Ancient Goring 2500BC-1066AD

 
Three thousand years before the birth of Christ, New Stone-Age people were already living in the area we today call Goring. Confirmation of this came with the discovery of polished Stone-Age axe heads during 20th century excavations at the west end of The Strand, in Ardingly Drive, Thakeham Drive and on Highdown Hill. But Worthing did not came into existence until two-and-a-half millenniums later.

By 2500BC, in the Old Bronze-Age, Highdown, had become the fortified hub of local settlement and, 1,600 years later, was still the centre of the local community. Many late Bronze-Age household objects, circa 900BC, have been uncovered on and around the hill and all the evidence indicates that, by then, people were living in circular wattle-and-daub huts.

Roman occupation dominated this part of the world in the early part of the new millennium and they built a villa and bathhouse on the western flank of Highdown Hill around 43AD. At that time a Roman road or coastal footpath went right through the centre of Goring and there is evidence of another Roman villa built close to what is today the centre of Worthing. Further evidence of local Roman influence has included the discovery of a bust of a Roman boy's head, a hoard of Roman coins unearthed in Mill Road, and a mile-stone found in Grand Avenue, just south of the junction with Mill Road and marked in the period of Constantine the Great (circa AD337).

The name of Worthing or anything resembling it was still centuries away, but, by 450AD, Ferring was already a Saxon settlement, owing its name to their chieftan named Fere. From that moment, the development of this part of the world gathered apace......

3500BC
Cissbury Neolithic hill fort established.

3000BC
New Stone-Age people were living where Goring is today, confirmation coming when polished Stone-Age axe heads were found during 20th century excavations at the west end of The Strand, in Ardingly Drive, Thakeham Drive and on Highdown Hill.

2500BC
Highdown Hill became a fortified Bronze Age settlement and remained the hub of local life for 1,600 years.

900BC
People were living at Highdown in circular wattle-and-daub huts.

400BC
Highdown Iron-Age hill fort established. Later used by Saxons as a burial ground.

210AD
Roman villa and bath built on western slope of Highdown Hill.

450AD
Saxon settlement begins.

Circa 680AD
Bishop Wilfred of Selsey established a mission among the pagan Saxons. The name Sussex derives from Sudsexe, i.e. South Saxons.

Circa 700AD
The people of Gara (Gara-inges) Settled in the plain between Highdown and the sea (inga or homestead - of Gara's people). Hence Goring. The people of Fere lived at Ferring and those of Teorra at Tarring.

765AD
Grant of land made by Osmund, King of the South Saxons, to his thane Walhere, for the building of a monastery in Ferring.

791AD
Charter recording existence of church dedicated to St Andrew at Ferring.

954AD
King Athelstan gave his thane Aelfwald a small parcel of land in a place which local peasants named Durrington.

936AD
Aelfwald bequeathed land at Braden watere to his brother. Later it became Broadwater.

950AD
Forfeited lands in what today is the Worthing area were restored to the thane Wulfric in a charter signed by King Edgar.

1066AD
The Saran Wigot of Wallingford now owned tbe Manor of Broadwater, about 2,500 acres in area. It is believed that the sea (the 'Broad Water') came in to where east Broadwater is today.