Chichester

Chichester, a municipal borough and episcopal city in Sussex, 17 miles ENE. of Portsmouth, and 28 W. of Brighton. It stands on a plain between an arm of the sea and the South Downs, which rise gently on the north. It is well built, and has wide streets. The two main streets cross at right angles, and meet in an elaborate eight-sided market-cross (circa 1500). Within the suburbs the city is surrounded by an ancient wall, $1\backslash frac\{1\}\{2\}$ mile in circuit, with some semicircular bastions, and now a promenade under the shade of elms. The cathedral, erected in the 12th and 13th centuries, on the site of a wooden one founded 1108, and burned 1114, measures 410 by 131 feet, with a spire 277 feet high (rebuilt 1865-66, after its fall in 1861), and a detached bell-tower or campanile, 120 feet, the only structure of the kind retained by an English cathedral. The aisles are double—a mode of construction elsewhere seen only in Manchester Cathedral and in some parish churches. The choir, lady chapel, and cloisters offer interesting features. The bishop's palace is supposed to have been erected on the site of a Roman villa. Chichester has twelve parish churches, a market-house, corn exchange, guildhall (formed out of the chapel of the Franciscan monastery), council-house, a theological college (1872), and several other educational establishments. The chief trade is in agricultural produce and live-stock. Wool-stapling, malting, brewing, and tanning are also carried on. Pop. (1851) 8662; (1891) 7842. From the time of Edward I. till 1867 Chichester returned two members, and till 1885 one. The port of Chichester, 2 miles to the south-west of the city, is situated on a deep inlet of the English Channel, of about 8 square miles, and is connected with Chichester by a canal. Chichester was the Roman Regnum, and has afforded Roman remains—as a mosaic pavement, coins, urns, and an inscription of the dedication of a temple to Neptune and Minerva. Chichester was taken and partly destroyed in 491 by the South Saxons. It was soon after rebuilt by Cissa, their king, and called Cissanceaster, or Cissa's Camp. It was for some time the capital of the kingdom of Sussex. The South Saxon see was removed by Stigand from Selsey to Chichester towards the close of the 11th century. Among its bishops have been Reginald Pecock, Lancelot Andrews, John Lake, and Simon Patrick. In December 1642 the royalists of Chichester surrendered to the parliamentarians after an eight days' siege, recaptured the city in the December of 1643, but had again to surrender to Waller a month later after a siege of seventeen days. Among the prisoners of war was the famous Chillingworth, who was allowed to die here, and lies buried in the cathedral. See works by Willis (1861), Stephens (1876), and Swainson (1880).