Chichester Local History Society
A generation which ignores history has no past and no future
Members enjoyed a visit to the Props Store on Wednesday 9 July 2025 with a guided tour given by Katie Hennessy the Props Store Coordinator who provided the description below of its operations and services. Thousands of items, from vintage typewriters to tennis racquets, and art deco picture frames to antique tea sets, are carefully…
by Philip Robinson Some of you may have noticed an article by Esther Addley in The Guardian last week (23/07/2025). In it, Esther reported on an archaeological project undertaken by Ben Saunders of Wessex Archaeology. This was analysis of a piece of timber discovered on Sand o’Erraby beach on the island of Sanday, one of…
Read More “Richard Chitty of Chitty & Vernon – builders of HMS Hind (1749)” »
Pat Combes sadly died on 1 July 2025 aged 95. He had been a long-standing member of Chichester Local History Society. Pat was a proud Cicestrian and came from a long-established Chichester family whose name will ever be associated with the business of D Combes, Corn and Seed merchants. As a serious local historian he…
By Alan Green Readers of this blog may recall a piece I posted in March 2024 about No 18 North Street as seen in an old postcard which I had just acquired on eBay. Well, I’ve just made another eBay find, this time depicting the next three shops up, namely Nos 19 to 21. This…
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” »