Arundel, Sussex
Historical Description
Arundel, a municipal borough, a castle, a parish, and a rape in Sussex, on the L.B. & S.C.R., 58 miles from London. The town stands on the right bank of the Arun, on the irregular ascent of a considerable hill, ½ a mile N of the station. It takes its name from the vale of Arun, Arun-dale, a word probably of ancient British origin, and it is supposed to have been influenced by the Roman station Ad Decimum at Bignor, and by the Roman Portus Adurni, which may have been within the mouth of the river; but it is first mentioned in the will of King Alfred, who bequeathed it to his nephew Adhelm. It consists of one street going steeply up from the Arun to the castle, and two others going off from this at right angles. It is a small place of little intrinsic interest, but it has always derived much consequence, in many ways, from the castle. Its houses in general are well built. A neat bridge of three arches spans the river. The town-hall was erected by Bernard, Duke of Norfolk, at a cost of £9000. The parish church is a cruciform edifice of flint and stone, 190 feet long, with a low central tower surmounted by a short leaden spire. It occupies the site of a Benedictine priory founded soon after the Conquest by Roger de Montgomery, and it was built in 1380, and made then collegiate for a master and twelve canons, under the name of the College of the Holy Trinity. It is entirely Perpendicular English.
The Fitzalan Chapel is screened off from the rest of the church, as the private property of the Duke of Norfolk. As the result of a suit instituted to recover it for the use of the parish, it was declared by Lord Chief Justice Coleridge to he a distinct building, and this decision was upheld, on appeal, in 1880. The chapel contains some grand monuments of the Earls of Arundel, and several brasses; it was extensively renewed in 1886 by the Duke of Norfolk. The church was thoroughly restored in 1874. A Maison Dieu, a quadrangular edifice, with chapel and refectory, was built at the foot of the town about the same time as the church, but only some fragments of it now exist. There are two dissenting chapels. The Roman Catholic church, dedicated to St Philip Neri, is beautifully situated on the summit of a hill. It was begun in 1870, and opened in 1873. The Duke of Norfolk bore the whole cost of this splendid edifice, amounting to £60,000. It is a cruciform building of stone, consisting of chancel, nave, and transepts, with some fine stained-glass windows and figures of the Virgin and Child, and of Our Lord and the twelve apostles: the church will seat 900 persons. The new Convent of Poor Clares or Minoresses, situated at Cross Bush, is a structure of red brick, in a severe Domestic Gothic style. There is a club and reading-room and a fire brigade. Vessels drawing 13 feet of water come up to the town, but the custom-house is at Little Hampton, 4 miles distant, at the month of the river. The chief imports are coal and fruit, and chief exports corn, timber, and oak-bark. The town has a head post office and two banks, and it publishes a weekly newspaper. A fortnightly market is held on Monday, and fairs on 14 May, 25 September, and 17 Dec. Arundel is a borough by prescription, and it sent two members to Parliament from the time of Edward I. till 1832; but it was half disfranchised by the Eeform Act of 1832, and wholly by the Act of 1868 for increasing the representation of Scotland. The town is governed by a mayor, 4 aldermen, and 12 councillors, and it is a seat of petty sessions. The Duke of Norfolk has recently gratuitously provided the town with an abundant supply of water; and it is besides thoroughly well drained. The same nobleman has made a most picturesque road from the bridge at Arnndel to Swanboume Lake in his park.
Arundel Castle is the chief seat of the Duke of Norfolk. It stands adjacent to the church, at the head of the town, on the verge of a plateau which slopes precipitously, on two sides, at least 90 feet, to the low bank of the Arun. Its position is a strong one in a military view, and was well fitted in the old times to maintain high command over the surrounding country. The original pile is said to have been built, in the Saxon times, by Bevis, a hero of romance; the next pile, possessing much military strength, was built, soon after the Conquest, by Roger de Montgomery, who was related by blood to the Conqueror and led the centre division of the victorious army at the battle of Hastings; and the greater part of the present pile, 250 feet long and 250 feet broad, was built in 1791 and succeeding years, by Charles, eleventh Duke of Norfolk. The castle was visited, in 1097, by William Rufus; it was besieged in 1102 by Henry I., and taken then from Robert de Belesme, Robert de Montgomery's heir, who had rebelled against the Crown; it was inhabited by Henry I.'s widow, Queen Alice or Adeliza, and gave hospitable shelter, under her, in 1139, to the Empress Maud; it passed from Queen Alice, by marriages, to successively the De Albinis, the Fitzalans, and the Howards; it was declared by Act of parliament, in the second year of Henry VI., to confer the title of Earl of Arundel without creation; and it was besieged and captured, in 1643, by the Parliamentarian forces under Sir W. Waller, recaptured by the Royalists, and again captured in 1644 by Waller. The structure in its present state covers an area of five acres. The entrance gateway is magnificent, in the Norman style, machicolated, and flanked by two imposing towers, was commenced in 1861, and leads into a quadrangle, with extensive remains of the ancient castle on the one side and the grand Gothic pile of the modern mansion on the other. A towered gateway, a raised causeway, a steep flight of steps, and a spacious courtyard with four flanking towers lead up to the keep. The towers have four stages, with dungeons below, and one of them, called the Bevis Tower, is so clad with ivy as to look like a tall green pyramid. The keep is proximately circular; stands on an artificial steep mound, raised above a fosse; measures from 8 to 10 feet in thickness of wall, and variously 59 feet and 67 feet in diameter; and appears to be of Late Norman architecture, with Caen-stone facings, but is almost all mantled with ornamental foliage and rich ivy. The Barons' Hall was recently taken down and rebuilt, so as to complete the wliole structure in the style of architecture of the 13th century. The library is 120 feet by 24, with eight tall walls; the dining-room, 45 feet by 24, with a window 20 feet by 10; the drawing-room, 54 feet by 28; the long gallery, 195 feet by 12, with groined ceiling; the barons' hall, 115 feet by 35, with a window of stained glass, representing the signing of Magna Charta, and eight other windows containing figures of the barons connected with the signing. The castle contains a splendid collection of family portraits and other pictures. The park is 7 miles in circuit, contains many hundreds of deer, and affords rich scenes and beautiful prospects. The keep and dairy are open to the public on Mondays and Fridays.
The parish of Arundel is co-extensive with the limits of the borough. Its area is 1969 acres, and most of this is within the ducal park; population, 2644. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Chichester; value, £180.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
| Ancient County | Sussex | |
| Ecclesiastical parish | Arundel Holy Trinity | |
| Hundred | Arundel |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Arundel from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Arundel (Holy Trinity))
Maps
Online maps of Arundel are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Sussex newspapers online: