Adam Trimingham looks back on the history of a small town

Three road schemes have dominated the little town of Southwick in the last sixty years.

For many years its commercial heart was in Albion Street, part of the A259 coast road. Most of the main shops straggled this narrow street overlooking Shoreham Harbour.

But the urban council that ran Southwick in the 1960s decided it was time to build a new shopping centre.

It created Southwick Square a few hundred yards from the front and it was a success. It has even managed to survive despite the development of the larger Holmbush shopping centre just half a mile away.

Southwick Square was built so that it could be converted into a pedestrian precinct if necessary but this has never happened.

The idea was to convert the A259 into a dual carriageway and new flats replacing the shops were set back so that this could happen. But the scheme did not go ahead, leaving rather unattractive green strips of land in front of the flats.

There were big problems in the 1960s when part of the coast road collapsed into the canal serving Shoreham Harbour. The road was closed for the best part of a year while authorities argued with each other over who should pay for the reinstatement.

In the 1970s, it was decided to make the main A27 into a dual carriageway which involved taking bits of most people’s front gardens.

Not surprisingly this created widespread opposition and a public inquiry was held into the objections. It had to be staged all over again a few months later because the government inspector in charge died before he could submit a report.

In the 1980s plans for the Brighton bypass were produced by the Government. While they were strongly opposed in several other towns, they were generally welcomed in Southwick because the new road would take a lot of through traffic off the existing A27 and 259.

The only concern was about Southwick Hill, a handsome stretch of downland north of the built up area, which would suffer from noise and pollution as only a short cut and cover tunnel was proposed at this point.

Southwick Hill is owned by the National Trust which refused to agree to the road until the Department of Transport made the tunnel longer and deeper. This left most of the hill as a pleasant place for strolling in the countryside. In 1974 Southwick was made part of the new Adur District Council and the loss of a local council was keenly felt by many people.

The old town hall where meetings were held in Albion Street still stands on the south side but is now private offices. It forms part of a tiny conservation area.

It is likely that in time Adur will merge with Worthing, leaving Southwick rather isolated as the last town in West Sussex before the boundary with Brighton and Hove.

But Southwick is a proud little town with its own community centre, library and a historic heart zealously guarded by a local conservation society. It’s easy to flash through it on one of the east/west roads but those who do not know the centre with its handsome green and ancient houses are missing a treat.