Middleton on Sea Association · since 1937 Members
The sun low on the horizon over the sea, turning the sky orange, with wooden groynes running down the shingle beach and trees in silhouette on the right

Middleton on Sea Association

Preserve the amenities of the area Foster good neighbourliness and fellowship Encourage self-help among residents

Our aims since 1937

The Middleton on Sea Association was formed in 1937 by local residents to carry on the ideals of Captain Coldicott, who planned and built much of the estate. Our purpose today is the same as it was then: to preserve the amenities of the area and foster a spirit of good neighbourliness and self-help among the residents.

Who we are

MOSA is not a management company. It is the people who live here, looking after where they live.

The roads you drive on, the verges you walk past, the twittens between the gardens and the Greensward along the sea front all belong to the Association. No council maintains them. We do, which means you do, through the annual charge and through a great deal of unpaid work by your neighbours.

A row of black timber beach huts along the edge of the Greensward, with mown grass in front of them and the sea beyond
The beach huts and the Greensward, where the summer barbecue is held.

What is on

Each year the committee puts on a handful of things worth turning up to: a MOSA dinner, a boules and barbecue evening, the sandcastle competition, and beach cleanups. Watch for the posters around the estate, or look at the news and events page.

Everyone is welcome, members or not.

A special place, and a fragile one

The estate still feels spacious and informal almost a century after Captain Coldicott laid out the first plots in Sea Way in 1920. That is not an accident, and it is not the work of any designation. It is the layout he chose, and the people who have looked after it since.

Middleton on Sea is designated an Area of Special Character by Arun District Council, and the Greensward is a Site of Nature Conservation Importance. Both help. But an Area of Special Character is not a Conservation Area, and the planning controls are lighter than people assume: permitted development rights still apply here. What the designation does is give weight to the Village Design Statement when the council weighs an application. It is an argument, not a shield.

A thatched cottage behind clipped hedges and a gravel drive, with camellias in flower and a spreading pine tree behind
Thatch, low eaves, clipped hedges and space between the houses. The pattern Captain Coldicott set out in the 1920s.

Read the history of the estate