A look at Arundel town -from Birth to the 21st century
Author: admin / Category: GeneralArundel was a Saxon settlement before the Romans arrived, with a small population of afew hundred with a thriving market and a port. Arundel has been dominated by the Dukes of Norfolk ever since they came into the possesion of Arundel castle at the end of the 16th century, to which it still remains to this day.
Friars arrived in the mid 13th century to build the first religious buildings in the area, which are know to the local population as ‘blackfriars’. The blackfriars ruins are still there, right next to the town bridge and St Nicholas’s parish church was built in 1830. Arundel Castle was serverly damaged during the English Civil war, during which it changed hands three times and was not fully restored until the beginning of the 20th century. From the end of the civil war to the end of the 18th century the town was in a poor state, a victim of the destruction that war brings, only to once again florish as a small market town with a population just under 2,000 and by 1901 had grown to have 3,000 people living there. Arundel’s current population is 3650.
In 1846 a railway station had been built at Ford along the coast from Brighton to Portsmouth, which was called “Arundel Station”. The result was that the market and the port closed down because of the railway, just as the 20th century was welcomed in. Arundel’s actual railway station was built in 1863 when the line was extended down to the Arun valley. In 1873 work was completed on a then new Catholic church, which was started in 1868, built by the 15th Duke of Norfolk. The church later recieved cathedral status in 1965.
The town is now a popular tourist destination famous for Arundel castle, Arundel Cathedral and the Blackfriars historical building. Arundel held its first market for eighty years in 2001- the Arundel farmers market, which has become a monthly event ever since.
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