The current St Batholomew’s church in Mount Lane off Westgate is not the first church to have appeared on this site. The suburbs extra muros of St Pancras to the east and of St Sepulchre to the west date back to Roman times, both housing 3rd century cemeteries within their parishes, with the main one to the east (the Litton) in part where the modern Litten Gardens is on New Park Road. The remainder is under the New Park development and car park on the opposite (west) side of the road.
Category: Buildings
Structures other than current dwellings, some no longer there
Hidden Westgate Histories 2: The Shippam Stables
By an amazing coincidence, the very week that the dray horses came back to the Brewery Field, if only for an afternoon, a resident was clearing the vegetation back in her garden when she discovered several items hanging on the wall.
The first one was this strange item:
Continue reading Hidden Westgate Histories 2: The Shippam Stables
Hidden Westgate Histories 6: The Powell & Moya Bungalows
The eastern end of Westgate seems such a perfect Georgian enclave, yet who would have thought standing in the street today, that Mount Lane has contained iconic 20th century buildings and still has an interior by Eric Gill’s brother?
Powell & Moya architects
Continue reading Hidden Westgate Histories 6: The Powell & Moya Bungalows
More on the Westgate Brewery
This article appears as a complement to the one published earlier this year
From Brewing to Business Services
The Westgate Brewery (now home to Mercers, a pensions firm) was founded in 1751 probably by John Dearling and from 1793, taken on by William and Edward Humphrey. The brewery’s association with the Henty family seems to date from 1827. Henty’s was an old-established firm and it can be traced back on paper at least to 1855 when George Henty already owned about a hundred properties in West Sussex and Hampshire.
Chichester & St Bart’s: the Architecture of the City
This text was originally the fourth in a monthly series of five about the suburb of St Bartholomew’s Without in the wider context of the development of the City of Chichester. It is drawn from an edited extract of a 1935 publication (details below). As such it has kept a centuries-old way of talking about Chichester where the city walls, gates, ditch and parishes defined our boundaries, untrammelled by the modern changes that not much more than five years later would come finally to disrupt the millennial harmonies of our cityscape.
Continue reading Chichester & St Bart’s: the Architecture of the City
Westgate’s Listed Buildings
Did you know that Westgate contains 36 listed buildings and walls?
English historic properties and buildings are listed by Historic England (who used to be known as English Heritage). They are the public body that looks after listing England’s historic environment. They champion historic places, helping people to understand, value and care for them, now and for the future. English Heritage still exists but is more a tourism body that promotes the ancient monuments and historic buildings that were in Government trust, much like the National Trust.
The Shape of Old Westgate
We are grateful to resident John Davies for the following article on the heritage part of our streetscape (the Conservation Area), using earlier research done by the late Dr Latchman which had been passed on to him.
The”shape” of Westgate from the old gate through to Parklands Road
History of 27-39 Westgate, aka Shippam’s (updated)
Originally published in 2016, this article has been considerably improved by the diligent research of Dr Richard Brownfield.
The terrace now numbered 27 to 39 (odds) has had a most complicated history and it has been thought best to present them as an ensemble. The house numbers are therefore printed in bold to assist navigation is you are following the history of a particular properties in this row.
Mount Lane
Hidden Westgate Histories 8: Demolished properties of 1963
The quoted setions are extracts from The Building of Georgian Chichester by local historian Alan Green (Phillimore 2007), here reproduced with his permission.
Continue reading Hidden Westgate Histories 8: Demolished properties of 1963
The Rebuilding of St Bartholomew’s Church, 1824-32
Following the destruction of the “Round Church of St Bartholomew” by William Waller’s Parliamentarian troops in December 1642, the congregation were without a church for 190 years. Only the burial ground was left but the parish still existed, its vicar and churchwardens remaining in office and the tithes still being collected.
Continue reading The Rebuilding of St Bartholomew’s Church, 1824-32