Ferring is a coastal village,
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...
and
electoral ward
A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected t ...
in the
Arun District of
West Sussex
West Sussex is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Surrey to the north, East Sussex to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Hampshire to the west. The largest settlement is Cr ...
, England. It is part of the built-up area of
Worthing
Worthing ( ) is a seaside town and borough in West Sussex, England, at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of Chichester. With a population of 113,094 and an area of , the borough is the second largest component of the Br ...
and is accessed along the A259 road west of the town - comprising North Down Farm and
Highdown Hill
Highdown Hill is a hill in the South Downs, with a height of . The summit of the hill and its western slopes lie in the parish of Ferring in the Arun district, while its eastern slopes lie in the borough of Worthing. It is a popular spot for p ...
to the north and the town itself to the south, with approximately equal size
green buffers to the town in size, to east to
Goring-by-Sea
Goring-by-Sea, commonly referred to simply as Goring, is a neighbourhood of Worthing and former civil parish, now in Worthing district in West Sussex, England. It lies west of West Worthing, about west of Worthing town centre. Historically ...
and west to
East Preston.
In the 2001 census 4361 people lived in 2179 households, of whom 1423 were economically active. The area's seafront is pedestrianised and the beach itself is a mixture of shingle and pebble, reinforced by
groyne
A groyne (in the U.S. groin) is a rigid aquatic structure built perpendicularly from an ocean shore (in coastal engineering) or a river bank, interrupting water flow and limiting the movement of sediment. It is usually made out of wood, concrete ...
s. The population at the 2011 Census was 4,480.
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]
History
The site of the village is an ancient one: the name itself is Saxon
The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...
; it is mentioned in the Domesday Book
Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...
; the parish church is Norman
Norman or Normans may refer to:
Ethnic and cultural identity
* The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 9th and 10th centuries
** People or things connected with the Norma ...
, and is dedicated to St Andrew.
Until the 1920s the village was a small one; when the south coast began to be built-up, particularly with holiday homes, Ferring began to increase in size.
Sport and leisure
Ferring has an amateur football club, Ferring Football Club, which plays at the Glebelands.
It also has an amateur cricket club, Ferring Cricket Club, which plays at the Little Twitten and is believed to have been established in 1864 or earlier. In 2024 the club entered into league cricket for the first time in its 160 year history. The club will still play friendly games on Sundays. The club has a youth section with three teams of different age groups.
Ferring Radio was a community licensed station broadcasting across the South Coast on 97.7fm originally for the benefit and experience of clients with special needs attending Ferring Country Centre. The station has been revived in 2020 on-line to provide music and local news and information during the extreme medical crisis and isolation.
Parks and open spaces
There are three parks in Ferring: Glebelands Recreation ground, Ferring Village Green and Little Twitten. Events take place in these areas at various times throughout the year.
St Andrew's Church
St Andrew's church was built in 1170, although the site has had a church there since 765.Royal Sussex Regiment
The Royal Sussex Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army that was in existence from 1881 to 1966. The regiment was formed in 1881 as part of the Childers Reforms by the amalgamation of the 35th (Royal Sussex) Regiment of Foo ...
officer of World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
.
CWGC Casualty Record.
Ferring Rife
The Ferring Rife
The Ferring Rife is a stream in West Sussex, England that rises in the West Durrington area of Worthing. It has multiple sources including one near Castle Goring and another in Titnore Wood. The streams converge that make up the Ferring Rife ...
is a stream in West Sussex, England that rises in the West Durrington area of Worthing. It has multiple sources including one near Castle Goring and another in Titnore Wood. The streams that make up the Ferring Rife converge north of Littlehampton Road, passing through Maybridge, then west of Ferring into the sea. It flows southwest, west and then south into the English Channel
The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...
, between the villages of Ferring and East Preston.
References
External links
{{authority control
Villages in West Sussex
Arun District
Populated coastal places in West Sussex