PAGHAM HARBOUR PAST AND 

 PRESENT 



In the south-western corner of the long county of 

 Sussex, and on the eastern side of the great pro- 

 montory or headland known as Selsea Bill, there ex- 

 isted until 1887 one of the most attractive harbours 

 for wildfowl to be found in the south of England. 

 Formed originally by an incursion of the sea at the 

 weakest portion of the long shingle beach which for 

 ages kept back the water from the low-lying inland 

 marshes, it furnished, in its wide waste of 3000 

 acres, the most important requisites of food, shelter, 

 and comparative quiet, which are so essential to the 

 presence of wildfowl. Localities which do not 

 offer these attractions never hold birds long. They 

 come, it is true, with wonderful regularity at the 

 usual periods of their migration ; but, after a few 

 days' rest, they again journey onwards in search of 

 those conditions which are so essential to their 

 comfort. With no railway stations nearer than 

 Boofnor or Chichester — both of them some five 

 miles distant — Pagham Harbour lay sufficiently off 

 the beaten track to be out of the way of ordinary 

 tourists, and, strange to say, was known to few 

 beyond the professional gunners and fishermen 

 dwelling about Bognor, Pagham, Siddlesham, and 

 Selsea. Nor were these by any means a numerous 



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