The New International Encyclopædia/Chichester

CHICHESTER, chĭch′es-tẽr (AS. Cissanceaster, Lat. Cissæ castrum, camp of Cissa). A municipal borough and episcopal city in Sussex, England, 17½ miles east-northeast of Portsmouth (Map: England, F 6). It is well built and has wide streets. The ancient city walls are now utilized as a public promenade. The cathedral, erected in the Twelfth and Thirteenth centuries, is remarkable for its unique features of double aisles and detached campanile. Other notable public buildings are the guildhall, formerly the church of a Franciscan monastery; the Church of Saint Olave, one of the oldest in Chichester; and Saint Mary's Hospital, which was founded as a nunnery in the Twelfth Century. The town has a theological college, and there is an ancient grammar school founded in 1497. The chief trade is in agricultural products and live stock. There are malting, brewing, and tanning establishments, and manufactures of wooden-ware. The harbor, two miles to the southwest of the city, is a deep inlet of the English Channel, about eight square miles in area, and is connected with Chichester by a canal. Chichester was the Roman Regnum. It was taken and partially destroyed, in 491, by the South Saxons. It was soon afterwards rebuilt by Cissa, their King. It was for some time the capital of the Kingdom of Sussex. It was incorporated in 1213. During the Civil War it was taken in succession by Royalists and Parliamentarians. Population, in 1901, 12,200. Consult: Hills, “Chichester Cathedral,” in Archæological Journal, Vol. XX. (London, 1864), and “The City Walls,” in id., Vol. XLII. (London, 1886); Hay, History of Chichester (Chichester, 1804).