IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Penarth Gardens, Thornlea Park, LITTLEHAMPTON, BN17 7QA

The title is possibly a slight misnomer as the boundary between the Civil Parish of Lyminster and Crossbush, and the Civil Parish of Littlehampton runs down the centre of the watercourse, but Lyminster is probably the nearest discrete settlement. Of these Lyminster and Crossbush is to the right and Littlehampton to the left. Nonetheless Black Ditch was glinting in the late afternoon sunshine and somewhat living up to its name, although the water was actually very clear and flowing well. I think that Black Ditch was a mediaeval waterway and was probably built at least in part to help drain the low lying land to the immediate north of the coast, to which it flows on a parallel route. It is a tributary of the River Arun and is seen here about a kilometre and a half upstream of their confluence.

In the 18th century this flint and brick building was a coaching inn standing in isolation on the road between Littlehampton and Arundel. The urban sprawl of Littlehampton, including mobile home parks, has now spread up to it and beyond and the road is now the A284 Lyminster Road.

This little-used public footpath cuts off the corner of Lyminster Road where it makes a double right-angled turn through the village. The path is shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1879 at which time Lyminster was, according to the OS, definitely spelt Leominster. Today the path is defined on the ground by nothing more than some bands of electric fencing separating various paddocks for horses.