Background for teachers

• Introduction
• Industry and population
• Population figures

Introduction

Unlike the North and Midlands, West Sussex remained predominantly an agricultural county, largely unaffected by industrialisation and the coming of mass production. Most of the population were involved in domestic service or farming. Most middle and upper class families employed servants, or at least one housemaid. Most of those involved in farming were agricultural labourers and farmers, or worked in occupations dependent on agriculture such as brewing, dairies, food-processing industries, milling, tanning and wool-making. In the later decades of the century, market gardening developed as a specialist ‘offshoot’, taking advantage of favourable growing conditions near the coast.

Traditional crafts, such as basket-making, charcoal-burning, hurdle-making and thatching survived throughout the 19th century in West Sussex. Owners of the great estates, such as Arundel, Cowdray, Goodwood and Petworth, were the largest employers in the area, requiring workers both to farm the estate and to run the household.

For further sources of reading on this subject, take a look at the booklet 'Local History Mini-Guide to Sources no. 14 Victorian West Sussex' (WSCC, 2002). It has an extensive booklist, plus lists of archival sources and museum collections. This booklet is available from your local library.

Industry and population

The greatest change in working patterns was the shift towards service industries, which developed to support the burgeoning seaside resorts of Bognor, Littlehampton and Worthing. As the railway network spread across the county and the resorts developed, along with other market and commuter towns such as Horsham, Burgess Hill, East Grinstead and Haywards Heath, industries grew up which supported this housing and infrastructure growth: brick and tile making, cement works, limekilns and mineral extraction. As ports, resorts and towns grew, so too did the range of shops and associated local trades.

The increase in visitor numbers to the larger seaside towns and their consequent growth in terms of facilities, infrastructure, and housing for service workers led to a general population increase. Published histories of these towns describe the local factors involved.
  
Fishing, which had been a significant employer of men at Bognor, Littlehampton, Selsey, Shoreham, Southwick and Worthing, declined in terms of percentage of the working population. Factors included competition from other areas, improved transport links, changes in eating habits, availability of other foods, and lack of a harbour at Bognor and Worthing.

However several industries did flourish in West Sussex by the end of the Victorian period. Brick and tile making, cement and lime manufacture, chalk, gravel and other mineral extraction grew to support the extensive house-building programme. Market gardening flourished in the milder climate of the South Coast, particularly in the 1870s and 1880s when new techniques in construction and ventilation led to ever larger glasshouses being used. The ports of Littlehampton and Shoreham* grew as imports and exports increased, the latter’s population more than doubling from 3,225 in 1841 to 8,027 by 1901.

*includes Old and New Shoreham, Kingston and Southwick

Population figures

Population of towns

* all percentages are expressed to the nearest whole number
** includes Old and New Shoreham

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