At the end of the south side in the Chapel of St. Mary Magdalene St. Richard’s head was preserved in a silver reliquary in the aumbry in the north wall.
The Chapel of St. Mary Magdalene is balanced by the Chapel of St. Katherine at the end of the north-choir-aisle. In the south-choir-aisle, two curiously carved Slabs, representing the Raising of Lazarus and Martha and Mary meeting Jesus, are supposed to have been brought from the first Cathedral in Selsey when the See was transferred to Chichester in 1082.
A doorway in the north-choir-aisle leads to the old Chapel of St. John the Baptist and St. Edmund the King. The vaulting is unlike any other in the Cathedral. The zigzag, or chevron, occurs upon the moulding of the ribs. A finely carved head appears on the spring of the arch. This chapel is now used as the Library.
“At Chichester there were built, one after another, four sets of chapels—of St. George and St. Clement on the south of the south aisle, and of St. Thomas, St. Anne and St. Edmund on the north of the north aisle. The WINDOWS should be studied in the above order; they form quite an excellent object-lesson of the evolution of bar-tracery from plate-tracery, itself a derivative from such designs as that of the east window of the south transept chapel. When the chapels were completed, the Norman aisle-walls were pierced, and arches were inserted where Norman windows had been; and the Lancet buttresses, which had been added when the nave vault was erected, now found themselves inside the church, buttressing piers instead of walls. The new windows on the south side were built so high that the vaulting of the chapels had to be tilted up to allow room for their heads; externally they were originally crowned with gables, the weatherings of which may be seen outside. In St. Thomas’s chapel is a charming example of a simple Thirteenth Century reredos.”—(F. B.)
Above the south porch there is a small chamber popularly known as the “Lollards’ Prison.”
Between the back of the reredos (modern) and the entrance to the Lady-Chapel is the Retro-choir, or presbytery, which many critics consider the chief glory of Chichester.
“The design in detail of these two bays is very different in character from the three in the choir, which are like those in the nave. The two piers of Purbeck marble are circular, and about them are grouped four detached shafts of the same material. They are united only at the base and by the abacus above the capitals, which are beautifully carved. The main arches in the two bays are not pointed, but round, like those in the nave and choir; but, unlike the latter, they have deeply cut mouldings in three orders. The triforium arcade above, on the north and south sides, has moulded and carved details of a similar character. Some of the beautifully carved figure-work still remains in the spandrels between the subsidiary pointed arches. But the most beautiful piece of design in all this work is in the arches of the triforium passage across the east wall, above the entrance to the Lady-Chapel.”—(F. B.)
St. Richard’s Shrine stood on a platform in the bay in the presbytery immediately behind the High Altar. This platform was removed at the time of the general restoration in 1861-1867.
The Lady-Chapel was once decorated with designs in colour, remains of which are still to be seen. The new Reredos is of alabaster. The glass of the window is also modern. Here is the Tomb of Bishop Ralph, founder of the original Norman church.
The visitor should walk around the Cloisters for the sake of the exterior views of the Cathedral. The south transept window is well seen here. Note the beautiful tracery of the circular window above it. The position of the Cloisters, lying eastward under the Transept and Choir, instead of westward along the Nave, is unusual.