Library Settlement Worker
Chichester Market Town – England and it’s History
The history of Chichester is entwined with the history of the Roman Invasion of 43AD and extends back almost two thousand years. The time when the Roman first recognized its strategic significance and built the fort and now the home to a thriving Market Town Shopping centre.
In 43 AD the Romans invaded Britain and about 44 AD they built a fort on the site of Chichester. It was by a source of water (the river Lavant) and close to a harbour so supplies could be brought by ship from France. Soon the Roman army moved on.
The king of the local Celtic tribe, Cogidnubus, co-operated with the Romans rather than resist them. The Romans left him as a puppet king of Sussex. After the Romans had left the fort Codignubus decided to take it over and make it into a town. The Romans called Chichester Noviomagus, which means new market place.
Roman Chichester was built on a grid pattern. The main streets formed a cross, which remains today as North, South, East and West Streets. In the centre of the town was the forum, a marketplace lined with shops and public buildings. People in Roman Chichester used cesspits and obtained their water from wells but in the streets there were drains for rainwater.
In the late 2nd century a ditch was dug around Roman Chichester and earth ramparts were erected with a wooden palisade on top. Early in the 3rd century stone walls were built. In the 4th century they were strengthened with bastions, semi-circular towers. A ballistae, a form of giant crossbow, could be mounted on one.
About 80 AD an amphitheatre was built beside Roman Chichester. It would have had tiers of wooden seats for about 800 people. On special occasions gladiators fought to the death but usually the entertainment consisted of cock fighting and bear baiting. (The animal was chained and dogs were trained to attack it).
Another pastime was going to the public baths, which stood near Chapel Street. In Roman times going to the baths was not just to get clean but was also a way to socialise, the Roman equivalent of going to the pub. In Roman Chichester there was also a temple to Neptune and Minerva at the junction of North Street and Lion Street.
In Roman Chichester rich people lived in houses with glass windows, mosaic floors, painted murals on their walls and even a form of central heating called a hypocaust. Of course, most people were very poor and had none of these things.
In Roman Chichester there were carpenters, blacksmiths, bronze smiths, potters and leatherworkers. There were also people who made combs and boxes from bone. In the 4th century Chichester declined along with the rest of Roman Britain. The last Roman soldiers left Britain in 407 AD.
In the late 5th or early 6th century the Saxons arrived. Chichester is named after a Saxon called Cissa. The Saxons called any group of Roman buildings a ceaster. They called this town Cissa’s ceaster. It changed to Cisscester then finally to Chichester.
Nothing is known of what happened to Chichester till the late 9th century. At that time Alfred the Great created a network of fortified places across his kingdom where men could gather when the Danes attacked. Often he used old Roman towns or forts. Chichester was made a burgh.
The strategy worked. In 894 the Danes landed in West Sussex but men from Chichester and the surrounding area went out to meet them. They routed the Danes, killing several hundred men and capturing several ships. This was Chichester’s finest hour.
However the burgh of Chichester was not just a stronghold. It was also a flourishing town with a weekly market. In the 10th century there was a mint in Chichester so by then it must have been an important community.
At the time of the Norman conquest Chichester probably had a population of less than 1,500 people. That seems very small to us but remember that most people lived in tiny villages of about 100-150 people. Any settlement with over 1,000 inhabitants was a fair sized town. By the 13th century Chichester had probably grown to about 2,500 people. Still very small by our standards but it would have been a lively place especially on market days.
The South-eastern part of Chichester belonged to the Archbishop of Chichester belonged to the Archbishop of Canterbury. This area was called the Palantine. The word palantine means ‘of the palace’ because this area belonged to the ‘palace’ of the Archbishop. In time the name became corrupted to Pallant.
The Normans built a motte and bailey castle in Chichester in what is now Priory Park. This was a wooden fort on an artificial hill (a motte) surrounded by a ditch and rampart with a wooden palisade (a bailey). Later the castle may have been rebuilt in stone.
In 1216 there was civil war and some barons invited a French prince to come and be king of England. His French soldiers occupied the castle. The French prince was eventually persuaded to go home and the castle was demolished.
In 1075 the local bishop moved his bishopric from Selsey to Chichester, changing its history forever. Chichester cathedral was built after 1091 and it was consecrated in 1108. Unfortunately this building was severely damaged by fire in 1114 and it was rebuilt. Another fire devastated the cathedral in 1187 and it again had to be rebuilt. Chichester Cathedral originally had a bell tower but in the early 15th century this was moved to a separate tower called a campanile. The cathedral was given a spire to replace it.
There were weekly markets in Chichester but from 1108 the bishop was given the right to hold a fair. (A fair was like a market but was held annually and attracted buyers and sellers from all over Southern England). The fair was held for 8 days each October. It was called the Sole fair after a sloe tree, which grew in field by Northgate.
In 1125 King Stephen gave Chichester its first charter (a document confirming its rights and privileges). In the Middle Ages merchants were organised into bodies called guilds which looked after their interests. In Chichester the merchant’s guild owned underground vaults where perishable goods could be stored in a cool environment. These vaults still exist.
In the 13th century it is recorded that wool was exported from Chichester (from Dell Quay). At that time wool was by far England’s most important export. The king tried to control the trade by only allowing certain ports to export wool. These ports were called staples. In 1353 Chichester was made a staple port. It might seem surprising now but in the Middle Ages Chichester was one of England’s most important ports. Chichester Harbour was deeper than it is today. (It has since silted up). Until 1800 ocean-going ships could sail up to Dell Quay.
There were many cloth workers in Chichester. After it was woven wool was cleaned and thickened. This was done by pounding it in a mixture of water and clay. The wool was pounded by wooden hammers worked by watermills. This was called fulling. The watermills were called fulling mills. There were several in Chichester on the Lavant. There were also weavers and dyers in the town.
There was also a needle making industry in Chichester in the Middle Ages. There were also the same craftsmen found in any town. These included brewers, bakers and butchers. Crooked S Lane was once called The Shambles and was full of slaughterhouses. To us it would seem very unhygienic. Butchers threw offal into the street.
Other craftsmen in Chichester included blacksmiths, carpenters, coopers, wheelwrights, cobblers and other leather workers who made saddles and gloves. There was also a tanning industry in Chichester. Tree bark was soaked in fresh water to extract tannin to tan leather.
In the Middle Ages Chichester produced its only saint. Richard was Bishop of Chichester in 1245-1253. He is now patron saint of Sussex.
In the 13th century the friars arrived in England. The friars were like monks but instead of withdrawing from the world they went out to preach and help the poor. In Chichester there were Dominican friars (called black friars because of the colour of their costumes). They lived in the South East of the town where St Johns church is today. They owned the land around the friary from the town wall up to where Baffins Road and Friary Lane are today.
From about 1230 Franciscan friars (known as grey friars) lived in buildings in St Martins Square. In 1269 they moved to the site of the castle. The site in St Martins Square was taken over by St Marys Hospital. This establishment previously existed in South Street. (In the Middle Ages the only hospitals were manned by monks who cared for the sick as best they could). There was also a leper hospital outside the Eastgate. Spitalfields Road is named after some fields it owned. (It was originally called Hospitalfield Lane). In 1497 the Prebendal School was founded (although a school attached to the cathedral had probably existed much earlier).
In 1501 Bishop Storey erected Chichester market cross. If you wanted to sell goods at the market you had to pay a toll. There were some poor peasants who only had a few eggs or a few vegetables to sell. The bishop said anyone could sell things at the market and not pay a toll provided they could stand under the cross.
In 1538 Hentu VIII closed the friaries in Chichester and sold their property. A mansion was built on the site of the black friary in East Street and the surrounding land became its gardens. The grey friary was demolished but its church survived and in 1541 it was sold to the corporation and made the guildhall.
During the 16th century Chichester declined in importance. The wool trade declined. The main exports became wheat and malt. Malt is used in brewing. It is made from barley. The barley was soaked in water then laid out to dry then baked. Malt from Chichester was ‘exported’ along the coast to other parts of England. Other industries in Chichester were brewing and tanning.
There is a story that when Queen Elizabeth visited Chichester she said: ‘it is a little London’ and one of the streets in the town has been called that ever since. It isn’t true as Little London is shown on 15th century maps. It may have got its name because merchants from London lived and worked there.
In 1578 the streets of Chichester were paved for the first time by an Act of Parliament.
In 1588 the people of Chichester provided a small ship called The John to fight the Spanish Armada.
Also in 1588 two Catholic priests were tried for treason in Chichester. (Priests were regarded as foreign agents). Ralph Crockett and Edward James were hung drawn and quartered at a spot west of the town.
In 1625 a brewer named William Cawley built some almshouses for 12 ‘decayed’ (impoverished) tradesmen.
In 1642 came civil war between king and parliament. At that Chichester was a town of about 3,000 people and their loyalties were divided. The bishop and most of the clergy supported the king while most of the merchants supported parliament. At first it was not clear which way Chichester would go. Then the local landowners, the gentry, decided the issue. A force of 600 men, 200 cavalry and 400 infantry rode into Chichester and took if for the king. There was no resistance.
However parliament quickly sent an army to besiege the town. They fired cannons from the North, then the West. Finally they fired them from the East. At that time there was a little suburb outside Eastgate, around St Pancras church, where people made needles. (This is why the road there is called the Needlemakers today). The defenders set the houses in the suburb on fire but the parliamentary soldiers set up a cannon on a church tower and fired over the wall. Chichester surrendered and remained in parliamentary hands for the rest of the war.
Most of the houses in Chichester in the early 17th century were made of wood with thatched roofs. However tiled roofs gradually replaced them. In 1687 a by-law banned thatched roofs because of the risk of fire. In the late 17th century people in Chichester began to build houses in brick. Westgate House was built in the 1690s. (It is sometimes incorrectly called Wren House. In fact Wren did not build it).
In the 18th century the population of Chichester was around 4,000. It started to rise towards the end of the period but was still less than 5,000 at the time of the first census in 1801.
By the 18th century Chichester had dwindled to being a quiet market town. In 1724 Daniel Defoe wrote that Chichester was: ‘not a place of much trade, nor is it very populous’. This quiet little town was largely rebuilt during this century. Many houses were rebuilt in brick. The bricks were made using local clay. Brick making became an important local industry.
Among the houses built at this time was Dodo House, which was built in the Pallant for Henry Peckham, a wine merchant, in 1712. It gets its name because Peckham wanted ostriches carved on columns (ostriches appear on his family coat of arms). However the person who carved them had probably never seen an ostrich and they are said to look more like dodos.
In 1731 Council House was built in North Street. As it has a lion on its roof a nearby street became known as Lion Street. The old Guildhall then became a magistrates court.
To ease the flow of traffic into Chichester West, North and South gates were demolished in 1773. Eastgate was demolished in 1783. Travel to and from Chichester was made easier when turnpike roads were built. You had to pay to use them but at leas they were properly made up and were an improvement on dirt tracks. A turnpike road to London opened in 1748 and one to Portsmouth opened in 1762.
There were some improvements to Chichester during this era. In 1726 four clocks were added to the cross. Chichester gained its first theatre in 1764. It opened in an old warehouse in Theatre Street. In 1791 a purpose built theatre was erected there. In 1779 Chichester gained its first bank. Then in 1791 an Act of Parliament set up a body of men called the Paving Commissioners. They had power to pave and clean the streets and to remove ‘nuisances’ such as overhanging shop signs and bay windows that obstructed narrow alleys.
Chichester was a town of craftsmen working in their own workshops with an apprentice. There were carpenters, bricklayers and glaziers, blacksmiths, wheelwrights, coopers, saddlers, tailors and shoemakers. There were also bakers, brewers and grocers and gunsmiths and clay pipe makers. On the other hand the old industry of needle making died out completely by the end of the century.
In 1750 a grocer named Mr. Shippam opened a warehouse in West Street. He sold cheese and meat to the navy in nearby Portsmouth. In 1782 he opened a shop in East Street.
In 1784 a new charity was formed in Chichester. A dispensary for sick poor people opened in Broyle Road. The poor were given free medicines.
In the very early years of the century, during the Napoleonic Wars, a barracks was built in Chichester. Although Chichester was a small town it grew in size in the 19th century simply because the population of Britain quadrupled. In the first years of the 19th century Somerstown was built outside the city walls. More building took place in the South East corner of the town. There was still a manor house with gardens till 1809 when the land was sold for building. The new area was called Newtown (today this is the name of a single street). St John’s Church opened in 1813.
In the early 19th century the market in Chichester was becoming very congested. On market days West Street was full of livestock for sale. There were also people selling food. To ease the congestion it was decided to erect a building where people could sell things like butter, cheese and vegetables separately from the livestock market. In 1808 the Buttermarket was built for this purpose. At the same time railings were erected around the market cross. However having a market in East Street still caused a lot of congestion in the town and impeded traffic. Therefore, in 1871, a new cattle market opened outside the Eastgate.
In 1833 the Corn Market was built. In the late 19th century the front part of this building was used as a theatre and in the early 20th century as a cinema. Chichester gained gas light in the 1820s. Then, in 1826, the dispensary for poor sick people became Chichester Infirmary (forerunner of St Richard’s Hospital). Graylingwell Hospital opened in 1897.
Chichester gained its first police force in 1836. The first police station was by the Eastgate. At first the town police force was separate from that of West Sussex but they joined together in 1889. In that year the police station moved to Southgate.
In Chichester drunks were put in the stocks. The last person to suffer this punishment was sentenced to 2 hours in 1852.
From 1875 Chichester had a piped water supply. However it was later than most other towns in building drains and sewers. Chichester had a reputation in the late 19th century as being an unhealthy and unsanitary place. Most people in the town used cesspits. Some used buckets, which they emptied into the Lavant. Yet many people in Chichester were reluctant to build a network of drains and sewers because of the expense. They were finally built in 1893-96. The worst area of Chichester was St Pancras. This was the poorest area and was full of poverty and overcrowding.
In 1846 Chichester was connected to Brighton by railway and in 1847 it was connected to Portsmouth. In 1881 a branch line to Midhurst opened. Then in 1897 a light railway to Selsey opened. There was also a canal from Portsmouth to Arundel, which was completed in 1855. However the canal was not a success and the last section, from Birdham to Chichester, closed in 1906.
In 1850 Bishop Otter Teacher Training College opened.
In 1861 the spire of Chichester Cathedral collapsed during a thunderstorm and had to be rebuilt.
In 1892 Shippams opened a meat paste factory at Eastgate.
By the beginning of the 20th century the population of Chichester had reached about 9,000. It rose to about 12,000 by the time of the First World War partly because Summersdale was built North of the town. By 1939 the population of Chichester had risen to about 16,000.
In 1909 Chichester gained electric street light. In 1910 Chichester gained its first cinema in West Street.
Chichester High School for Boys opened in 1908. The High School for Girls opened in 1910.
In 1913 the infirmary became The Royal Sussex Hospital. It moved to its present site in 1937.
In 1918 Priory Park, which was still private land, was given to the council for public use. In the 1920s the first council houses were built in Chichester. By 1939 481 of these had been built. A new police station was built in Kingsham in 1937. The same year Chichester by-pass opened.
During World War II there were 3 bombing raids on Chichester. Bombs were dropped on Basin Road in 1941, on Chapel Street and St Martins Street in 1943 and on Arndale and Green Roads in 1944. Furthermore in May 1944 after being badly damaged by enemy fire over France an American bomber crashed on the site of the old Roman amphitheatre. (The pilot and crew managed to bail out in time but could do nothing to prevent the plane crashing).
After 1946 the Whyke Estate was built and, in the early 1950s, Parklands estate was built.
In 1957 Chichester was twinned with Chartres. A new ring road was built in 1958-1966.
In the early 1960s the area called Somerstown was demolished and rebuilt, as many of its houses were substandard. Yet this was controversial, as Somerstown was a self-contained community with its own shops. The rebuilding broke up that community.
In 1962 Chichester peacheries closed and houses were built on the site. Houses were also built North of Bognor Road. By 1971 the population of Chichester had reached 21,000.
Chichester Festival Theatre opened in 1962. In 1963 Chichester Museum opened in an old corn store.
In 1961 a new railway station was built and in 1965 a new bus station. In 1964 a training centre for military police opened on the site of an old army barracks. In 1967 a new library opened. The same year a swimming pool opened outside Eastgate.
In the 1980s shopping arcades were built in Chichester, Northgate Arcade and Alsmhouse Arcade. Westgate Leisure Centre opened in 1987. In 1989 a new record office opened in Chichester. Chichester livestock market closed in 1990. A new Tourist Information Centre opened in 1993.
Today Chichester is a flourishing town and it is growing steadily. Today the population of Chichester is 26,000.
Please visit my Funny Animal Art Prints Collection @ http://www.fabprints.com
My other website is called Directory of British Icons: http://fabprints.webs.com
To visit the list and links to my other Blogg articles: http://bloggs.resourcez.com
The Chinese call England “The Island of Hero’s” which I think sums up what we English are all about.
-
-
-
-
-
-
Copyright © 2010 Paul Hussey. All Rights Reserved.
-
-
-
-
-
About the Author
Please visit my Funny Animal Art Prints Collection @ http://www.fabprints.com
My other website is called Directory of British Icons: http://fabprints.webs.com
To visit the list and links to my other Blogg articles: http://bloggs.resourcez.com
The Chinese call England “The Island of Hero’s” which I think sums up what we English are all about.
Copyright © 2010 Paul Hussey. All Rights Reserved.
|
|
Historic Print (L): Settlement of sardine workers, Seacoast Canning Co., Factory #2. Many of them come from $57.00 This is a museum quality, reproduction print on premium paper with archival/UV resistant inks. Date: 1911 August.Subject: Notes: Title from NCLC caption card. Attribution to Hine based on provenance. In album: Canneries. Hine no. 2452.Format: Photographic printsSOURCE: Library of Congress… |
|
|
Historic Print (M): Settlement of sardine workers, Seacoast Canning Co., Factory #2. Many of them come from $37.00 This is a museum quality, reproduction print on premium paper with archival/UV resistant inks. Date: 1911 August.Subject: Notes: Title from NCLC caption card. Attribution to Hine based on provenance. In album: Canneries. Hine no. 2452.Format: Photographic printsSOURCE: Library of Congress… |
|
|
Historic Print (S): Settlement of sardine workers, Seacoast Canning Co., Factory #2. Many of them come from $24.95 This is a museum quality, reproduction print on premium paper with archival/UV resistant inks. Date: 1911 August.Subject: Notes: Title from NCLC caption card. Attribution to Hine based on provenance. In album: Canneries. Hine no. 2452.Format: Photographic printsSOURCE: Library of Congress… |
|
|
Jane Addams and Hull House (Cornerstones of Freedom. Second Series) $4.74 A biography of the social worker who defended the oppressed, promoted education for the poor, worked for world peace, and founded Hull House, a settlement house in the industrial slums of Chicago…. |
|
|
Young working girls;: a summary of evidence from two thousand social workers, $20.99 Originally published in 1913. This volume from the Cornell University Library’s print collections was scanned on an APT BookScan and converted to JPG 2000 format by Kirtas Technologies. All titles scanned cover to cover and pages may include marks, notations and other marginalia present in the original volume…. |
|
|
The equipment of the workers: an enquiry $24.99 This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library’s large-scale digitization efforts. The Library seeks to preserve the intellectual content of items in a manner that facilitates and promotes a variety of uses. The digital reformatting process results in an electronic version of the original text that can be both accessed online and used to c… |
