FERRING HISTORY GROUP – who we are and what we do.

Ferring History Group was founded in 2001 and we now have over 150 members. We research, celebrate and publish the history of our village in West Sussex, near Worthing.

We meet four times a year, in the Village Hall, Ferring Street, for presentations and discussions on the history of East and West Sussex, and the rest of the south coast. Members also receive our annual magazine, come on local guided walks and visits further afield, with email updates and news of other local events. Every December we have a Members’ Social evening, with good food, good entertainment and good company.
Membership is £10 a year (£15 for a couple). This covers the four presentation meetings and one copy of the group’s magazine (we have to charge separately for the Social). Or, if you just want to come to the occasional meeting, you can pay £3 at the door.

INFORMATION ON FERRING’S HISTORY We have put some outline information on Ferring’s history, and news from the History Group, on other public pages of this website. Members of our Group have access to many other pages with more detailed articles, maps and photographs.

2024 PROGRAMME
2nd February  – Tales from the Rails – with Bill Gage
3rd May – Some new discoveries on our Downland – with James Sainsbury
2nd August – Ferring From the Air – with Simon Cornish
1st November – A History of Shoreham Airport – with Peter Fellowes
13th December – Christmas Social – with Ian Gledhill

Walks and Visits: to be arranged, for the warmer, lighter months.

RESEARCH Researching your house, or Ferring ancestors? We can help (but there is a limit to what we can do for non-members). Like to do more general research on Ferring? There is a lot to do and some of it can be done on at Worthing Library or on the  internet. If you would like to help we can get you started.

LIBRARY
We have a good selection of old maps, street directories and local history books which we can lend to our members. There are also back numbers of our Newsletter (2001-2014) and Magazine (2015 – 2024) with over 100 articles on the history of the village – available soon, for members, on this web site. As time goes on, the members’ section will also contain our database of copies and transcripts of relevant documents from Ferring’s history, and a collection of maps, postcards and other photographs of the village’s more recent past.

The book, ‘The Day Before Yesterday – Ferring in the 20th Century‘ by Ed Miller has been reprinted and he has also published ‘The Henty Century – Ferring 1801-1900. The first is priced at £15, the second at £10. Please contact Ed (EdMiller43@msn.com) if you would like a copy.

TO JOIN

The easiest way to join is at one of our regular meetings — or else please email our Membership Secretary, Kevin Lee <bbhhic@yahoo.com> and he will  contact you. We will use your email address for the circulars we send out by email, using the ‘hidden copy’ system so that the email addresses of recipients are not shown. You can then ask for a password to access the Members’ pages.

You can also contact us by using the ‘contact’ feature on this web site or by emailing the Secretary, Simon Cornish <simon.cornish@myyahoo.com>