Celebrating heritage, tradition and Arundel’s future at the annual Tree Lighting ceremony

On Friday 1 December, forty soldiers from the Java Battery (‘the Jumbos’) will join Scouts and Guides, clergy and choirs from the Arundel’s three churches, the band of TS Implacable and the Littlehampton and District Scout band, the Town Crier, Mayor and Council, in a procession to the Town Square in the heart of Arundel’s conservation area.

This will be followed by a visit from Father Christmas, who together with the pupils from Arundel schools will launch the Arundel Christmas appeal in aid of Home-Start and Keep Me Breathing, the Mayor’s two charities for 2023/24.

Tony Hunt, Mayor of Arundel says, “In conferring the Freedom of Arundel on the Duke of Norfolk, we are not only honouring his personal contribution to our town, but we are celebrating our pride in Arundel’s heritage. We do still have a Town Crier and a Mace Bearer. But if cherishing our heritage means looking back, we are also looking forward. The young people of Arundel are playing a major part in this ceremony, they will be reading poems that they have written about their town, and they will be carrying the scroll and escorting the Duke because they are – in every sense – the future of Arundel.

“We are delighted to be joined by troops from the 137 (Java) Battery. They too have heritage, having acquired their name and the nickname ‘the Jumbos’ during the invasion of Java during the Napoleonic Wars. The battery has recently been reformed and has established a special relationship with Arundel alongside the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment which includes the historic Royal Sussex Regiment who were awarded the Freedom of Arundel in 1954.“

Only 7 individuals have been awarded the Freedom of Arundel since the Second World War. The Freedom of Arundel was conferred on the 16th Duke of Norfolk in 1953 following his organisation of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth 11.

“The Duke of Norfolk has received many honours in the past,” comments the Mayor, “but we hope that being recognised in his own community, here in Arundel, will complement those greater distinctions.”

“Today the Freedom is largely symbolic. But if the Duke of Norfolk were to wish to drive his sheep over the Queen Street bridge we would arrange for him to do so – having organised a road closure and done a proper Health & Safety assessment of course.”

Photography by Charlie Waring and Nigel Cull