Sweet smell of the seaside

In bygone decades, trippers used to flock to the town for the invigorating ozone-rich sea air, gloriously temperate climate and wide golden sands.

Princess Amelia arrived here in a frail state and went away rejuvenated, securing Worthing's reputation as a high class spa.

But in 1850, just 52 years after the princess's famous stay, rapidly-expanding Worthing had been transformed into a foul-smelling, fly-blown health hazard due to poor sanitation, inadequate drainage and a medieval sewerage system.

The stench pervading the streets became so bad that 91 of the town's leading citizens pleaded with the General Board of Health to send a specialist inspector to the town.

Inspector Edward Cresy reported: "The parade, beach and sands, which ought to rank among the prominent attractions of the place, have been most injuriously affected by the long and continued practice of discharging all the sewerage of the town along the nearly level sands."

Sewage flowed along eight wooden troughs, made of two-inch thick elm, on to the beach but, when the tide was out, the effluent flowed directly on to the sand.

Mr Cresy said: "During the 16 hours that these sands are uncovered, the visitors who promenade upon them complain of the disagreeable odour which at all times arises in the neighbourhood of these pestiferous discharges."

The situation was made worse by the regular casts of seaweed, which still plague the town today and can, in hot weather, lead to a dreadful stink as the vegetation rots under the full glare of the sun.

Only those residents who have experienced a giant cast, 4ft deep or more, can truly comprehend how distasteful the stench is.

It has been about 15 years since Worthing's beaches suffered a major invasion but the weed is still out there waiting for the right conditions.

Mr Cresy noted: "The seaweed, which grows upon the rocks some distance westward of the town, when detached by storms, is by the winds driven upon the coast in sufficient quantities to be available for the farmers' use.

"Frequently the sea is rendered black by the rolling in of this manure. It is collected in heaps upon the margin of the Esplanade but they are frequently left a sufficient length of time to heat and decompose, when they give out smells that are disagreeable to the inhabitants of the opposite houses, and to the persons who promenade along the beach."

Mr Cresy found many of the houses in the town were constructed with substandard materials and had no drainage.

A surgeon by the name of Henry Collett told him sickness in Worthing had increased to a very considerable extent, from 560 cases in 1832 to more than 1,000 in 1849.

Many streets inhabited by the poor and virtually destitute had been affected by epidemics, including, typhus, damaging the town's reputation.

Mr Collett highlighted the plight of a family living in Field Row, a twitten which still exists, linking Montague Street and Ambrose Place.

Number six was occupied by Nathan Long, whose wife and four children were seldom free from fever, which ultimately killed two of his offspring.

Mr Cresy discovered there were several hundred cesspits scattered all over town, many of which were overflowing with waste.

He said the cesspits should be filled in, with sewage conveyed through new earthenware drains into the sea, rather than spilling directly on to the beach.

Solid waste should be collected in reservoirs and turned into fertilizer for spreading on farmland.

It was suggested every home, and slaughterhouse, in the town should have a constant and cheap supply of the purest water.

Mr Cresy feared disease was spread by cramped conditions and insisted that "no houses hereafter should be built in a confined situation, or where the alley, yard or forecourt is not of sufficient width to admit a free circulation of air, and the full benefit of the sun's rays."

A Local Board, consisting of nine residents, was founded, and it ordered the laying of drains and the construction of a water tower.

However, the changes took several years to implement and, during that time, deadly diseases erupted in the town.

In 1886, sanitary expert William J Harris penned an article for the British Medical Journal which said there were several virulent smallpox epidemics in the 1860s.

He added: "From enteric fever (typhoid) we have suffered severely."

The first outbreak occurred in the autumn of 1865, when heavy rain resulted in the drains overflowing and sewer gas contaminated homes.

Mr Harris also noted: "Measles and whooping cough we must expect to suffer from at certain intervals and, unfortunately, during this winter, these two diseases were very severe and fatal among a certain portion of the population."

But the 1893 typhoid epidemic, which killed more than 180 residents, was the straw that broke the camel's back and almost ruined Worthing.

Today, the town is served by a multi-million pound sewage complex in East Worthing, which pumps treated effluent several miles out to sea. People living near the works are sometimes affected by unpleasant smells but the problem is nothing like as bad as it used to be.