Littlehampton is a town, seaside resort and civil parish in the Arun District of West Sussex, England. It lies on the English Channel on the eastern bank of the mouth of the River Arun. It is south south-west of London, west of Brighton and east of the county town of Chichester.
The parish covers an area of . The suburban area of the town has a population of approximately 55,000. The conurbation includes other settlements: Wick in the north west; Lyminster to the north; and Rustington to the east. Wick and Toddington, which has a large business park, became part of the town in 1901. Nearby towns include Bognor Regis to the west and Worthing to the east.
The town is also the westernmost settlement of the 15th largest urban area in England and Wales, the Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton conurbation, a region encompassing 474,485 people (2011 census). The South Downs National Park commences north of the town: Littlehampton links to Amberley and Arundel by footpaths and railway as well as by roads.
History
A human settlement at Littlehampton can be traced back to prehistoric and Roman times, while it appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 as the small hamlet of 'Hantone'. The settlement is believed to have been a fishing community around this time, appearing on a French map in around 1100 as 'Hanton'. The settlement is then believed to have been given to the Abbey of St Martin de Seez in Normandy, who owned Littlehampton until around 1400. The area then passed back to the ownership of successive Earls of Arundel and Dukes of Norfolk, whose successors still reside in Arundel today.
Littlehampton began to develop as a port as a result of constant silting of the River Arun, perhaps leading to the prefix of 'Little' being added to 'Hampton', in order to distinguish it from the larger Southampton further along the coast. The expansion of port activities led to a new river mouth being cut in 1735, alongside the building of a wooden harbour. At this time it was also known as Arundel Port.
As the eighteenth century progressed, the town developed from a fishing community to a holiday destination, with Lord Byron, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Constable all believed to have spent time there.
The town's status as both a port and a holiday resort led to economic success in the nineteenth century, with a railway line and a cross-channel ferry to Honfleur in France being introduced. The population of the town grew tenfold over the century, from 584 in 1801 to 5,954 in 1901. Littlehampton remained as a holiday resort in the twentieth century, becoming known as 'The Children's Paradise' in the 1920s.
Post-war Littlehampton saw large-scale house building on the outskirts of the town, eventually absorbing the surrounding villages of Wick, Lyminster and Toddington, while the commercial element of the town became increasingly focused on boat building and water sports.
In 1967, the town attracted attention by becoming the base for the first ever Blue Peter lifeboat.
Economy
The world headquarters of The Body Shop is situated towards the north of the town, and is a major employer in the area.
A local company, Dando Drilling International Ltd, has been exporting drilling rigs from Littlehampton since 1867. Van Heyningen Brothers (VHB) salad growers was a major employer in the town from 1964 to 2003.
Governance and politics
Littlehampton lies within the parliamentary constituency of Bognor Regis and Littlehampton, the Member of Parliament (MP) for which is Conservative Nick Gibb.
At a local government level, Littlehampton is part of Littlehampton Town Council, Arun District Council and West Sussex County Council. Littlehampton currently has 10 seats on the district council, spread across five wards – Beach, Brookfield, Ham, River and Wick with Toddington. At the district elections held in May 2011, the Conservatives won 7 of these 10 seats, Labour 2 and the Liberal Democrats 1. On West Sussex county council, the town is represented by two Conservatives and a Liberal Democrat.
Education
Littlehampton has one secondary school, The Littlehampton Academy, which opened in 2009, replacing the Littlehampton Community School.