Arundel was one of the boroughs reformed by the Municipal Reform Act 1835. From 1836 to 1889 the town had its own Borough police force with a strength of three.[4] In 1974 it became part of the Arun district, and is now a civil parish with a town council.
Name
Arundel's old marketplace
The name comes from the Old EnglishHārhūnedell, meaning "valley of horehound", and was first recorded in the Domesday Book.[5][6][7]Folk etymology, however, connects the name with the Old French word arondelle, meaning "swallow", and swallows appear on the town's arms.
A further possible etymology derived from the Domesday spelling Harundel[8] comes from the Anglo Saxon hærn[9] dell[10] meaning "tidal valley", which would mean that the name of the river Arun probably also derives from "tidal". Other local rivers such as the Rother, deriving from the Anglo Saxon róðer which means "rower" (as in a long river[clarification needed]),[citation needed] are also descriptive of the river and its surrounds.
An electoral ward of the same name exists. This ward stretches north to Houghton with a total population at the 2011 census of 4,298.[13] Arundel Town Council is based at Arundel Town Hall.[14]
Geography
Arundel's old town main street
Arundel civil parish occupies an area somewhat larger than its built-up clusters, with the old town towards the north and the new to the south, separated by a main road.[15]
The River Arun at Arundel.
Arundel town is a major bridging point over the River Arun as it was the lowest road bridge until the opening of the Littlehampton swing bridge in 1908. Arundel Castle was built by the Normans to protect that vulnerable fairly wooded plain to the north of the valley through the South Downs. The town later grew up on the slope below the castle to the south.[16] The river was previously called the Tarrant and was renamed after the town by antiquarians in a back-formation.
Arundel includes meadows to the south but is clustered north of the A27 road, which narrowly avoids the town centre by a short and congested single carriagewaybypass. Plans for a more extensive, HQDC bypass were debated intensely between 1980 and 2010 and a junction was built for it at Crossbush. In Spring 2018, Highways England published their preferred route for the new bypass.[17] During 2018-19 there is a further period of consultation when views on a more detailed design for the four-mile (six-kilometre) dual carriageway will be sought.
People born in Arundel are known locally as Mullets, due to the presence of mullet in the River Arun.[19]
Arundel is home to one of the oldest Scout Groups in the world. 1st Arundel (Earl of Arundel's Own) Scout Group was formed in 1908 only a few weeks after Scouting began.[20] Based in an HQ in Green Lane Close, it has active sections of Beaver Scouts, Cub Scouts and Scouts.
^"Forward! Once more..."(PDF). Newsletter Issue 1. Arundel Scout Group. January 2008. p. 1. Archived from the original(PDF) on 9 March 2012. Retrieved 16 March 2009.
^"Bird flew in the face of the law". Littlehampton Gazette. Littlehampton, U.K. 23 September 1955. p. 2. Retrieved 21 September 2021. Miss Mary Chater, a magistrate, drew the chairman's attention to the blue-tit
