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The village sits two miles north of Worthing, neighbouring its sister village of High Salvington.
Salvington is said to mean ‘Seawolf’s farmstead’, a name of Saxon origins thought to reference a farming community with a close proximity to the sea.
The village features what is possibly the last cockfighting pen in Sussex found in the attic of Old Sussex House: a ring of oak trellis held together by handmade nails. This listed building was constructed in the 1600s, and was originally known as ‘Sussex Lets’.
In 1584, the village was the birthplace of John Selden – one of the most famous jurists, scholars, philosophers and parliamentarians of all time. The house where he’d lived was demolished in the 1960s; but the local pub, named ‘Ye John Selden,’ means his name has lived on to this day.
Local churches include St Symphorium in Durrington (where there’s been a chapel on the site since Anglo-Saxon times) and St Andrews in West Tarring. The latter is famed for its wonderfully elegant spire, as well as its colourful past; not to be confused with another St Andrews in Worthing, the church was used by the Archbishop of Canterbury and as a base for smuggling.
Salvington is just one of the places covered by the free Sussex Local magazine delivered by hand, by local people, every month.
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