Lancing

Lancing
Sussex
Beach huts on Lancing Beach
Location
Grid reference:	TQ184049
Location:	50°49’55"N, 0°19’8"W
Data
Population:	18,810  (2011)
Post town:	Lancing
Postcode:	BN15, BN99
Dialling code:	01903
Local Government
Council:	Adur
Parliamentary constituency:	East Worthing and Shoreham
Website:	Lancing Parish Council

Lancing is a village in Sussex, on the western edge of the Adur Valley. It occupies part of the narrow central section of the Sussex coastal plain between smaller Sompting to the west, larger Shoreham-by-Sea to the east and the parish of Coombes to the north. Excluding definitive suburbs it may have the largest undivided village cluster in Britain. However, its economy is commonly analysed as integral to the Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton conurbation. Its settled area beneath the South Downs National Park covers 3.65 square miles; the majority of its land.

It is a mix of no more than mid-rise coastal urban homes and farms and wildlife reserves on northern chalk downs. The oldest buildings other than the parish church date to around 1500. The 2002 population was around 19,000.

The village was a popular seaside resort in the mid-19th century, gaining favour from the gentry of the time for its secluded atmosphere. Summer tourist hallmarks are the traditional guest houses on the A259 coast road, as well as beach chair hire and ice-cream businesses.

Name

Lancing probably means "The people of Wlanc" (Wlencingas) or "People of Hlanc" (Hlancingas). Like many places throughout this part of Sussex, Lancing has an -ing ending, meaning people of. Wlanc seems to mean proud or imperious, while Hlanc seems to mean lank or lean.

One suggestion is that Lancing takes its name from Wlencing or Wlenca, the son of Ælle, King of the South Saxons (and the founder of that kingdom). Little is known of Wlencing beyond a reference to him in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. This route for the village's name is not approved by leading etymological experts.

Location

There is a shingle beach with good stretches of clean sand at low water. Part of the coast road does not directly adjoin the sea but instead the long and narrow Widewater, a rare brackish lagoon, and the only known location of the probably extinct Ivell's sea anemone. Immediately north of the developed area is Lancing Ring, a Nature Reserve in the South Downs National Park. To the north of that is farmed agricultural downland connected to Lancing College Farm. On its eastern side is Shoreham Airport, the world's oldest continually operated airport, which served as an RAF base during Second World War.

The village's boundary with Sompting to the west has historically been along Boundstone Lane, named after the boundstone or boundary stone that marked the boundary. The stone is now kept at Boundstone Nursery School, Upper Boundstone Lane, having previously been kept at Boundstone Community College as was. Much of Lancing's northern boundary with the village of Coombes runs along the Ladywell Stream, a tributary of the River Adur which runs from the South Downs near to Lancing College. The Ladywell Stream is so named as it issues from the Ladywell Spring, which in the Middle Ages was held to be a holy well.

History

In 1828, remains of what may be an Iron Age shrine and to its west a later Romano-British temple were found just west of Lancing Ring. The Romano-British temple was located within an oval temenos and seems to have been built in the 1st century AD. A track has existed since pre-Roman times, which ran from Chanctonbury Ring by way of Cissbury Ring to Lancing Ring and from then on to a probable ford across the River Adur by the modern Sussex Pad, close to the Old Tollbridge at Old Shoreham. Among this lowest lying farmland to the east of the village proper are remains of mediæval salt workings. The Roman road from Noviomagus Reginorum (Chichester) to Novus Portus (probably Portslade near Brighton) also ran through modern North Lancing (along the Street) down to the ford.

1800-1945

Much of the land which is residential was formerly taken up by family-run market gardening businesses growing fruit or flowers for the Brighton Market or Covent Garden in London, of which the largest businesses were 'Sparks' who grew fruit such as tomatoes and 'Young's' who produced carnations. Chrysanthemums were grown by Frank Lisher on land south of The Finches, the house he built. 'Nash's' fruit growers, produced grapes under huge glass cloches that could be rolled into place on a rail track.

Lancing railway station opened with what is now known as the West Coastway Line in 1849. Between 1908 and 1912 the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway developed its railway wagon and carriage works in the area that is now the Lancing Business Park, closed under the Beeching Axe in 1963. The land on which the works were sited was predominantly turned over to this park which also bears the name the Churchill Industrial Estate. Few buildings pre-dating 1820 are here, however one example is a central former farmhouse, which is now a home in a street named Monks Farm Presbytery.

Since 1945

Lancing Methodist Church

Following Second World War market gardening gave way to housing as diets became more exotic and more difficult to ripen fruits such as grapes began to be imported in greater numbers; this growth was most rapid between 1945 and 1970, with more muted housing growth following on in most years. The village has a large business park, occupied for instance by Equiniti, exclusive registrar for registering share transfers for some of the country's largest banks and public limited companies. In economics and transport, the suburb forms part of the linear and diverse Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton conurbation.

Landmarks

Shoreham Tollbridge is a Grade II* listed building which was the last tollbridge in use in Sussex. The bridge was in use for motorised traffic until the opening of the A27 flyover over the Adur in 1970. The bridge is in the east of the parish, crossing the Adur into Shoreham.

Shoreham Airport, the oldest licensed airfield in the United Kingdom, opened in 1911 is in the parish.

Lancing College, see below, has a predominantly 19th Century chapel that is the largest school chapel in the world with the largest stained-glass rose window in England (completed in 1977).

Lancing College

Lancing College stands in the north-east of the parish, on the Downs. It is a renowned independent school and a major landmark for the area.

Literary connections

Lancing was visited by Oscar Wilde in the 1890s when he stayed at nearby Worthing. The working title for his masterpiece The Importance of Being Earnest was Lady Lancing. Wilde's friend Lord Alfred Douglas lived in nearby Brighton and died while staying at Monk's Farmhouse mentioned above. Lancing was also visited by another poet, Algernon Charles Swinburne, who stayed at The Terrace in the 1880s.

Sport

• Cricket:
  • Lancing Lads Official
  • Lancing Manor Cricket Club
• Football:
  • Lancing FC
  • Lancing Utd
  • Lancing Rangers

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Lancing)

• Lancing Parish Council
• Lancing
• Lancing comes under Adur & Worthing Council