Worthing history walk with town crier Bob Smytherman revealing famous names linked to the town and history behind buildings marked with blue plaques
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00:00 So we will be set off in the next few minutes.
00:04 I was born in Lansing for the first 23 years of my life and then obviously I moved to Worthing
00:09 and I've lived here ever since. Worthing is hugely blessed to have three amazing theatres,
00:16 all very different. Keith Emerson went to school in Worthing, I believe the job was
00:22 in Silverton and his mum was a dinner lady at West Park School. My brother-in-law who
00:29 was also of Eric Worthing, some of you may know Nick John, I was talking to Nick last
00:33 week and I hadn't managed to verify this but according to Nick John, Keith Emerson took
00:38 part in the music festival as a young man and came second to a local butcher.
00:45 This is our current Town Hall, Charles Calls Hoisy in an open architectural competition
00:52 designed this elegant Town Hall and it was opened by His Royal Highness Prince George
00:56 on the 22nd of May 1933. Prior to 1933 the Town Hall was at the top of South Street where
01:04 the clock is, where the Guildhall Centre is, that was Worthing's former Town Hall.
01:09 Obviously she wasn't in this stuffer yet. One of the things that Ellen Chapman and I
01:12 have in common, Ellen Chapman was the first Roman Catholic Mayor of Worthing which of
01:17 course was quite unusual at that time and the second Roman Catholic Mayor of Worthing
01:22 was the 97th Mayor who was quite a good Mayor really, that was me! So that's Ellen Chapman.
01:29 The Worthing Museum and Art Gallery owes its origins to Dr Howard Nicholls who approached
01:35 the Borough Council in 1900 with an offer to lend the town its large collection of British
01:41 birds, all of which he had shot and stuck personally. In return he asked the Borough
01:48 Council to provide suitable premises for their display. The Council accepted the offer and
01:53 the birds were displayed in the Portland Council offices in Rowlands Road. But suppose was
02:00 the Church of Worthing in the past for the wealthy members of our community? At the end
02:08 of the 18th century Worthing was just a small agriculture and fishing village by the sea
02:13 with no church for Christian worship. The closest parish church was St Mary's up there
02:19 in Broadwater. By an act of Parliament it was decided to build a Chapel of Ease and
02:23 the land occupied by the present building was purchased. Subscriptions amounted to £7,000
02:29 were raised for a building fund and everyone involved in the work was required to purchase
02:34 one or more pews. So it gives you an idea of the sort of people that actually were worshipping
02:39 here because they had to buy their own seats. Harold Peter was a playwright, actor and director.
02:46 In 1962 the building was moved into Forty Danborough's Place in the heart of Worthing's Theatre
02:53 Land to renovate the building. It was reported the house had been purchased by Harold Peter
02:58 and regarded by many as the most exciting dramatist of the day. Theatre goers who were
03:02 accustomed to stars appearing at the Covent Theatre, again just over the road there, with
03:07 a repertory company which had achieved national prominence. Back then it was the Worthing
03:13 Council of Social Services. It was an absolutely groundbreaking thing at the time and they
03:19 met the MBE, a pioneer in health and social care, before the National Health Service.
03:25 Ethan Metfield was the Secretary of the Worthing Council of Social Services, a voluntary organisation
03:30 that was established at the time in 1933 to offer social care and health care support
03:34 during the inter-war years. And it really was. It's hard to underestimate how groundbreaking
03:39 this was. Obviously we're very proud to have, and long may it continue, a National Health
03:44 Service, free of the border of need. But what Mrs Metfield identified was actually a need
03:50 for the same thing for social care. And obviously we're still having those debates today.
03:54 A campaign was launched to prevent the removal of these wonderful bronze busts. The 20th
04:01 Century Society and the Public Monuments and Sculpture Association were informed and representations
04:08 made to the Secretary of State of the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. As a result,
04:14 the Desert Quartet and its supporting loggia was listed in the category list 2 star, so
04:21 it was the top 3 2 star listed on 11 May 2007, which provides considerable protection against
04:28 the removal of the sculptures. Henry Richardson was Worthing's town crier at the time of the
04:36 play that we talked about, The Just Cause. Henry was born in 1812 and lived to 1903.
04:44 And he was still town crying at the grand old age of 98, which is incredible really.
04:51 Who usually opened his proceedings with the petulant remark, "Now then boys, clear away,
04:59 this is for grown-ups and businessmen."
05:01 [Bell ringing]
05:04 Oh yay! Oh yay! Oh yay! The secret of Worthing's greatness. Many's the time that I have dwelt
05:18 at Worthing, while there have felt some mystery about the place, some secret triumph in the
05:26 face of everyone I met as though only at Worthing could we know. Seaside perfection on the shore
05:35 of England, and in vain once more. I gazed around the esplanade, the sands on which the
05:44 children played, the pier nice and new, the sea, the bathers, fun in view. But baffled
05:53 again, a closer hand, a stern policeman, chance to stand. "Tell me," I asked, "what magic's
06:01 strong? Phil's Worthing town!" The whole year long, he raised his head with simple pride.
06:09 "We are not Bodnar!" he replied.
06:12 It is one of the best, isn't it? And of course, we won Pair of the Year, twice I think now.
06:20 It's such a wonderful pier. It's one of the few piers, I think one of the strengths of
06:25 the pier. It's still owned by the local authority. And actually, not by a basin.
06:31 William Hudson. He was a naturalist, writer, an ornithologist. Parents were David and Caroline,
06:37 and he had four brothers and two sisters with whom he would explore the local countryside.
06:44 This was the start of his interest in wildlife and nature, and he was a king to pass on to
06:49 his children later in life. "Bring the land plenty to the sea health," as it says on our
06:55 coat of arms. In fact, they were both very unwell. They resided at a cottage, a lodging
07:00 house in Park Road, run by Mrs. Crabb. Hudson particularly liked to relax in the garden,
07:05 listening to the birds. When he recovered, he left his inbred, Emily, there and went
07:11 off travelling. He visited Worthing, and when there was no room at the cottage, he stayed
07:17 here at 14 Bedford Road.
07:20 Worthing's most wonderful historic, great two-district buildings. A wonderful dome cinema.
07:26 Of course, I don't need to tell you, it's still a very active, working cinema, hosting
07:31 all the latest films.
07:34 Establishing the first hotel garage, or engine house, in England on this site in York Road
07:40 in 1900, and the garage was demolished in 1947. So this is the garage bit, and then
07:48 there's another blue plaque here which will go down to the next.
07:51 This hotel, and it was part of York Terrace, which is here. And it's hard to underestimate
07:58 the nature of this hotel. This was the equivalent of the Grand Hotel in Brighton, the Metropole,
08:06 the Savoy in London. This was the premier hotel in Worthing.
08:11 As you can see there, Worthing Premier Hotel. Famous visitors included King Edward VII,
08:15 George V, Emperor Halle Selassie and his family, Winston Churchill, General Montgomery, General
08:23 Eisenhower, John Philip Sousa, and obviously this was a hotel until 1985 and burned down
08:31 in 1987.
08:33 This is the ship the Lala Rock. Twelve local, very brave fishermen caught the Lala Rock
08:40 coming into difficulties off Worthing. They went to rescue them, and sadly they costed
08:46 their lives. As a result of their lives being lost, Worthing was granted the first of its
08:52 lifeboats. Unfortunately Worthing is not an ideal location for launching a lifeboat compared
08:59 to Shoreham or Little Hampshire.
09:02 Nearly 100 years ago, in November 1926, the Worthing Herald reported that two fishermen
09:08 discovered a baby elephant had washed up on the beach by a splash point in Worthing.
09:14 The elephant calf is believed to have been on ship transporting animals for a travelling
09:21 circus where a storm hit. The ship sank off the coast of Deal in Kent and the calf sadly
09:28 drowned at sea. Due to the proximity of the historic discovery to the development, Worthy
09:33 Homes, the developer of these baseline apartments, decided to erect a monument and plaque to
09:39 commemorate the final resting place, a place where residents can pay their respects and
09:44 find out more about the young elephant.
09:47 In a house on this site, and it was known as The Haven, Oscar Wilde, who was born 1854
09:54 and died in 1900, wrote 'The Importance of Being Earnest' in 1894. And of course the
10:03 main character was... Ernest Worthing!
10:10 Does anyone know where Bozy lived? Not that far from here. Bozy lived in Lansing and the
10:17 site has just been redeveloped and it's in New Monk's Farm and it's the site which has
10:23 been sold by the Catholic Church as it was the presbytery of the Holy Family Church in
10:29 New Monk's Farm on North Road there. So that's where Bozy lived. I only found that out relatively
10:35 recently. I found this very moving when I read this for the first time.
10:38 Andrew Barnwell was the swimming sensation of the 1952 Olympics. A gracious girl whose
10:45 parents ran a pre-grace in Worthing. Just nine months after taking up swimming in earnest,
10:51 she became Britain's fastest swimmer. Angela, a student at Davidson High School, learnt
10:55 to swim when she was 11 and joined the Worthing Swimming Club. She finished third in the Sussex
11:01 School's 100-yard freestyle and in 1948 at the age of 13, and two years later became
11:07 champion of one of the Southern County's titles. Her victory in the 1952 ASA, so that's the
11:14 Swimming Association, Junior Women's 100-yard freestyle, was 0.6 seconds faster than the
11:21 senior winner and the record held for six years.
11:25 Angela Barnwell was the swimming sensation of 1952. Angela's success led to her being
11:30 selected for the Olympics at the age of just 16 and she represented Great Britain at the
11:35 1952 Helsinki Games. Just four days before her race, she was hit by a tram and injured
11:41 her thigh and elbow. She was lucky to be able to compete at all, as she put in a remarkable
11:47 performance. She was part of the women's freestyle relay team that placed fifth overall and reached
11:52 the 100-yard freestyle final. Angela exceeded all expectations when she placed third in
11:58 her semi-final. There was a false start in the final which angered all the competitors
12:03 as they were submerged and then had to wait five minutes at the edge in the drizzle after
12:08 the restart. Angela led the race at one point to finish in eighth. There was a great support
12:15 from Angela at Homey Worthy when she returned from Helsinki.
12:34 Most of you will have seen on television in recent months Sanderton. That was written
12:41 here. We have from time to time, we have various Jane Austen festivals and things. There are
12:47 lots of places that take credit to Jane's work and I think it's really important that
12:53 we put Worthy on the map because actually Jane Austen's links here were really very
12:58 important. It's hard to imagine where we just walked through and wondered. That was
13:02 obviously a road with no cars and Jane would have come by on a horse and cart and obviously
13:08 would have come down here.
13:09 WPC Gladys Moss. Gladys was a pioneer and was the first police woman to serve in the
13:31 West Sussex Cassette Library and she was based here in Worthing. This naturally caused a
13:37 stir and the Worthing Gazette commented on the occasion stating that her uniform was
13:43 similar to that of the women ticket collectors at Worthing Railway Station. There is no doubt
13:49 that Miss Moss encountered most of the difficulties that beset those blazing a new trail. Nevertheless,
13:56 like a true pioneer, she overcame all the prejudices and all the difficulties and in
14:02 time won the respect and admiration of everyone. So let's hear it for Gladys Moss, absolute
14:08 groundbreaker in the field of policing. And a founder of the Worthy dispensary and he
14:14 lived at Elm Lawn House from 1827 to 1849. That's Dr. Frederick Dixon. Absolutely incredible
14:24 pioneering work creating Worthing's first dispensary.