The district of Arun, one of seven local government districts in the English county of West Sussex, has 90 current and former places of worship. 69 active churches and chapels serve the dense urban development on the English Channel coast and the mostly rural hinterland of ancient towns and villages; a further 21 former places of worship still stand but are no longer in religious use. Many churches, serving a wide variety of Christian denominations, are located in the main towns of Littlehampton and Bognor Regis—Victorian seaside resorts which form the focal points of the nearly continuous urban area around the River Arun estuary. Surrounding villages, and their ancient and modern churches, have been absorbed by the 20th-century growth of these towns. Further north, the important hilltop town of Arundel has a Roman Catholic cathedral and a long established Anglican church, and was a centre of Nonconformist worship.
English Heritage has awarded listed status to nearly 40 current and former church buildings in Arun. A building is defined as "listed" when it is placed on a statutory register of buildings of "special architectural or historic interest" in accordance with the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport, a Government department, is responsible for this; English Heritage, a non-departmental public body, acts as an agency of the department to administer the process and advise the department on relevant issues. There are three grades of listing status. Grade I, the highest, is defined as being of "exceptional interest"; Grade II* is used for "particularly important buildings of more than special interest"; and Grade II, the lowest, is used for buildings of "special interest". As of February 2001, there were 23 Grade I-listed buildings, 24 with Grade II* status and 913 Grade II-listed buildings in Arun.
Overview of the district and its places of worship
The district of Arun, created in 1974, covers a area of the English Channel coast and its hinterland in the county of West Sussex. Clockwise from the coast, it is bordered by the districts of Chichester, Horsham and Adur and the borough of Worthing. Its name comes from the River Arun, which flows north–south through the middle of the district and reaches the sea at Littlehampton, one of the main towns and the district's administrative headquarters. Littlehampton developed as a seaside resort in the 19th century; now, together with its eastern suburbs of Rustington, East Preston and Angmering (originally separate villages), it forms part of the Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton conurbation. Each urban centre has several churches including an old Anglican parish church. West of the Arun estuary, the Bognor Regis conurbation includes the suburbs of Elmer, Middleton-on-Sea, Felpham, Aldwick and Pagham, and the 19th-century seaside resort of Bognor (suffixed Regis from 1929) itself. Many churches exist within this urban area as well. The mostly flat hinterland supports a market gardening industry and several villages and suburbs whose development was stimulated by 19th-century rail links. Further north, on the southern slopes of the South Downs, hamlets such as Madehurst, Houghton, Burpham and Poling have existed for hundreds of years, clustered around their churches. Also in the north of the district is Arundel, an ancient hilltop town with a landmark castle and Roman Catholic cathedral which together make it "from a distance ... one of the great town views in England". Until the coastal strip became heavily urbanised from the late 19th century, Arundel was the "main urban focus" of the area, and it supported places of worship for several Christian denominations. Protestant Nonconformism was particularly strong in the town.