My Aunt Hilda, a maiden lady who lived near Oxford, took her summer holidays in Worthing but it wasn’t to enjoy the salty pleasures of that resort.

She went to stay with another aunt called Elsie who lived in the salubrious Offington area.

Hilda should have been ideally suited to Worthing as it was then, a sedate town with several creaky department stores. But she took against its torpor and disliked hearing the clicking of Zimmers and the whistling of hearing aids as she walked along the prom.

She told me that every time someone extremely aged tottered in front of her she held her head up higher and walked with a more determined stride.

I used to spend holidays in Worthing too, also staying with Elsie, and found it tame compared with my home city of London but then nearly everywhere was. Worthing had some features of interest even to a child of under ten. The pavements were pink and the pillar boxes so small that bigger boys could vault over them. In Tarring there were fig trees even more ancient than the inhabitants.

Elsie also told me that each time the keeper opened the level crossing gates in west Worthing he received a penny from the railway. I had no idea whether this was true but liked to believe it was.

Years later when I joined the Argus, Worthing was within the circulation area and still is, but I mostly left it alone because excellent local reporters like Tony Mayes and Paul Holden covered everything that moved. They also loved the town with a fierce intensity and slowly I started see why.

It had a history of some note with many famous folk staying there including Oscar Wilde, who named the leading male in The Importance Of Being Earnest after Worthing. Earlier Shelley had been there and so had Jane Austen.

Worthing was the unofficial capital of the Costa Gericatrica but that was changing. As young families started to move into the extensive suburbs being built on the edge of town such as Durrington and High Salvington.

Civic leaders coped with the decline of family holidays, not by attracting large conferences but by welcoming industry and commerce. It did this so successfully that far more people worked in financial services than in leisure. Worthing almost became a town by the sea rather than a seaside town as ugly offices abounded and seaside amusements declined.

It created buildings of stunning ugliness such as Teville Gate which are only now being earmarked for demolition and replaced with something more acceptable.

Worthing had some fine buildings too. The pier, celebrated nationally for its annual flying machine contests, is a rather handsome Art Deco structure while stately Beach House was famed for its bowls tournaments.

Highdown Hill north of the town has views stretching in all directions and the unique chalk garden just below it is reopening after extensive improvements.

About ten years ago Worthing seemed to be down in the dumps. Traffic jams on the A27 were getting worse with no signs of a solution. Its entertainments venues were too small and old fashioned.

Montague Place, the main shopping centre, looked as if it had seen better days and getting from one side of the town to the other, by car, bike or foot could be surprisingly awkward.

Some of the parks began to look grubby and Brooklands was often promised makeovers which seldom seemed to arrive. Hotels began to close and the lido on the seafront shut too. Councillors would not allow cycling on the prom for many years even though it seemed to be the ideal spot.

But in the last five years a change has come over Worthing which is much for the better. It has become quite a centre for the arts and many small businesses are thriving there. Warwick Street has developed a restaurant quartier with an attractive atmosphere. But the really big push to revitalise it is coming from outside.

House prices are soaring on much of the Sussex coast as people seek to enjoy living by the sea. In West Hove perfectly ordinary semis are fetching more than a million pounds.

They are being snapped up by wealthy Londoners who in turn are pushing out local residents to the west. Some settle in Shoreham but that is also expensive. Instead large number are finding homes in Worthing where they are appreciably cheaper.

There are some real bargains to be found especially in unfashionable areas like East Worthing. Lancing next door is popular with families. Not all its problems have been solved but newcomers are demanding higher standards and getting them. Aunt Hilda has been dead for many years now but I fancy she would have approved.