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Coordinates: 50°48'37?N 0°30'19?W? / ?50.81019, -0.50521
Rustington is a seaside resort and civil parish near Littlehampton in Sussex. For local government purposes, it forms part of the Arun district and the administrative county of West Sussex. Officially a village with its own parish council, Rustington is larger than its status implies. (It has expanded considerably in the last few years, due to extensive new housing developments, which have altered its original old world charm). With a population of 12,676 in 2001, it has the size and facilities of a small town, including a shopping area containing a number of chain stores. It comes under the Worthing West constituency and its current MP is Peter Bottomley. It is served by Angmering railway station. The parish of Rustington includes the hamlet of West Preston.
Rustington competes annually in the South-East in Bloom competition, in which it continually does very well. It holds an annual carnival and fete in August every year and at Christmas has a village Carol Concert which is free for local residents and features local school children accompanied by the Littlehampton Concert Band.
Rustington is twinned with the American town of Los Altos, California and the German town of Künzell.
The population has expanded rapidly in recent years due to several major house building projects. Rustington contains a conservation area which extends from the south end of North Lane to the Lamb Public House in The Street. This area contains many Grade 2 Listed buildings, additionally most of the trees in this area have preservation orders on them, (and consequently planning permission must be sought before any work can be done on them).
Rustington has one of the largest number of historic buildings in the area, with The Street and surrounding roads containing some of the finest C17th & C18th Sussex flint cottages in West Sussex, many are thatched. Hubert Parry's music to 'Jerusalem' was written there, JM Barrie, author of Peter Pan and artist Graham Sutherland among others also resided there. The film If.... was written in the village's Sea Estate, in a house belonging to the mother of the film director Lindsay Anderson. The British and Irish Meteorite Society was formed in Rustington in 2004.
The local non-league football team, Rustington F.C, achieved the notable distinction of going through the entire calendar year of 2006 without losing a single match, earning them a mention on Sky Sports News on New Year's Eve.
Rustington was home to an American WWII air base, which is no longer in existence. This was situated to the East of the high street, (behind Somerfield and the All Seasons shop).
Rustington also has a retail park located on the A259 which runs to the north of the village providing transport to other towns such as Littlehampton, Bognor Regis and Chichester, and to the east the towns of Worthing and Brighton.
Two world air speed records, were both set on 7th September over Rustington Sea Front.
Record 1 - set on 7th September 1946, by Group Captain Teddy Donaldson, flying a Gloster Meteor.
Record 2 - set on 7th September 1953, by Squadron Leader Neville Duke, flying Hawker Hunter WB188, at a speed of 1170.9 km/h.
To celebrate, on 7th September 1996, Neville Duke returned to Rustington to unveil a plaque, marking the event. He was joined by a Gloster Meteor and a Hawker Hunter, which flew over Rustington Sea Front.
Rustington will shortly have its own Museum, an 18th century Thatched house is presently being converted and will contain local exhibits and a coffee shop.
[edit] High Street and Churchill Court
Rustington's high street has some chain-stores and many family run shops as well as its fair share of estate agents and charity shops. Located just off the high street is a small courtyard of shops called Churchill Court. On display in the highstreet is a large Late Ice Age erratic boulder, this was brought to rustington on the sea ice during the last Ice Age. It was descovered in a local field (Stonefield) and was used as a boundary marker for many years.
[edit] The Rustington Event
The Rustington Event is held every year, since 2006. It is a celebration of Christmas for the village. Shops stay open late for Christmas shopping and a whole range of different Christmas food and entertainment is laid on. Last year it was held on Saturday 8th December 2007. Unfortunately wet and windy weather spoiled the event with many businesses deciding to close early due to lack of customers turning out and a number of events being cancelled.
[edit] General Facts/Trivia
[edit] External links
- Angmering Project has all of Angmering census returns available to view as well as censuses for surrounding villages including Rustington.
(Source: Wikipedia) |