Rustington
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Rustington is a seaside resort near Littlehampton in Sussex. For local government purposes, it forms part of the Arun district and the administrative county of West Sussex. Although still officially a village with its own parish council, Rustington is much larger than its status implies. (It has expanded considerably in the last few years, due to extensive new housing developments, which have altered its 'old world charm'). With a population of 12,676 in 2001, it has the size and facilities of a small town, including a shopping area containing a number of chain stores. It comes under the Worthing West constituency and its current MP is Peter Bottomley. It is served by Angmering railway station. The parish of Rustington includes the hamlet of West Preston.
Rustington competes annually in the South-East in Bloom competition, in which it continually does very well. It holds an annual carnival and fete in August every year and at Christmas has a village Carol Concert which is free for local residents and features local school children accompanied by the Littlehampton Concert Band.
Rustington is twinned with the American town of Los Altos, California and the German town of Künzell.The population has expanded rapidly in recent years due to several major house building projects.
The local non-league football team, Rustington F.C, achieved the notable distinction of going through the entire calendar year of 2006 without losing a single match, earning them a mention on Sky Sports News on New Year's Eve.
The Street and surrounding roads in Rustington contain some of the finest C17th Sussex cottages in the area, many are thatched. Hubert Parry's music to 'Jerusalem' was written there, JM Barrie, author of Peter Pan and artist Graham Sutherland among others also resided there.
Rustington was home to an American WWII airtraining base, which is no longer in existence.
Rustington also has a retail park located on the A259 which runs to the north of the village providing decent transport to other towns such as Littlehampton,Bognor and the modern city of chichester. And to the east the towns of Worthing and the upcoming city of Brighton.
Two world air speed records, were both set on 7th September over Rustington Sea Front.
Record 1 - set on 7th September 1946, by Group Captain Teddy Donaldson, flying a Gloster Meteor.
Record 2 - set on 7th September 1953, by Squadron Leader Neville Duke, flying Hawker Hunter WB188, at a speed of 1170.9 km/hr.
To celebrate, on 7th September 1996, Neville Duke returned to Rustington to unveil a plaque, marking the event. He was joined by a Gloster Meteor and a Hawker Hunter, which flew over Rustington Sea Front.
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