The Bells hang in the great central tower: three are dated 1734, the others 1737, 1742, 1772, 1804 and 1814. The tenor bell was recast in 1892.
Within the Precincts stood the Royal Castle at the time of the Norman Conquest. This was pulled down by Henry de Blois in the Twelfth Century.
CHICHESTER
Dedication: The Holy Trinity. A Church served by Secular Canons.
Special Features: Five Aisles; Spire; Campanile.
Chichester (the camp of Cissa) stands at the head of an arm of the English Channel. Its Cathedral is the only one in England that can be seen from the sea.
In 1082 the South Saxon See was removed from Selsey to Chichester. The church of the monastery, dedicated to St. Peter, seems to have been used until Bishop Ralph Luffa (about whom little or nothing is known) founded the existing Cathedral. This was completed in 1108, partly destroyed by fire in 1114 and partly restored by the same Ralph, who died in 1123.
“Chichester Cathedral, though one of the smallest, is to the student of Mediæval architecture one of the most interesting and important of our cathedrals. At Salisbury one or two styles of architecture are represented; at Canterbury two or three; at Chichester every single style is to be seen without a break from the Eleventh to the Sixteenth Century. It is an epitome of English architectural history for five hundred years. Early Norman, late Norman, late Transitional, early Lancet, late Lancet, early Geometrical, late Geometrical, Curvilinear, Perpendicular and Tudor work all appear in the structure side by side. We have many other heterogeneous and composite cathedrals, but nowhere, except perhaps at Hereford, can the whole sequence of Mediæval styles be read so well as at Chichester.”—(F. B.)
Chichester was consecrated in 1148, again suffered from fire in 1186-1187 and was restored and enlarged by Bishop Seffrid II. (1180-1204).
“The fire of 1186 was not as serious as that of Canterbury in 1182, so that there was no need of rebuilding. Bishop Seffrid, however, covered the Cathedral with a stone vault and added the necessary buttresses and flying-buttresses. He also built the Choir, making great use of Purbeck marble. He removed the Norman apse and built the aisled retro-choir of two bays.