West Sussex

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West Sussex
colspan=2 align=center	-	Geography
Status:	Ceremonial & Non-metropolitan county
Region:	South East England
Area: - Total - Admin. council	Ranked 30th Ranked 27th
Admin HQ:	Chichester
GB:	GB-WSX
ONS code:	45
NUTS 3:	UKJ24
Demographics
Population: - Total () - Density - Admin. Council	Ranked Ranked
Ethnicity:	96.6% White 1.7% S.Asian
Politics
West Sussex County Council http://www.westsussex.gov.uk/
Executive:
Members of Parliament
Peter Bottomley (C) Nick Gibb (C) Nick Herbert (C) Tim Loughton (C) Francis Maude (C) Laura Moffatt (L) Nicholas Soames (C) Andrew Tyrie (C)
Districts
Worthing Arun Chichester Horsham Crawley Mid Sussex Adur

West Sussex is a county in the south of England, bordering onto East Sussex (with Brighton and Hove), Hampshire and Surrey. The county of Sussex has been divided into East and West since the 12th century, and obtained separate county councils in 1888, but it remained a single ceremonial county until 1974 and the coming into force of the Local Government Act 1972. Also at this time the Mid Sussex region (including Haywards Heath, Burgess Hill and East Grinstead) was transferred from East Sussex.

West Sussex is a diverse county; it is well known for its stately homes and castles such as Arundel Castle and Bramber Castle. Over half the county is protected countryside, offering popular walking and cycling ground for visitors and residents alike

Chichester is the county town of West Sussex, and the highest point of the county is Black Down, at 280m/919 ft ().

Settlements

Most settlements in West Sussex are either along the south coast or are situated in the M23 corridor. Crawley and Worthing are the largest settlements in the county, with populations of approximately 100 000 inhabitants each. Next in size order comes the market town of Horsham, and Bognor Regis, on the south coast. Chichester, the county town, boasts a cathedral and city status, and is situated not far from the border with Hampshire. Other towns in alphabetical order are Burgess Hill, East Grinstead and Haywards Heath in the Mid Sussex district, and Littlehampton in the Arun district.

Other settlements include the towns of Arundel and Shoreham-by-Sea, and the smaller settlements of Billingshurst, Cuckfield, Henfield, Hassocks, Hurstpierpoint, Lancing, Midhurst, Petworth, Rustington, Steyning, Storrington and Pulborough.

For a full list of settlements see List of places in West Sussex.

Communications and transport

The M23/A23 runs through the east of the county from Waterloo in London all the way to Brighton. Other major roads are the A272 which runs east to west, and the A27 which does the same but closer to the coast; the A272 going through the middle of the county. Along the majority of the coast can be found the A259, which is often used as an alternate route to the A27.

Gatwick Airport, which handled over 32 million passengers in 2005, is located to the north of Crawley, and is the second largest airport in the United Kingdom. There is also a considerably smaller local airport at Shoreham. There are 3 main railway routes; the Brighton Main Line, the Arun Valley Line and the West Coastway Line.

Local government

West Sussex County Council, based at County Hall Chichester, provides a large range of services including education, social services, fire and rescue, libraries, town and country planning, refuse disposal and consumer services. In addition there are seven local government districts within the county of West Sussex:

Places of interest

Castles, houses and other buildings

Arundel Castle
Barnham Windmill
Christ's Hospital, an old public school notable for its archaic uniforms and picturesque campus.
Goodwood House & Goodwood Motor Circuit
High Salvington windmill
Hurstpierpoint College - a Public School, notable for its substantial Sussex flint buildings, large campus and high academic and sporting standards.
Lancing College - a Public School, notable for its substantial Sussex sandstone chapel, large campus and high academic standards.
Petworth House
Queen Victoria Hospital [East Grinstead] - Home of the McIndoe burns centre. Pioneered reconsturctive surgery for burns patients during the Second World War.
Shipley Windmill
Standen, East Grinstead
Uppark

Religious buildings

Bosham Church
St. Margaret's Church, West Hoathly - an 11th century Anglo-Saxon church
St Mary's Church, Sompting - an 11th century Anglo-Saxon church.
St Swithuns Church East Grinstead
St. Nicholas' Church, Worth - a 10th century church in Worth, Crawley
St. Marks Church, Horsham - an Anglican church in Horsham

The arts

Pallant House Gallery in Chichester houses one of the most significant collections of 20th century British art outside London. It includes a substantial body of early and mid-20th century work bequeathed by Walter Hussey (Dean of Chichester Cathedral, 1955-1977) and many later works donated by Sir Colin St John 'Sandy' Wilson.
Worthing Museum and Art Gallery houses the biggest collection of Georgian & Victorian costume in South East England.

Other

Gatwick Airport
Shoreham Airport - the world's oldest continually-operational airport.
Hickstead Showjumping

History

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Economy

This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of West Sussex at current basic prices published (pp.240-253) by Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling.

Year	Regional Gross Value Added	Agriculture	Industry	Services
1995	8,564	208	2,239	6,116
2000	10,576	162	2,545	7,869
2003	12,619	185	2,520	9,915

The following are some of the companies based in West Sussex, Crawley:

Education

West Sussex has a comprehensive education system, with 37 state schools and 20 independent schools.

Politics

West Sussex County Council has 70 councillors; the majority of them being Conservative. There are 47 Conservative councillors, 16 Liberal Democrats, and 7 Labour Party councillors.

As of the 2005 general election, West Sussex is largely represented by Conservative MPs, with the exception of the Labour Party constituency of Crawley, where Labour held the seat by just 37 votes. The Members of Parliament, their corresponding constituencies and the percentage of the vote they received are as follows:

Arundel & South Downs - Nick Herbert, Conservative, 49.8%
Bognor Regis - Nick Gibb, Conservative, 44.6%
Chichester - Andrew Tyrie, Conservative, 48.3%
Crawley - Laura Moffatt, Labour, 39.1%
Horsham - Francis Maude, Conservative, 50.0%
Mid Sussex - Nicholas Soames, Conservative, 48.0%
Worthing East - Tim Loughton, Conservative, 43.9%
Worthing West - Peter Bottomley, Conservative, 47.6%

Image Gallery

References

External links

The River Wey and Wey Navigations Community Site — a non-commercial site of over 200,000 words all about the River Wey including information and images about the source of the Wey at Black Down in West Sussex.
Eastbourne Redoubt Fortress Military Museum Eastbourne Redoubt is the home of the Royal Sussex Regimental Museum
The Royal Sussex Regimental Association
Rustington information website with useful telephone numbers and links

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Last updated on Sunday March 02, 2008 at 12:37:06 PST (GMT -0800)
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