Slindon is becoming a
favourite resort for those who desire a quiet holiday in delightful
rural surroundings.
Two miles south of Slindon lies Walberton. The church walls have Roman
bricks worked into Saxon masonry. The upper part of the nave is of the
usual heavy Norman type. Eastergate, the next village on the main road
to Bognor, has an untouched Saxon chancel, with a good deal of Roman
masonry mixed with later material built into the walls. These
interesting little villages may be easily reached from Bognor.
The last years of the eighteenth century were prolific in the birth of
south-coast watering places or in the transformation of decayed ports
or remote seaside hamlets into fashionable bathing places. Bognor is a
case in point and comes within the latter category. A successful hatter
of Southwark named Hotham, having "made his pile" built himself a house
near the little manor hamlet of Bognor, which boasted a single inn but
no church. The example of Brighton and the nearer neighbour Worthing
being constantly before the then member of Parliament and one-time
business man, the possibilities of the land he had acquired, with its
fine fringe of firm sand, soon made themselves apparent, and the
Crescent, Hothampton Place and several other terraces in what is now
the centre of modern Bognor quickly appeared.
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