Seaward Sussex: The South Downs from End to EndHolmes, Edric
History
Seaward Sussex: The South Downs from End to End
Holmes, Edric
Sussex (England) -- Description and travel
There are many quaint corners left in the town (which since 1910 has
been officially styled "Shoreham by Sea "), but the individuality of
the place is best seen on the quay where a little shipbuilding is still
carried on; in the reign of Edward III it supplied the Crown with a
fleet of twenty-six sail. The figure-head sign of the "Royal George"
Inn may be noticed; this was salvaged from the ill-fated ship of that
name which sunk in Portsmouth Harbour.
The Norfolk Suspension Bridge, still retaining its old-fashioned toll,
carries the Worthing road across the river, at high tide a fine
estuary, but at low a feeble trickle lost in a waste of mud. The view
of the town from the bridge is very charming, especially in the evening
light.
[Illustration: SKETCH PLAN OF OLD & NEW SHOREHAM.]
At Old Shoreham, a mile up stream, is another bridge which, with the
church, is the most painted, sketched and photographed of all Sussex
scenes; few years pass without it being represented on the walls of the
Academy. This bridge is a very ancient wooden structure which has been
patched and mended from time to time into a condition of extreme
picturesqueness. The bridge leads to the "Sussex Pad," a noted
smuggling hostelry in a situation ideal for the purpose, and then on to
Lancing and Sompting.
The sturdy and grey old church which has seen so many centuries of
change and decay in the life around it, which has even seen the very
face of nature alter in the haven beneath, has not changed in any
essential since the great De Braose of the eleventh century built it on
the foundations of its Saxon predecessor, whose massive walls still
support a goodly part of the Norman building. Almost the whole of the
upper part of the church is Norman, though the chancel appears to have
been restored at a later date. Note the fine pointed screen and the
rich moulding of the arches and door, also the carved tye-beam above
the great arch which leads to the crossing. The nave is curiously dark,
through the absence of windows; here may be seen the remains of the
Saxon wall projecting beyond the line of the newer work. A low side
window near the southwest corner has been variously described as a
confessional, a hagioscope, and a leper window.
The few small houses to the south of the church are all that now remain
to show where the one time port stood; though none of the existing
buildings are contemporary with that period.
[Illustraton: NEW SHOREHAM.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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