the Vikings, though it's difficult to pick it out amongst the grassy plats now. It is a mixed farm with corn crops, beef cattle, a bit of livery stabling, and hay meadows. The farm manages the sites of Old Erringham Combe and Anchor Bottom to preserve their natural value. Around the farmstead there is red star thistle (a Brighton Downs speciality), musk thistle, spear thistle, welted thistle, creeping thistle, teasel, and viper's bugloss, all adding summer colour. They were surrounded by a rectangular ditched enclosure and perhaps made into a 'temenos' or temple. Ritual deposits of animals and coins were buried at the site. :122 Evening shadows reveal dips and hummocks at the Hill's southern end, although they are probably due to the trench digging of the large army camp that came here during the First World War. There are three places that were spared the damage of decades of agribusiness on the hill: an island of old Down pasture on the eastern slope, an old bostal track, which winds down the slope at its southern end, and a patch of hillside a few hundred yards north, surrounded by Iron Age field lynchets. More recently, the use of agrochemicals has stopped, and the hillside is again colourful with herbs. The intact areas have pyramidal orchid, spotted orchid, meadow oat grass, crested hair grass, and round headed rampion. a Crimewatch type reconstruction (2000, ITV Meridian), BBC Tenko series episode, scenes of The Da Vinci Code, and the film Woman in Gold. The town is served by Shoreham by Sea railway station, located on the West Coastway Line. Local bus services are provided by the Brighton & Hove bus company, Stagecoach South, and a local town route is operated by Compass Travel. Shoreham Tollbridge crosses the River Adur in the west of the town. This bridge is a Grade II* listed building and was the last Sussex toll bridge in use. The bridge was part of the A27 road until it was closed to traffic in 1968. The structure is now too weak to carry vehicles and underwent extensive restoration, then was ceremonially re opened for pedestrians on 23 October 2008, by Prince Andrew, Duke of York. Adur Ferry Bridge in the south of the town (replacing the old Shoreham footbridge) crosses the River Adur to Shoreham Beach. It was opened to the public by the Duke of Gloucester on 13 November 2013.

Local news and television programmes is provided by BBC South East and ITV Meridian. Television signals are received from the Whitehawk Hill TV transmitter. The town’s local radio stations are BBC Radio Sussex on 95.3 FM, Heart South on 103.5 FM, More Radio Worthing on 107.7 FM and Seaside Hospital Radio that broadcast from the Southlands Hospital in Shoreham. Local newspapers are the Shoreham Herald, West Sussex Gazette and The Argus.

Shoreham by Sea has a non League football club, Shoreham FC, who play at Middle Road stadium with a 2,000 seat capacity, and a rugby union club, Shoreham RFC, who play at Buckingham Park. Southdown Golf Club was founded in 1902, but ceased to operate in the 1940s. The town centre hosts monthly farmers' and artisans' markets in East Street on the second and fourth Saturday of the month, respectively, together with the annual 'Light up Shoreham' Christmas market and event.

Most years, in late summer, Shoreham Airport hosts the Royal Air Forces Association (RAFA) Shoreham Airshow. On 22 August 2015, a Hawker Hunter jet fighter taking part in the airshow crashed onto the busy A27 road just outside the airport, killing eleven people and injuring several others.