The county has a land area of 1,991 square kilometres (769 sq mi) and an estimated population of 915,037 in 2022. Along the south coast is a near-continuous urban area which includes the towns ofBognor Regis,Littlehampton, andWorthing; the last two are part of theBrighton and Hove built-up area, which extends into East Sussex. The interior of the county is generally rural, and contains the towns of Crawley andHorsham in the north-east and the city of Chichester in the south-west. Forlocal government purposes West Sussex is anon-metropolitan county with seven districts. West Sussex and East Sussex werehistorically a single county,Sussex.
TheSouth Downs are a defining feature of the county, crossing it from east to west and dividing the north and south. The downs are achalkescarpment which falls away sharply into theWeald to the north and more gently toward the south, where there is a narrow strip of flat land between the hills and the coast. The coastal strip widens to the west, where it is punctuated byChichester Harbour, aria.
The foundation of theKingdom of Sussex is recorded by theAnglo-Saxon Chronicle for the year AD 477; it says thatÆlle arrived at a place calledCymenshore in three ships with his three sons and killed or put to flight the local inhabitants. Thefoundation story is regarded as somewhat of a myth by most historians, although the archaeology suggests that Saxons did start to settle in the area in the late 5th century.[10][11] The Kingdom of Sussex was absorbed intoWessex as an earldom and became the county of Sussex.
Until 1834, provision for the poor and destitute in West Sussex was made at parish level. From 1835 until 1948 elevenPoor Law Unions, each catering for several parishes, took on the job.[12]
West Sussex is bordered by Hampshire to the west, Surrey to the north and East Sussex to the east. TheEnglish Channel lies to the south. The area has been formed fromUpper Jurassic andLower Cretaceous rock strata, part of theWeald–Artois Anticline. The eastern part of this ridge, theWeald of Kent, Sussex and Surrey has been greatly eroded, with the chalk surface removed to expose older Lower Cretaceous rocks of theWealden Group.[14] In West Sussex the exposed rock becomes older towards the north of the county withLower Greensand ridges along the border with Surrey including the highest point of the county atBlackdown. Erosion of softer sand and clay strata has hollowed out the basin of the Weald leaving a north facingscarp slope of thechalk which runs east and west across the whole county, broken only by the valleys of theRiver Arun andRiver Adur.[15] In addition to these two rivers which drain most of the county awinterbourne, theRiver Lavant, flows intermittently from springs on the dip slope of the chalk downs north of Chichester.[16] Some intermittent streams are known in the local dialect as "rifes".[17]
West Sussex is the sunniest county in the United Kingdom, according toMet Office records. Over the 29 years to 2011 it averaged 1902 hours of sunshine per year.[20] Sunshine totals are highest near the coast withBognor Regis often having the highest in mainland England, including a total of 2237 hours in 1990. Mean annual temperature for southern coastal counties is around 11 °C. The coldest month, January, has mean daily minimum temperatures of around 3 °C near the coast and lower inland. July tends to be the warmest month when mean daily maxima tend to be around 20 °C. A maximum temperature of 35.4 °C occurred at North Heath,Pulborough on 26 June 1976. Coastal high temperatures are often moderated by cooler sea breezes.[21]
Monthly rainfall tends to be highest in autumn and early winter and lowest in the summer months, with July often being the driest month. There is less rainfall from summer convective showers and thunderstorms than in inland areas. The county can suffer both from localised flooding caused by heavy rainfall and from water shortages caused by prolonged periods of below average rainfall. Winter rainfall is needed to recharge the chalk aquifers from which much of the water supply is drawn.[21]
TheM23 motorway runs from London to the south ofCrawley. TheA23 andA24 roads run from London toBrighton andWorthing respectively with theA29 a little further west ending inBognor Regis. Other major roads are theA272 which runs east to west through the middle of the county and theA27 which does the same but closer to the coast. TheA259 is a local alternate route to the A27 in the eastern coastal strip.
Gatwick Airport, which handled over 33 million passengers and had over 250,000 aircraft movements in 2011, is located within the borders ofCrawley, and is the second largest airport in the United Kingdom. There is also a considerably smaller local airport atShoreham Airport and a grass airfield handlinglight aircraft and helicopters atChichester/Goodwood Airport. There are three main railway routes: theBrighton Main Line, theArun Valley line and theWest Coastway line. ThePortsmouth Direct line serves and occasionally enters the westernmost part of West Sussex, although it has no railway stations in the county.
West Sussex County Council (WSCC) is the authority that governs the non-metropolitan county of West Sussex. The county contains 7 district and borough councils (Adur,Arun,Chichester,Crawley,Horsham,Mid Sussex andWorthing), and 159 town, parish and neighbourhood councils.
West Sussex County Council has 70councillors; the majority of them being Conservative. There are 40 Conservative councillors, 10Liberal Democrats, 9Labour Party councillors, 5 Green and Independent Alliance councillors, 4 Reform UK councillors, and 2 Independent.[23] The Chief Executive and their team of executive directors are responsible for the day-to-day running of the council.
West Sussex County Council is based atCounty Hall, Chichester and provides a large range of services including education, social services, fire and rescue, libraries, trading standards, town and country planning, refuse disposal and consumer services.
The West Sussex Youth Cabinet is a group of local representatives and fourUK Youth Parliament (UKYP) representatives, who are elected by young people in West Sussex.[24] The Youth Cabinet represents the views of the young people West Sussex at county level. Elections for the Youth Cabinet and UKYP in West Sussex run every year in March.[citation needed]
Bosham Church is partly ofSaxon construction and is shown on theBayeux Tapestry as the local church of late Saxon and Danish kings of England.[29] Many other Saxon and early Norman churches have survived in the county with little alteration including theChurch of St Mary the Blessed Virgin, Sompting, an 11th-century Anglo-Saxon church with aRhenish helm unique in England andSt. Nicholas Church, Worth, a 10th-century church inWorth,Crawley. Some Anglican churches and many of the numerous nonconformist chapels in the county have been converted to residential use.Cittaviveka is a Buddhist monastery inChithurst.
Pallant House Gallery in Chichester houses one of the most significant collections of 20th-century British art outside London. It includes a substantial body of early and mid-20th-century work bequeathed byWalter Hussey and many later works donated byColin St. John Wilson.
This sectionis in a table format thatmay be better if supplemented withprose. You can help by adding a prose summary of the table(s).Editing help is available.(September 2024)
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Trend of regionalgross value added of West Sussex at current basic prices published byOffice for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling.[34]
West Sussex developed distinctive land uses along with its neighbours in the weald. TheLandrace cattle transformed intoSussex cattle andSussex chickens emerged about the time of the Roman conquest.[35] Some of the earliest evidence of horses in Britain has been found atBoxgrove, dated to 500,000 BC. Viticulture is a part of the economy, with wineries producing mainly sparkling wine of varied quality.[36]
This sectionis in a table format thatmay be better if supplemented withprose. You can help by adding a prose summary of the table(s).Editing help is available.(September 2024)
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The table below shows the population change up to the2011 census, contrasting the previous census. It also shows the proportion of residents in each district reliant upon lowest income and/or joblessness benefits, the national average proportion of which was 4.5% as at August 2012, the year for which latest datasets have been published. It can be seen that the most populous district of West Sussex isArun containing the towns ofArundel,Bognor Regis andLittlehampton:
West Sussex has a comprehensive education system, with a mix of county-maintained secondary schools andacademies and over twenty independent senior schools. In addition primary education is provided through a mix of around 240infant,junior,primary,first andmiddle schools.
^A History of Britain, Richard Dargie (2007), p. 8–9
^H. Cleere & D. Crossley,Iron industry of the Weald (2nd edn, Merton Priory Press, Cardiff, 1995), 79–84; based on work by H. F. Cleere, including 'Some operating parameters for Roman ironworks'Inst Archaeol. Bull. 13 (1976), 233–46.
^Gallois R.W. & Edmunds M.A. (4th Ed 1965),The Wealden District, British Regional Geology series, British Geological Survey,ISBN0-11-884078-9
^Mantell, Gideon Algernon; Jones (1857).The Wonders of Geology. Vol. I. Thomas Rupert (7th ed.). London: Henry G. Bohn. p. 371.Archived from the original on 21 April 2021. Retrieved27 October 2013.
^Hobson, Jeremy and Lewis, Celia.Choosing & Raising Chickens: The complete guide to breeds and welfare. Daniel and Charles Publishing. London. 2009. p 94-95
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