+Worthing beach 1936
THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — created by Valerie Martin, contains scenes from her home village of Findon, West Sussex, U.K.
+Worthing beach 1936 |
THE NEARBY WORTHING STENCH ASSISTS FINDON FARMERS
Copyright Valerie Martin 2006
Printed in the Findon News in March 2006
This is the story of the nearby sand and seaweed. Did you know that there is today a bed of seaweed stretching from Worthing to Bognor, about half-a-mile wide and some 17 miles in length? It has been known to smell to high heaven in the summer. This is because it ripens and breaks off in July and August and is then swept to the shore and hence becomes a stinking nuisance!
Years ago, the Findon gardeners from large properties and farms bought and collected the crop by cart each year for fertilizing the land.
![]() Worthing Beach. Aerial photograph by Grahame Algar of nearby Lancing in the summer of 2005 from his remotely piloted electric powered aircraft. |
I have been to Worthing during some summers in the past when the stench from the seaweed has been really obnoxious and pervading the buildings on the front. I've had to leave and not continue with my shopping. The reeking mass of great swathes of slimy seaweedy-coated shore was so bad that it put me off going to Worthing some twenty-five years ago. In fact, the stink has penetrated this stretch of the south coast for at least the last two hundred years, if not more.
I've heard that the name of Worthing is derived from a natural annual phenomenon. The seaweed just four miles to the south of Findon has always been a struggle between men and sea. I understand the problem starts with the nature of the sea-bed off the nearby coast. This seems to provide an ideal situation for certain kinds of seaweed. The seaweed beds are often ripped up by summer storms and detached by the winds and tide and are then deposited on the Worthing beach by the prevailing Atlantic currents. The seaweed is a rich source of nitrates, and thus makes good fertilizer. Thus the town became known as Wort (weed) inge (people). Seems a logical enough explanation.
"for the purchase of a rake for seaweed clearance".
By 1850, the General Board of Health reported that ...
"the smell of seaweed when it piles up is nothing like as bad as the smell of the sand at the end of the troughs which carry the town's drainage to the sea".
Even as late as 1876 a guide to Worthing referred to ..
"evil smells on the front".
There came a time when Findon farmers were encouraged to cart the seaweed away as a free fertiliser for their fields for the growing of crops. A later money-grabbing administration saw it as a golden opportunity to make extra revenue and began charging 12.6d. per load. The farmers retaliated by saying it was uneconomical and they ceased bringing the fertiliser inland to their fields.
In 1907 in response to many complaints about rotting seaweed on the shore, Worthing's Alderman Captain Cortis thought it might be a visitors attraction and remarked that if the council advertised the pong no doubt trippers would come down to smell it.
Back in 1908 the local seaweed was under discussion and a commentator of the day noted:
"There are those who are mortally alarmed at the least suggestion of a deposit of seaweed on the beach, declaring that the odour that emanates from such accumulations from the harvest of the sea is warranted to kill at a thousand yards".
A year later in 1909, a local correspondent wrote ... "Having known Worthing for over 40 years, first as a visitor and for the last 15 years as a resident, I have, with many others, noticed with much sadness the decrease of sand and the increase of sloppy puddles on our seafront year by year. Can this be wondered at when we consider that thousands and thousands of cartloads of sand have been removed during so many years. The wonder is that there is any sand left".
A London newspaper columnist, Jane Doe, wrote in 1928 that nearby Worthing's seaweed strewn shore as...
"It smells fine, but I think, I should like it strained before I bathe in it."
The above photograph shows the Worthing shore in 1936.
At least there was no mess left on the beach in the 1950s by this elephant...
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On the beach in the 1950s |
Pam Stepney of Findon emailed in November 2006 to
say that as a child she witnessed a mechanical elephant in the Denton Gardens at
nearby Worthing. Her husband, John, found the above
photograph — which she says looks very similar to her elephant of years ago.
Perhaps it did a tour of the seaside resorts?
"To have to walk over very rough shingle and, when you get to the water, to find yourself covered with seaweed, is not good enough".
Operation Dragnet was launched by the Worthing Town Council in 1959. This involved employing trawlers to sweep seaweed clear of a three mile wide stretch of seabed between Littlehampton and Shoreham. This was so the seaweed did not end up on Worthing's beach.
In 1963 at the height of the summer season, the shore was hit by a giant cast of seaweed from which millions of little black flies hatched...... to the consternation of the visitors to the beach.
In 1972, Worthing's annual regatta at Splash Point was utterly ruined by the dreaded seaweed and miserable weather conditions. 1,750 programmes were printed and only 400 sold. Also that year, Worthing's fishermen were chastised for leaving the beach between the pier and Splash Point strewn with unsightly and rotting fish heads and offal..... all adding to the aroma on the beach.
There is relatively little seaweed adorning our nearby shore these days and it is really only visible at low tide. But who knows what tomorrow will bring ....and what about the next high tide!
Continue if you would like to read The Nearby Washington Lime Kilns.
This is Findon Village — www.findonvillage.com is a continually growing record created by Valerie Martin exclusively for documenting life in Findon.
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E-mail: valeriemartin@findonvillage.com |