16 Facts About Chichester Cathedral

1.

Chichester Cathedral, formally known as the Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity, is the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Chichester.

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2.

Chichester Cathedral has fine architecture in both the Norman and the Gothic styles, and has been described by the architectural critic Ian Nairn as "the most typical English Cathedral".

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3.

Spire of Chichester Cathedral, rising above its green copper roof, can be seen for many miles across the flat meadows of West Sussex and is a landmark for sailors, Chichester being the only medieval English cathedral which is visible from the sea.

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4.

Chichester Cathedral was built to replace the cathedral founded in 681 by St Wilfrid for the South Saxons at Selsey.

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5.

Towers at Chichester have had a particularly unfortunate history because of subsidence, which explains the positioning of the 15th century bell tower at some distance from the cathedral.

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6.

Typically for English cathedrals, Chichester has had a long and varied building history marked by a number of disasters.

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7.

Plan of Chichester Cathedral is in the shape of a cross, with an aisled nave and choir, crossed by a transept.

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8.

Chichester Cathedral has many treasures and artworks, the most precious being two carved reliefs dating from the 12th century which are of exceptional rarity among English sculpture.

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9.

Chichester Cathedral contains many modern works of art, including tapestries by John Piper and Ursula Benker-Schirmer, a window by Marc Chagall, a painting by Graham Sutherland, a sculpture and a font by John Skelton and a reredos for the St John the Baptist's Chapel by Patrick Procktor.

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10.

Chichester Cathedral was educated at the University of East Anglia and Westcott House and was formerly the Archdeacon of Dorset from 2010.

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11.

Robert Sherburne, the Bishop of Chichester Cathedral, founded four prebends known as the Wiccamical prebends in 1524.

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12.

Music at Chichester Cathedral is largely led by the organ and the cathedral choir, as there are services daily and on special days in the calendar.

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13.

Chichester Cathedral has been the subject of a number of depictions in art, literature, and television media.

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14.

Chichester Cathedral is referenced in s01e10 of Monty Python's Flying Circus: one of Ron Obvious's tasks to gain public fame involves eating the cathedral.

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15.

Chichester Cathedral is shown brushing his teeth, putting on a bib, and flexing his jaws, before biting into the corner of the cathedral and breaking his jaw.

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16.

Chichester Cathedral is a nesting site for peregrine falcons, which use a crenellated turret at the base of the spire.

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