The Five Little Churches of Chichester explored in new book

Chichester historian Alan Green tells the story for the first time of The Five Little Churches of Chichester.
Chichester historian Alan GreenChichester historian Alan Green
Chichester historian Alan Green

His new book covers the histories of the churches of St Olave, St Andrew Oxmarket and All Saints in the Pallant – whose buildings survive to this day as respectively the SPCK bookshop, the Oxmarket Gallery and the home of a wealth management company.

The book also tells the story of the two churches that have been lost: St Peter the Less (where Lakeland now stands) and St Martin in the Pig Market (now a memorial garden, to the east of North Street).

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All of them survived as churches into the 20th century; now the only place of Anglican worship within the city walls is the cathedral – quite a change from pre-Reformation days when within those walls there were nine parish churches, three chapels, two friaries and the cathedral. Six of the churches survived into the 17th century; the five featured in Alan’s book made into the last century.

“St Martin was the first to go. It was demolished in 1906. It had been rather badly rebuilt and was on the point of collapse.

“It was pulled down and the congregation moved to St Olave’s in North Street.

“If you go to the garden where it was, you can still see a plaque on the wall saying that all services are now held at St Olave’s – which of course is now the bookshop.”

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St Andrew Oxmarket suffered bomb damage during the war and services were transferred to All Saints.

But in the 1950s, the remaining four were all closed and amalgamated under an order in council, becoming part of St Peter the Great (opposite the cathedral), which closed as a church in 1979.

“The criminal thing is that St Peter the Less was demolished in 1957. It was probably the oldest church in the city. It had suffered Victorian restoration, and Victorian restoration generally meant restoring a church to something it had never been in the first place. They more than doubled the size of the building.”

And down it came: “It was going to be a development site.

“It lay empty for years. Part of the site was sold to the county council to make the road and the rest of the site was sold to the Co-op to create the building which opened in 1964.

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“I think people were more accepting back then. Conservation wasn’t a word that had really been invented. You didn’t really have the people around then that we have now to oppose these sorts of things. And it was allowed to go.”

Nearby, St Andrew Oxmarket lay empty for a long time: “It wasn’t until the 70s that any real ideas came about for it. At first it was going to be a parish room for St Peter the Great, but that all fizzled out, and eventually it became an art centre.”

Put the five churches together and you have a story that perhaps reflects national patterns.

“You might think perhaps that Chichester was over-pious and it may have been.

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“Some of the little churches may have been sponsored by landowners or benefactors, but there were so many of them, and they had the problem that a number of them were multiple holdings. One cleric would have two or maybe three of them under his control at any one time, and there were not services there all the time.”

But perhaps it is also a story of survival. Nothing remains of St Peter the Less; a garden marks the site of St Martin in the Pig Market; but St Olave, St Andrew Oxmarket and All Saints in the Pallant survive still as buildings at least, each with their own very different 21st century use.

Alan’s book The Five Little Churches of Chichester is available to buy from Kim’s bookshop in Chichester and also – appropriately – from St Olave’s and the Oxmarket Gallery.

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