We have reached the final week (for now…) of Sussex Unwrapped! It is the turn of Chichester this week, and we thought it would be a great idea to run through the centuries to sum up the history of Chichester as a a market town and cathedral city. Let’s see what has changed shall we?

Chichester on Film

Snippet from the film Chichester: A Georgian City on Vimeo by Screen Archive South East, part of the series for West Sussex Unwrapped.

Images should not be reproduced without permission from West Sussex Record Office.

Chichester in the Archives

Chichester has the distinction of being the only city in West Sussex as well as being the County Town. The founding of Chichester is usually attributed to Noviomagus Reginorum. This roughly translates to the ‘new plain of the Regini’ (the name given by the Romans to the locals). The Roman city was connected to London through Stane Street – which ran from Eastgate up to London Bridge – and was built in the typical Roman style with a north, south, east and west street. There are significant chunks of Roman Chichester that have survived, not just Fishbourne Palace down the road, but you can head over to the Novium’s website to read more about Roman Chichester!

Medieval and Tudor Chichester

With the beginning of Anglo-Saxon Britain, Chichester became the chief city in the Kingdom of Sussex, and after the Norman conquest we know – thanks to the Domesday Book – that Chichester consisted of 300 dwellings which held a population of 1,500 people. The bishopric moving here from Selsey in 1075 would have perhaps helped Chichester’s population growth to a decent size by the time the Domesday Book was compiled.

When looking at the growth of medieval Chichester, ChiCity – the Chichester City Archives – holds some of our oldest records for the entire County. Below we have a royal charter of Henry II’s in around 1155.

Written in Latin, a rough translation reads as follows:

A royal charter is a formal grant issued by a monarch that, in medieval times, was often used to give rights and privileges to towns, boroughs and cities. In the above instance, it was Henry II ensuring certain liberties involving trading and selling with city guilds and their members.

Alongside its city status, Chichester also was the centre of the Diocese. The Cathedral was consecrated in 1175, though it continued to be added to throughout the centuries, including the ill-fated spire which would later collapse in 1861 (which you can more about on another blog post here). The images below, painted by Peter Iden, show an impression of what medieval Chichester and its Cathedral could have looked like for the first 350 years.

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Stuart and Georgian Chichester

Speaking of the Cathedral, our Capitular records also provide a look at central Chichester throughout the centuries. Our oldest records come from this collection (see our blog on the Oslac Charter) and carry through to the 20th century. Here we have a page from Cap VI/1/1, a manuscript music book dating from the 17th century. John Walter was the organist at Eton College between 1681 and 1704, and this volume contains his handwritten copies of music by John Blow and Henry Purcell. You can read more about this piece on a blog written by Anthony Cane, former Chancellor of Chichester Cathedral, by clicking the link here.

Another great way to show the changing landscape of an area is maps. As maps have become less abstract and more about showing – to scale – details of buildings and roads, so too has Chichester’s position in West Sussex and the South of England changed in its prominence.

This late Elizabethan/early Stuart map by Nordon shows the entirety of West and East Sussex, but has a detailed insert of the Cathedral city. From this insert you can clearly see the walls that surround the city (and Priory Park) as well as the route the river Lavant took around the city walls.

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ChiCity AZ/2 aka ‘The Brown Book’ is a compilation of copies of different charters, statutes, leases and so on to provide a sort of overview of the rights and privileges of the Chichester Harbour and canal. We think it dates from the late 17th century. Included inside the front cover is this delightful map of Chichester and the surrounding coastline. The point of the map is to show the extent of the port of Chichester, so the city itself is relegated to being a circle. It only shows the four main streets leading over to Portsmouth/Southampton and south to Dell Quay (note the different spelling)!

As for what Chichester actually looked like, an (idealised) painting by Joseph Francis Gilbert and later engraving by M Dubourg shows the East Street Market in 1814. The number of characters present in this painting could probably have an entire blog post dedicated to themselves, but it’s fascinating to see the interesting perspective used to show the breadth of East Street and the people going about their daily lives.

Victorian Chichester

Victorian Chichester saw a growth both in its population and economy, leading to the construction of some of the more interesting buildings in the city centre. For example, here we have PD 2807, which shows the Corn Exchange, in 1833. Built over a year between 1832 and 1833, the Chichester Corn Exchange was one of the first to be built in Britain.

Moving back to churches, there was a growth in Anglican and Non-Conformist churches being built during the 19th century. Two of the images below show part of Par 39/64: ‘Plans, Elevations and Sections with a Description of the new chapel of St. John in the city of Chichester by James Elmes, Architect’. Built on an octagonal base, the idea was to have a larger central pulpit – ideal for Evangelical style preaching. At the time it cost £7,000 to build, and was used as a working church until 1973, when it was declared redundant. It was granted Grade I status in 1950. Nowadays it is in the care of by the Churches Conservation Trust, and is a regular venue for concerts.

Prior to the 19th century, there were few schools, and those that did exist tended to be closely associated with the local church, and stressed religious education. Although it was not until the 1880s that children were compelled to attend school, Chichester had a number of schools (for both boys and girls) set up throughout the century. One of these was Chichester’s Lancastrian School.

This school was planned at a meeting in 1810 and opened on Tower Street in 1811 as an all-age school for boys. Despite its title as a Lancastrian school, it was actually not specifically non-conformist. The girl’s school opened one year later in 1812.

On the left we have the first page of E/35/1/1 – Chichester Lancastrian School for Boys minute book, 1811. The inscription on the first page of this book reads: The proceedings of a society for educating the poor of Chichester and its environs on the plan of Joseph Lancaster. On pages seven and nine are the signatures of subscribers and the amounts they gave.

When the school was first opened it consisted of just one large room, but later a smaller room on the south side was added. In 1887, to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Jubilee, the large room was divided by a movable screen, and another class was added at the south-east corner. The infants school is now based just down the road from the Record Office, in Orchard Gardens.

So, what did Chichester look like at the turn of the century? We could look at an OS map, or we could look at the first aerial photo of Chichester. APH 126 shows an aerial photograph of Chichester taken from a balloon by Percival Spencer, aeronaut on the 4th June 1904. It was taken from above West Street and looks towards Portfield and Whyke. It includes nearly all the city centre, but not the railway station (although you can spot the railway line to the east). Included with the photograph is a cutting from the Chichester Observer, 8th June 1904 describing the balloon flight. According to the article, the balloon was flown by Percival Spencer, accompanied by Mrs Manville, Mr F Butler, and Percival’s seven year old son, Charles, and had ascended at Crystal Palace and descended at Nursery Fields. Sounds like quite a trip!

Modern Day Chichester

There had been an army camp near Chichester since the 18th century, but in 1873 it became the garrison for the Royal Sussex Regiment, and eventually gained the name the Roussillon Barracks. As such, the Royal Sussex Regiment has had a formative presence in Chichester.

And so, to bring this blog, and Sussex Unwrapped to a close, let’s move even closer to home!

West Sussex Record Office was founded in 1946 and based in County Hall, before moving to Edes House in 1968. In 1989 a new purpose built Record Office was opened to house our ever growing collections. It cost around £2.3 million to build at the time. It was designed to a detailed brief made by the then County Archivist, and it totals 30,000 square feet. This photo shows the exterior during the final stages of building in 1989.

Isn’t it interesting to see how much (or how little) has changed about our home? What are your favourite parts and memories of Chichester? How much has the city changed during your time here?

One more link before you go! If you would like to learn more about the history of Chichester, the Chichester Society in partnership with ourselves and the Heritage Lottery Fund worked on some Heritage Trails. You can read more about the project, and download the routes on the Chichester Society’s website by clicking here.

And that’s all! For now…

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