Chichester Cathedral

Chichester Cathedral was on our list of sights to see since it is said to be the "typical" English cathedral. Before visiting it we spent an administrative day at a Caravan Club "farm/camp" a few miles outside the city. A much-needed day to rest and regroup, and to enjoy the rain from the inside.

Chichester Cathedral from the northeast; note the squared- off apse and then the
13th century Lady Chapel protruding from it; the building was begun in 1075,
when the episcopate was moved from Selsey to Chichester; consecrated in 1108;
fires and collapses over the centuries resulted in much reconstruction, and there
are Gothic elements all around; but it is still much a Norman church

Chichester is more or less unique among English cathedrals
in having a separate campanile; it was built in the 15th
century, after both the west end towers had collapsed;
subsidence is a problem (!) and one guesses the architects
of the time didn't want yet another collapse on the church;
so far the campanile has stayed up; the large central spire,
visible from the sea, collapsed in the 1860s, but was rebuilt

Nave view; four-part Gothic vaulting; note the screen...

The Arundel Screen closer up; removed after the Civil War, reinstated in the
20th century

Elevation: Chichester is double-aisled, again pretty much
unique among English cathedrals; large galleries;
clerestory with little in the way of windows; arches mostly
rounded

Beautiful organ, smack in the middle of the church;
"Chichester Cathedral, you're bringing me down,
You stood and you watched as..." wait, no...

Interior of the Lady Chapel

St. Thomas Becket on the right; St. Edmund Pontigny (?)
on the left

Window done by Marc Chagall

One of two very old Medieval reliefs, Raising of Lazaraus,
12th century

Way down there, mosaic from Noviomagus Reginorem, one of the earliest Roman
towns in Britain; indeed Chichester's old city street plan is just the Romans'

14th century Arundel tomb (Arundel Castle, which we visited
in 2009, is not all that far away)

Business opportunity: the church across from the Cathedral has been converted
into a bar, West's Bar (Tawana and Wes note); beer, wine, and spirits (nyuk, nyuk,
nyuk)