There’s little doubt that Arundel is one of the county’s gems: it’s small, historic, and very pretty, not just the town itself but its surroundings, with meadow, river, hills and woodland all around.
Who hasn’t taken a breath when rounding the corner on the A27 approach from Worthing, when beyond the Arun River’s flood plain comes into view the town, nestled between its castle and cathedral bookends. Now an unspoilt tourist attraction, it wasn’t always thus, and historic records quote early 18th century visitors to Arundel describing it as ‘poor, paltry and decayed’.
Roman origins
In Roman times the river Arun formed a wide tidal estuary, and had the Celtic name Trisantona – meaning ‘trespasser’, which could have alluded to its proneness to flooding. This had the more modern equivalent ‘Tarrant’, which certain records testify to it being called between 700 and 1200. The legacy of the name lives on in the name Tarrant Street, which is a focal point of the town with its cafes, shops and pubs.
A large and luxurious Roman villa, with a hypocaust, mosaic work, and much painted plaster, was built in the 1st century AD between the west end of Tarrant Street and the river.
Other theories suggest that the town was named after another name for the river, the Arno, which makes it unusual in the river being named after its town, rather than the other way around, like Plymouth, or Teignmouth.
As well as serving an important inland port, brimming with pike and eel, the Arun was also famous for its grey mullet, which had a reputation for size and flavour. ‘Mullet’ even became a nickname for natives of the town, but the fish are far rarer now.
The castle, cathedral and church
The ‘poor, paltry, and decayed’ town gradually started to look up from the 1720s, when the dukes of Norfolk (who have passed it down between them for nearly a century) began to stay at the town’s dominating icon, the castle, more often.
The castle – called ‘small but friendly’ by Queen Victoria on one of her two visits to the town – has been there since 1067, and there was probably some kind of fortress there in Saxon times. The castle has been under siege many times in its history, and while not quite under siege in the burglary that took place a year ago, it did suffer losses worth more than £1 million.
Among the items stolen were gold rosary beads belonging to Mary Queen of Scots, who during her 19-year imprisonment by Queen Elizabeth I was locked away in various castles, including Arundel.
The castle’s royal history is long and complicated, but it’s certainly not the only attraction in the town worth visiting.
Facing it from across the town is the gothic cathedral, which was only built in 1868 and not made a cathedral until 1964.
Just as beautiful is St Nicholas Church, in the grounds of the castle, which was first built around the same time as the castle and rebuilt in 1380.
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