Oscar Wilde , twin towns and Brexit - 10 top facts about Worthing

Did you know?

1) The area around Worthing has been populated for at least 6,000 years and contains Britain’s greatest concentration of Stone Age flint mines.

2) For many centuries Worthing was a small mackerel fishing hamlet until in the late 18th century it developed into a Georgian seaside resort and attracted the well-known and wealthy.

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3) Oscar Wilde holidayed in the town in 1893 and 1894. He wrote the Importance of Being Earnest during his second visit.

4) Worthing’s Latin motto ‘Ex terra copiam e mari salutem’ translates as ‘From the land plenty and from the sea health’.

5) The Worthing Lumps are a series of underwater chalk cliff faces that are home to rare fish such as blennies and the lesser spotted dogfish.

6) Famous faces who have lived in Worthing include: actress Liz Smith, rock singer Billy Idol, and writer Harold Pinter.

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7) Worthing began as a Saxon village. It may have been called Worth or Wurtha ingas which means the settlement belonging to the people of Worth or Wurtha.

8) The majority of Worthing residents backed the UK leaving the EU in the Brexit referendum. The turnout in the Worthing borough was 75.5 per cent, 53 per cent backed leave and 47 per cent voted to remain.

9) Worthing Pier was designed by Sir Robert Rawlinson and was opened on April 12 1862.

10) Worthing’s twin towns are Elzach, Germany; Gutach im Breisgau, Germany; Les Sables-d’Olonne, France; Simonswald, Germany; Waldkirch, Germany; and Patos de Minas, Brasil.