Editing Shoreham-by-Sea (section)

== History ==
[[File:Old Town Hall, High Street, Shoreham-by-Sea (IoE Code 297294).jpg|thumb|[[Shoreham Town Hall]]]]
[[File:St Nicolas' Church, Old Shoreham, West Sussex.jpg|thumb|left|[[St Nicolas' Church, Shoreham-by-Sea|St Nicolas' Church]]]]
[[File:ShorehamChurch(BobEmbleton)Apr2006.jpg|thumb|left|[[St Mary de Haura Church, Shoreham-by-Sea|St Mary de Haura Church]]]]
Old Shoreham dates back to pre-Roman times.<ref name="oldandnew1">{{cite web
| url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=18237&strquery=roman+shoreham
| title='Old and New Shoreham', A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 6 Part 1: Bramber Rape (Southern Part) pp. 138-149
| year=1980
| access-date=27 January 2011
| archive-date=25 October 2012
| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121025134129/http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=18237&strquery=roman+shoreham
| url-status=live
}}</ref>
[[St Nicolas' Church, Shoreham-by-Sea|St Nicolas' Church]], inland by the River Adur, is partly Anglo-Saxon in its construction.<ref>{{cite web
| url=http://achurchnearyou.com/old-shoreham-st-nicolas
| title=St Nicolas, Shoreham-by-Sea – West Sussex &#124; Diocese of Chichester
| publisher=aChurchNearYou.com
| access-date=26 April 2013
| archive-date=15 January 2013
| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130115125829/http://www.achurchnearyou.com/old-shoreham-st-nicolas/
| url-status=live
}}</ref>
The name of the town has an Old English origin.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.glaucus.org.uk/Toponymy.htm|title=Shoreham: Toponymy|work=glaucus.org.uk|access-date=16 July 2007|archive-date=16 July 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070716043342/http://www.glaucus.org.uk/toponymy.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> The town and [[port]] of New Shoreham was established by the [[Norman Conquest|Norman conquerors]] towards the end of the 11th century.

[[St Mary de Haura Church, Shoreham-by-Sea|St Mary de Haura Church]] (St Mary of the Haven) was built in the decade following 1103 (the [[Domesday Book]] was dated 1086), and around this time the town was laid out on a grid pattern that, in essence, still survives in the town centre. The present church is approximately half the size of the original structure – the former [[nave]] was already in ruins by the time of the [[English Civil War]], although evidence of the original west façade survive in the churchyard to this day. 

Muslim geographer [[Muhammad al-Idrisi]], writing {{Circa|1153}}, described Shoreham as "a fine and cultivated city containing buildings and flourishing activity".<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.cartographyunchained.com/pdfs/cgid1_pdf.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=7 December 2016 |archive-date=22 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150922081246/http://www.cartographyunchained.com/pdfs/cgid1_pdf.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> Shoreham had status as a [[Royal Port]].

An 18th-century naval chartist and artist, Captain [[Henry Roberts (Royal Navy officer)|Henry Roberts]], who was once a lieutenant under [[Captain Cook]], was a native of Shoreham.<ref>[https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000235/17900108/018/0004 >Kentish Gazette - Friday 08 January 1790]</ref>

The rapid growth of the neighbouring towns of Brighton, Hove and Worthing – and in particular the arrival of the railway in 1840 – prepared the way for Shoreham's rise as a [[Victorian era|Victorian]] [[sea port]], with several [[shipyard]]s and an active coasting trade. Shoreham Harbour remains in commercial operation today. The area became an [[Urban district (Great Britain and Ireland)|urban district]], with [[Shoreham Town Hall]] as its headquarters, in 1910.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/unit/10073972|title=Shoreham-by-Sea UD| publisher=Vision of Britain|accessdate=15 March 2021}}</ref>