Top 10 PRETTIEST Towns in WEST SUSSEX
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- Опубліковано 7 лют 2025
- What are the 10 prettiest towns in the county of West Sussex? To determine this, I visited them all. Here's what I found out.
As a disclaimer, this list is neither a social commentary, nor a guide on which are the nicest towns to live, but purely a judgement on the aesthetics of each respective town centre.
All footage is my own, and originates from my flagship channel, 4K Explorer, which you can check out here: -- / @4kexplorer
Thanks for watching, and be sure to tap that like button! And feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below, whether you agree or disagree with the selections.
CORRECTION: Steyning is pronounced 'STENN-ing'. Thanks to those who pointed out my mistake!
Also the river Adur is pronounced ‘Ada’
Thanks someone on my wave length.
@@katesmith4272 beat me to it 👍
@@katesmith4272 it'd definitely not a door
I grew up there but now live in Suffolk, a very pretty county, but I miss all the woods and hills and little gems of villages all throughout the place
Lovely video - I agree with your listing, and thanks for the interesting observations. West Sussex also has some beautiful small churches (Hardham, Greatham, Buncton) and also some great narrow hill-roads - perhaps not in the Hardknott class, but still pretty good. It also has the villages of Buncton, Duncton and Runcton - as far as my limited researches go, this seems to be the only use of this word-form in Britain!
Hardham Church has some lovely very old wall paintings.
Brilliant video I often visit these places it feels like going back in time
Thank you for showing the beauty of England even in this difficult time❤
Don't think it's particularly difficult for many people in West Sussex, unless you're a first time buyer!
Excellent video as always. Very informative and entertaining. Keep up the great work.
Much appreciated, thanks!
Thanks!
Thanks Dianne, very kind indeed! :)
Nice overview. I agree Arundel is #1, IMO too. Had a wonderful weekend there last year, staying in St Mary's Gate Inn, next to the cathedral. A great range of pubs, restaurants and some quirky antique and book shops. We even found a good indian restaurant! The castle is great, with very pretty gardens. Only complaint was the high admission fee, although everything is crazy expensive these days I guess!
Excellent stuff! So glad I found your channel through recommended videos. Hope to visit Chichester one day. 🙂
Thanks, I appreciate it!
👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏A goooorgeous video ! And jolly nice English without an accent !😉
When I was young I looked after my uncle's ponies at Cowdray Park Polo Club, and everybody there spoke just like you ! 😃😄
Muchos saludos,
Mariano Scotti
Olivos, Buenos Aires, Argentina
🇦🇷🇬🇧🇦🇷🇬🇧🇦🇷🇬🇧🇦🇷🇬🇧🇦🇷🇬🇧
The polo is on right now. The Argies winning everything as usual! 😎
Saludos 🤝🇦🇷🇬🇧
I grew up in Horsham in the 60’s and 70’s and couldn’t wait to get away to the bright lights of anywhere that wasn’t Horsham. As I look back, I think I was really lucky to grow up in such a pretty safe place and I think West Sussex is a hidden gem of the country and long may it remains so.
We had family friends who moved to West Sussex, so I spent many holidays there in the Witterings and Selsey - beautiful area!
Alex you've done me proud, I grew up in Littlehampton and I'm now living my best life in Arundel, I'm so happy you picked it as no.1!! I feel truly blessed to love here, it's so beautiful 😍 You only just scrapped the surface of how gorgeous the history is here, and the antique shops are mooi too!! Thank you so much for this amazing video ❤❤❤
Ah, thank you for the kind words!
Ooh so lucky! I would love to live in Arundel - I live in Brighton - going downhill fast!
@mellissamaynard7340 Thank you, I used to love visiting Brighton but haven't been there for years, sorry to hear what's happening to it these days! It's all being dug up over here too, new builds taking over every spare inch of land built really badly for profit, so we are losing alot of our countryside and wildlife! It's a nightmare everywhere!
@@AlexinGreatBritain I've just found your full Arundle video from a year ago! Happy watching. Thanks Alex, stay shiny always ✨️
A little amused by your pronunciation of the River Adur (Ay-der) and Steyning (Steh-ning) 😜
So why'd they put a 'y' in Steyning in the first place? Bloody Saxons! But hey, I can nail the pronunciation of Leominster and Wymondham so there's that at least.
@@AlexinGreatBritainThere's also the Old Steyne in Brighton, which is is pronounced locally as "Steen". That's the sort of thing I love about the etymology of English place names.
@@AlexinGreatBritain If you can nail the pronunciation of Kilconquhar I'll buy you a beer when you visit Fife! (I'll tell you, you'll never get it... kin-ock-er )
@@kirkhamandy Wow, that'd be a pint well earned!
@@phaaschand just to add to the fun, t'is spelled Old Steine, with The Steyne being the variant employed central Worthing. As the etymology of both is allegedly related to 'stone', arguments concerning which is less incorrect seem moot!
Wonderful video and really showed West Sussex at its best. I think I'll be taking a drive to some of these when/if we ever get some summer days (2024).
Thanks for the kind words. I'm sure we'll get a few days of summer!
Was a boarder in steyning grammar school for the last 2 years, graduating just this summer. I came across this video and thought steyning has to be on this list as I now live in Crawley, comparatively far less appealing to steyning. Really happy that this town got onto the list as it is very well deserved
Born in Sussex, and since 1975, west Sussex.
I entirely agree with your ranking of the towns here!
Ah thank you!
Funny pronunciation of our W Sussex towns in some cases!
6:30 Midhurst used to have a railway station. Maybe it has helped it from becoming overpopulated by londoners
Wonderful video - informative and educational! Thank you
As a West Saxon(😎) living near Midhurst, I think your list is absolutely spot on. For tea, coffee and antiques - (and as antiques!) - my lovely wife and I ricochet like human pinballs between all the places on your list!
With parking in Midhurst being what it is, can't say I blame you!! 😂
@@TheHoveHeretic Ah basically they don't want us to travel in our own cars at all, seems to me....
West Saxon means you’re from Wessex!
@@jamesmurphy1389The problem at Midhurst is down to being both a busy town as well as the crossroads of two busy routes, the main shopping area being on that stretch where the A272 and the A286 are in reality the same road ... and t'ain't even an unduly wide or particularly well sighted one.
A tad further east, Petworth, lies at the junction of the A272 and A283, with the added bonus of the A285 also rocking up in the town centre. At least the large car park there is less of a yomp from the actual centre .... though from the behaviour of some entitled idiots around the Market Square, you'd be hard pressed to know it.
@@Stoggler well doesn't that include Sussex? 😎
I agree about Arundel. we go there often.
Ditto ! We take our camper van 🚐 there very often! Utterly charming place!
A great vid as usual Alex, thanks for your good work.
Thanks, I appreciate it!
You're very welcome Alex, you portray our history so well, 😁
Worth mentioning that just outside Petworth town is the stately home Petworth House. To be frank the house itself is not that great to look at, IMO, but to compensate, the National Trust use it as a showcase to display a lot of old master paintings in addition to those which were already in it. Outstanding for Turner and Van Dyke. The gardens and grounds are also great.
Petworth House is notably closer to the centre of Petworth than it's former railway station (still very much standing and open as a restaurant ), which lies some two miles south of and some way below the town.
good video of (half) a county i love.... didnt realise crawley had history. thanks
Had to be Arundel. Fabulous town.
Arundel - spent last Sunday there (one of many) photographing the various features of the place.
Nice, no shortage of photo opportunities there!
Chichester is a city, not a town. It is the only city in West Sussex. The cathedral is also the only one in the UK with a separate bell tower
really interesting, never heard of steyning or whatever, looks lovely or midhurst
i live in rustington which is a nice little village, and its near littlehampton which is handy
You got this about right. I'd nominate Lewes for East Sussex, similar to Arundel in many ways. Castle, Tudor Streets etc.
He's made a video on East Sussex and Lewes wasn't number 1 🤭
For some reason, I expected all the places to be on the coast. Probably because my children and grandchildren all live in Bosham, and my thought at first was "I'll certainly recognise Bosham when we get to it!
But I was undeceived when we suddenly leapt inland to a town whose name is an anagram of Shoreham (though 'Horsham' has no 'E', as you pointed out). But I managed to decode the hint, and confirmed this on recognising the street scene. Beyond that, I recognised a total of about four of the towns before the name was mentioned, especially the unmistakable Arundel at the end.
Incidentally, since your pronunciation has been commented on, I'll just mention that Bosham is pronounced Bozzam.
Thanks for the heads up about the Bosham pronunciation! The only reason it didn't feature is due to it being a village, but perhaps I'll pay it a visit in the future.
Sadly the majority of coastal towns are run down now
Just one more comment on pronunciation, the river Adur is simply pronounced “Ada” by those born and brought up in the county. (I was born in Rustington and lived my formative years in Bognor Regis which has few redeeming visual attributes but does have an interesting history as well as a regal suffix!)
I have lived in Horsham all my life. It is sad how run down it is these days :-(
The market on Thursday and Saturday is good though, and I always feel safer than in some *ahem* neighbouring towns
@@pallasathena1555ahem crawley ahem
I lived in Steyning for 6 years - it’s officially a village, yet has one of the largest schools in the Country consisting of over 2300 pupils which is astonishing for a village
In now live in West Worthing, right by the sea 😊
I'd like to correct you, Steyning is very much a town.
@@michaelgurd7477 not really, it’s a large Village - Haywards Heath and Worthing are Towns - Steyning is officially still a Village, albeit a large one - trust that helps 👍🏼
As far as I'm aware, Steyning has an active market charter going back to the medieval era, which qualifies it in my book.
@@AlexinGreatBritain - yeah, you’re actually correct….but if you ask the locals- they’d swear it’s a village 🤣😉
Steyning is a town, has been for centuries. It was significant enough to have had its own members of parliament. Check out Horsham District Council’s website, or the parish council’s site, they all state it’s a town.
I went to Steyning Grammar School... & the town is promounced Stenning!
I also went to Steyning grammar - a long time ago!
@@lindsaydobson I was there while it was a boys' school, day & boarders
@@RalphWigg1 Ah - on Church Street. I went to the main school on Shooting Field (there were still boarders at that time). When I was old enough I used to commute there from Storrington on my little motor bike. I then went to Collyers in Horsham for 6th form.
@@lindsaydobson My journey was from Storrington. No motorbike though, just double-decker bus.
Steyning, Midhurst, Petworth ❤
All places which lost their rail services in the 1960s. Coincidence?
@@TheHoveHereticMidhurst and Petworth lost their passenger train services in 1955.
It is a bit of a quirk that West Sussex has two villages that, in terms of population, are each larger than Arundel and Midhurst put together.
These are Lancing, between Worthing and Shoreham, and Rustington which is immediately to the east of Littlehampton.
Rustington was officially declared a 'Town' when it became large enough. However, the residents strongly objected to this and it was reverted back to being a 'Village'. This happened during my time living in the village.
At school in Lancing, it had a claim of 'largest village in England'. Population over 20,000 is more than some cities. Area is pretty big too over, 2 miles from the North to the beach. With no obvious single village green. Beach Green, the one behind the football ground (Monks Rec) and the grounds of Manor Cricket Club are what could be considered the greens.
My friend who lives in Lancing calls it Lancing Village. I thought he was just being pretentious 😅
Alex, Arundel
Worthing? Littlehampton? Bold choices.
Less so when you consider the competition though...
Worthing is lovely, I think it depends on how well you know it. It's got some fantastic Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian buildings. The seafront is still quaint and largely unspoiled.
The town centres of both are drab, but the countryside around is nice (Cissbury Ring for Worthing, Climping Beach for LA)
Have always imagined Arundel Castle as Gormenghast. Came as a big surprise when I found out Mervyn Peake had lived in a rented cottage prior to WW2 on a ridge to to the East overlooking it.
My Gormenghast has always been Lancing College just below Steyning. (Not sure if it's West Sussex or just inside East Sussex ) but not far from Arundel.
I first saw it looming in the distance one dark winters afternoon as a storm blew in from the sea. Chills. Imagine being aged 11 and sent there as a border. Hogwarts has nothing to it.
@@dreamok732 Yes. Looked at images.
Poor Midhurst has lost some of its lustre since the Angel burned down and the ruin has been left blocking half the high street.
Not so long ago the town was voted best small town in England by Telegraph or Guardian readers or some such.
Amberly is a very nice town too
Amberley is a village.
@@nbhanburydawn absolutely a village... town? wtf!
Cowdray ruins, Midhurst might be worth a mention?
A reaction to your comment about Midhurst not having a Railway Station. You might be interested to learn that it once had 3 ! The lines coming from Chichester to the south, Petersfield to the west and Pulborough to the east. Each I believe built and run by different railway companies and located in different parts of the town
Wow, it really is mind-boggling just how good our rail network was once upon a time!
Midhurst once had two stations, not three, unless the replacement London, Brighton & South Coast Railway one is counted separately. The LBSCR operated the line that ran westwards from Hardham Junction (south of Pulborough) to Midhurst and the line that ran from Chichester to Midhurst. Trains from those lines used the same station and passenger services from Chichester last ran in 1935. The London & South Western Railway operated the line that went from Petersfield to Midhurst, that terminated in a separate station situated to the west of that owned by the LBSCR. There was a line that connected the two but was for goods traffic only and passed over a bridge that could not carry an engine, a horse being used to move wagons. The Southern Railway, which came into being in 1923, rebuilt the bridge and it was no longer necessary for passengers to have to walk between the stations. Services were concentrated at the LBSCR station but it no longer survives, its site being in a newish housing estate. The LSWR station is in the land of the living and used as offices.
Bognor Regis is now seeking counselling.
Lol. I live near there.
i miss living in bognor
@@jamesjimbob71 you shouldn’t. it’s absolutely awful nowadays. it’s full of druggies, you can’t leave your house at night without the risk of being mugged or assaulted and there’s absolutely nothing to do. i moved out in june after living there for 15 years and i could NOT be happier
Sadly Bognor's heyday is long gone
I live and grew up in Sussex. Sadly Horsham has really gone down hill which makes me sad as I grew up there
Arundel castle is one of the most epic castles in Europe. The Normans knew how to build them. The town itself and surrounding areas are also beautiful. I find it strange Arundel isn't as famous as certain other castles in the UK
Most of the famous parts are actually Georgian. Much more modern than Norman. The main round tower for example. The Norman parts are the Keep and outer walls.
Bosham is beautiful. I also love Petworth and Midhurst.
Bosham is firmly in the Village category regarding this list
You left out Rye….but I think on reflection, that is in East Sussex…❤
It is. Almost Kent!
The Cure!
What's just blown my mind, East Grinstead is in West Sussex!
Almost Kent, Almost Surrey, but just about West Sussex 😊
Hurstpierpoint not on this list? Horsham and East Grinstead should be lower down, Arundel is number one for sure.
Hurstpierpoint is a village, as far as I'm aware.
@@AlexinGreatBritain Of course, der, Nice idea for videos, thanks
Midhurst is 16miles from Chichester not 12. Petworth is 8.1 miles from chichester.
Good list. Of course I'd vary the choices slightly. But I'd guess your not local.....based on some of the pronounciations. I let you off! Nice video anyway.
Crawley was a shock to see. Lived there for 15 years before moving to Scotland in 2003.
Nice.. but some strange pronunciations of our various towns
I think you meant to say "dishonourable mention to Crawley" 😂
😂😂😂
They are all pretty towns, but you might think you're not in England if you visit some of them now, especially Crawley.
You missed out Crawley
It got an honourable mention
Lots of these areas are now building sites with horrible new builds everywhere
Hastings oldest town is very pretty all saints st is the posh st in Hastings the stag as a 5 star rating 4 hundred pounds old cat it the old pub in Hastings and now it the best pub in Sussex
But Hastings is East Sussex, not West Sussex x
@@vanessasmith5227 yes I do now were Hastings is east Sussex i live in in all saints st so.i should now were am living
@julieling1212 Yes, but thus video is based on West Sussex, there is a separate video for East Sussex. Mentioning Hastings it sounded like you were a little confused 😄
Also, Sorrento is very nice, Wollongong too
Not sure how you pronounced Steyning, but I've only ever heard it pronounced STENNING.
Fair cop. I'm normally vigilant about pronunciation traps, but I botched it on this occasion!
ps arundel is beautiful
Petworth and Arundel - definitely. I'm not sure I'd recommend visitors to go to any of the other places if they don't have too much time on their hands.
Who came from the butterfly loin🦁
👇
Please do some research on correct pronunciations. Each county in England has its share of strange place name pronunciations and there is plenty of advice on them online these days
Crawley not the nicest place to be honest prefer Brighton & hove
I think we could all list places nicer than Crawley, especially if we are including towns from different counties! 😉
B&H counts as East Sussex though. Just over the border.
You pronounced Littlehampton wrong. It’s called LA (short for little ‘ampton) 😂
Correct and Chichester should be "chai" 😂
Felpham is nice
Shoreham in the top ten really ? It’s a shithole . Plus the honourable mention to Crawley otherwise known as the armpit of West Sussex
Oh dear.. now all the towns are going to be invaded 😅
That's the only down side to these videos! 😂
@@glad5174 we should report the video for ‘misinformation’ 😅
I agree with alot of your choices; But HORSHAM? You must be joking! I was born there. It's a pretentious dump. I moved away over 30 years ago. I HATE THE PLACE!!! 😡😡😡
Pretty dull place I agree
You don't pronounce Steyning as STAINING... It's phonetically pronounced as Sten-ning.