Felpham 'refuses to be cowed' reads coronation programme from 1953

“(Felpham) has resisted, with few defeats, the crudities of urban architecture; has refused to be cowed by the dictates of its civic overlords in Bognor Regis.”
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So reads an article in a coronation pamphlet from 1953, which was recently unearthed by the Felpham Village Conservation Society.

Alongside adverts for now-dead businesses and a running order for the village’s coronation festivities, the pamphlet also contains an article by writer and historian Gerard Young.

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In it, he describes the ‘soul' of Felpham, and offers observations which might prove poignant in 2021, with a number of major developments planned for the seaside village.

An article from a 1953 coronation programme recently unearthed by the Felpham Village Conservation Society has described the 'soul' of Felpham.An article from a 1953 coronation programme recently unearthed by the Felpham Village Conservation Society has described the 'soul' of Felpham.
An article from a 1953 coronation programme recently unearthed by the Felpham Village Conservation Society has described the 'soul' of Felpham.

“The ‘expanded meadows’ that (Blake) loved have almost all vanished beneath brick and concrete. And the windmills, the cornfields and the ploughboy in the lane have disappeared,” Young writes. “But the heart of the village has not weakened. It’s lifeblood, paradoxically, was composed of water. The water that gave it its Saxon name and which (...) has prevented the sprawl of Bognor Regis and saved Felpham’s identity.”

Young goes on to write passionately about Felpham’s history, describing the way it ‘became a popular bathing resort long before Bogrnor’ and touches on the character of the village of his day.

Despite the ravages of time, Young calls Felpham ‘a place of individuality that desires and keeps its grassy banks in Limmer Lane, its rich trees (...) its twists and its turns that make the buses nose their way respectfully and quietly, its fine church, old inns, pretty gardens, and its comparative freedom from the ugliness of commerce.

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"And its inhabitants? it is not nessecary to say more,” he writes. “They are the people who keep Felpham unique.”

Young’s words have been rediscovered as residents and councillors discuss a live planning application on the Bognor Regis Golf Club, on Downview Road.

The historic club, with which Young would have likely been familiar, could be demolished and replaced with up to 480 new homes and associated infrastructure.

Residents have raised concerns about the development’s potential effect on village infrastructure, claiming it will overtax roads and stress oversubscribed schools. They have also said the loss of the historic greenspace could negatively effect Felpham’s environmental character.

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