I paid a visit to Shoreham Fort yesterday to meet the archaeologists exploring what looks like a WW2 anti-aircraft gun emplacement just to the west of the Fort before some new road surfacing takes place. Friends of the Fort Chairman Gary Baines has been rightly concerned about the loss of archaeology in connection with the work on the adjoining car park and rushed in to take a photographic record before diggers stated ripping up potentially important brickwork.
Gary, the Friends Secretary Sharon Penfold, and their team of dedicated volunteers have done more than any Council or organisation for years in lovingly restoring this unique Palmerston Folly and opening up this important part of Shoreham’s history to residents and visitors alike. They have given enormously of their time without reward and on a shoestring and what really depressed me was to see the latest mindless vandalism on the site with graffiti on the delicate brickwork and even some of the caponier bricks smashed. How can some people have so little respect for their heritage and their surroundings? It is soul destroying for the volunteers and they. Really could do with some more help so I you do have some time spare have a look at their website.
Good news that Adur and Worthing Councils has sere £170,000 from the Gvernment’s Coastal Communities Fund towards a £340,000 project to position coastal West Sussex as an active hub for water-based sports. The excellent conditions that attract hundreds of kite-surfers in particular to Lancing Beach Green is only the start of it so it would appear.