Hello and a warm welcome to St Bartholomew’s, one of the two oldest suburbs of Chichester, on the western Roman Road out of Chichester to Bitterne and Winchester. It’s been here since at least the 3rd Century, as that is the date of the cemetery underneath the garages behind the Georgian Priory at the top of the street.
We’re rubbish
Romans and later generations buried their dead outside of the city walls – and also put their dirty industries there too. Many of our back gardens, if you dig deep enough, have a medieval midden with lots of interesting rubbish to sift through (if you are an archaeologist of course). The number of oyster shells that surface each year is quite amazing and it’s not for nothing that some of our gardens are so lush…
Because the river ran through here too, a brewery was set up. Industries also arrived that smelled worse than boiled hops, were a health hazard and needed their effluent to be carried out to sea – animal slaughter and leather tanning being two which have left their mark on the street.
But not any more. They finally disappeared in the 1950s-1970s and nowadays this street and its tributaries are in the top three of the most sought-after addresses in the City.
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