Selsey Bill

Selsey Bill is a headland into the English Channel on the south coast of England in the county of West Sussex.

The southernmost town in Sussex is Selsey which is at the end of the Manhood Peninsula and Selsey Bill is situated on the town's southern coastline. It is the easternmost point of Bracklesham Bay and the westernmost point of the Sussex Coast.

Although the place name Selsey has existed since Saxon times, and is derived from the Old English meaning Seal's Island, there is no evidence to suggest that the place name Selsey Bill is particularly old. A 1698 survey of the area included in a report for the Royal Navy, by Dummer and Wiltshaw mentioned Selsey Island but not Selsey Bill.

Wee passed by Chichester observing only that there are many small Currents of Fresh Water, and breaking into the low Lands by the Flux of the Sea between it and Portsmouth in and about the Islands of Selsea and Hailing, But all Passages into the same from the Seaward being Covered by the East Burroughs the dangerous Rocks called the Oares, and the Sands of the Horse; There is no Room among them for any improvement for the Navy nor did there appear to be any Place fitting to Build a Shipp of the 4th. Rate within any of the Havens of those mentioned Islands upon the enquiry which was made thereof about 4 Years since by your own Directions.

— Dummer et al. 1698, Sheet 198

The place name does not appear to have been used before the early 18th century when it started appearing on maps; for example Philip Overton's 1740 map of Sussex and Richard Budgen's map of 1724. It is possible that the idea was taken from Portland Bill, another headland, on the western side of the Solent.

Thomas Pennant described the location of Selsey Bill, or "Selsey-bill" as he writes it in his book, "A Journey between London and the Isle of Wight" published in 1801.

The isle more properly peninsula of Selsey projects far to the south and gives protection to the vessels from the westerly winds its extremity is named Selsey-bill before it are two or three sand banks some mixed with black and called the malt owers and the sea owers the last covered with two fathoms of water at the ebb.