Chichester Local History Society
A generation which ignores history has no past and no future
An update by Roger Thomson. A few years ago I posted a blog here (in the June 2021 Newsletter) on the attempts being made to restore Burndell Bridge, a bridge across the old Portsmouth and Arundel Canal, in Yapton. There were hopes to incorporate a restored bridge in the middle of a new housing estate…
Using a combination of historical mapping, photos from visits to beaches, newspaper articles, artefacts from archaeological excavations and quotations from contemporary documents, John Mills’ talk on 12 February looked along the West Sussex coast at the sites of villages and hamlets, or parts of them, washed away by the sea in the Middle Ages and…
Read More “Old Atherington and the washed away villages of West Sussex” »
In Richard Childs talk on 8 January he proposed that our current concept of an MP being elected for a constituency and in some way representing and supporting that constituency is a relatively recent one. For centuries being elected as an MP for Chichester was simply a means to an end and to a seat…
The Society held its AGM in December followed by Christmas get together. The Chairman, Philip Robinson had reported on the strength of the society and was pleased at the successes of the year; a rich and diverse range of speakers, publication of the ‘ruby edition’ of Chichester History and publication of the 13th New Chichester Paper,…
For the summer visit on July 10, members of the Chichester Local History Society enjoyed a tour of the new reception area nearing completion at the Planetarium and were then given a tour of the starlit sky from the North to the South Pole by Dr John Mason. The expansion and improvement to the Sir…
Introduction I’m pleased to bring to your attention a fascinating data set just published by the Sussex Records Society. The Society was founded in 1901 ‘with the aim of publishing historical records of the county found in the great national libraries (such as the British Library and the Public Record Office [National Archives at Kew])…
Read More “Tudor and Stuart Wills of Chichester 1485-1688” »
Would you like to read an engaging, informative well-written account of Sussex and Chichester? If so, I strongly recommend The Rising Down (2024), by Professor Alexandra Harris – possibly the most significant contribution to the history of Sussex in the past decade, even this century. The geographical span of the book, centred on the Arun…
On 11 May 1944 the Liberator bomber, registration 41-29481 – one of 36 Liberators – took off from Lavenham airbase in Suffolk for operations on marshalling yards and other strategic targets in central Europe. The plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire South of Chartres and had to abandon the mission. It had been very badly…
Read More “The Death of a Young Girl remembered 11 May 2024” »
We have received a request from the Centre to complete a survey and we thought it would be helpful to share this with you. The Centre are replacing the roof of the school building and those that fund the Centre need to know about the various people that use it so that New Park can…
It is with regret we have to announce the death on 22 April, at age 91, of Ken Green, one of – or more precisely the – founder of our Society. Ken was a proud Cicestrian, being born in this fair city in April 1932 and receiving the classic education for a Chichester boy –…