Recommended Reading:

Bishop's Palace Garden, Chichester: A History

by Brian Hopkins (retired volunteer Tree Warden)

Published 2022: Chichester Local History Society in association with the University of Chichester (Number Twelve in the New Chichester Papers series)

ISBN 978 1 907852 72 5

Usual Stockist and Price: Kim's Bookshop, 28 South Street, Chichester PO19 1EL (just round the corner from the Garden); £5

Timeline

3rd century

Chichester's city walls are constructed by the Romans, creating the earth bank walls that go on to form the western and southern boundaries to the garden. Bastions are constructed 50 years later.

1075

The whole of the south-east quadrant of the city is given to the church by the Normans, and work starts on building a new cathedral (the original cathedral having been at Selsey, where the diocese was founded).

1147/1148

Origins of the Bishop's Palace Garden. The city walls protect the garden from the prevailing south-westerly winds. At this time, the only access is from Canon Lane.

1327 (circa)

Construction of the gatehouse to the Bishop’s Palace.

Middle Ages

Gardens are used for food, medicine and, if well-off and powerful, to entertain and demonstrate status. The Bishop's garden is expected to be no exception.

16th century

The first known map of Chichester is a schematic by John Norden from 1594.

17th century

The oldest tree in the garden is believed to be the box on the west rampart (Bishop's Palace Garden, Chichester: A History, p. 19). Imagine it originally planted as part of a box hedge!

18th century

"in the year 1725 or 1726, the gardens belonging to the bishop were modelled anew and laid out in a plan of great beauty and elegance; in which condition they remained till the time of the present bishop” (Alexander Hay, The History of Chichester, published 1804; see Bishop's Palace Garden, Chichester: A History, p. 11)

The crenellated red brick wall separating the Palace forecourt from the western and southern garden areas is described as dating from the 18th century in its 1950 Grade II Listing. (A similar wall can be found as part of the modern-day boundary of County Hall.)

The first accurate plan of the city is produced by William Gardner in 1769. (Gardner subsequently worked with Thomas Yeakell on a 1778-1783 series of maps for the Duke of Richmond, who as Master-General of the Board of Ordnance went on to found the Ordnance Survey in 1791.)

In 1771-2 the south-western city wall (now alongside Avenue de Chartres) is refaced with brick.

19th century

DRAFTING TO BE COMPLETED

·     1910 – OS map shows trees to 5m accuracy (BH Fig. 7, p14)

·     1875 OS – dense trees

·     1910 OS – fewer trees

·     Circa 1948

·     1966

·     1974 majority leased to newly formed CDC

The West Sussex Record Office is almost literally across the road from Bishop's Palace Garden.

Mapping West Sussex – Part Two: County Orienteering and Plotting Estates – West Sussex Record Office (westsussexrecordofficeblog.com)