St Richard of Chichester Church is a

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...

Chichester Chichester () is a cathedral city and civil parish in West Sussex, England.OS Explorer map 120: Chichester, South Harting and Selsey Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publishing Date:2009. It is the only ci ...

, West Sussex, England. The church was built in 1958 and contains the largest scheme of

stained glass Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

Gabriel Loire Gabriel Loire (April 21, 1904 – December 27, 1996) was a French stained glass artist of the twentieth century whose extensive works, portraying various persons or historical scenes, appear in many venues around the world. He founded the Loire ...

in the United Kingdom. The church is situated on Market Avenue on the corner of Cawley Road, next to St Richard's Catholic Primary School. It is a Grade II listed building.

History

St Richard of Chichester Church, Chichester by Basher Eyre Geograph 2322350

First church

Before 1855,

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...

was said in a room in the Bedford Hotel on Southgate in Chichester. Funding for a new, permanent church was provided by the Countess of Newburgh. In 1855, a

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

church was built on the corner of Market Avenue and Southgate; it remained until 1958.

Present church

On 19 March 1958, the present church was opened. It replaced the church on Market Avenue and Southgate. The architects were Lawrence Tomei (1910–1989) and John Maxwell. They also designed All Saints Church in

Hersham Hersham is a village in Surrey, within the M25. Its housing is relatively low-rise and diverse and it has four technology/trading estates. The only contiguous settlement is Walton-on-Thames, its post town. Hersham is served by Hersham and Wa ...

. The builders were A. Booker and Son from

Walberton Walberton is a village and civil parish in the Arun District of West Sussex, England, north-west of Littlehampton, and south of the A27 road. The land rises from above sea level, a quarter of the height of Nore Hill, the nearest foothill of t ...

.Chichester – St Richard of Chichester
from

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

. Retrieved 15 February 2016 Inside the church is a continuous clerestory around the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

and

transepts A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building withi ...

. The stained glass window scheme in the church was made by

using the

dalle de verre ''Dalle de verre'', from French: "glass slab", is a glass art technique that uses pieces of coloured glass set in a matrix of concrete and epoxy resin or other supporting material. Technique The technique was developed by Jean Gaudin in Paris ...

style in a complete figurative narrative design. The

stations of the cross The Stations of the Cross or the Way of the Cross, also known as the Way of Sorrows or the Via Crucis, refers to a series of images depicting Jesus Christ on the day of Crucifixion of Jesus, his crucifixion and accompanying prayers. The station ...

that are oil paintings, the

altarpiece An altarpiece is an artwork such as a painting, sculpture or relief representing a religious subject made for placing at the back of or behind the altar of a Christian church. Though most commonly used for a single work of art such as a painting o ...

baptistry In Christian architecture the baptistery or baptistry (Old French ''baptisterie''; Latin ''baptisterium''; Greek , 'bathing-place, baptistery', from , baptízein, 'to baptize') is the separate centrally planned structure surrounding the baptismal ...

and the six angels in the Blessed Sacrament chapel were all designed by David O’Connell (1895–1976).

Parish

The priests at St Richard of Chichester Church also serve Our Lady of the Assumption Church on Fairfield Road in

Bosham Bosham is a coastal village and civil parish in the Chichester District of West Sussex, England, centred about west of Chichester with its clustered developed part west of this. Its land forms a broad peninsula projecting into natural Chiche ...

, Our Lady of Mount Carmel and St Wilfrid's Church on Church Road in Selsey, and St Peter's Church on Church Road in

East Wittering East Wittering is a coastal village in the Chichester district of West Sussex, England. The majority of the village lies within the civil parish of East Wittering, while the western edge lies within the boundary of West Wittering civil parish. ...

and as of 1 November 2021 they form a single parish: the Parish of Our Lady and the Saints of Sussex. St Richard of Chichester Church has three Sunday Masses at 6:00 pm on Saturday, and 9:30 am and 6:30 pm on Sunday. Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Bosham has one Sunday Mass at 11:30 am and St Peter's Church in East Wittering has one Sunday Mass at 9:00 am. Our Lady of Mount Carmel and St Wilfrid's Church in Selsey has one Mass on Sunday at 11am. File:Church of Our Lady of the Assumption, Bosham Lane, Bosham.JPG, Our Lady of the Assumption Church, Bosham File:St Peter's Church, East Wittering.JPG, St Peter's Church, East Wittering File:St. Wilfrid's Church, Selsey.jpg, alt=Our Lady of Mount Carmel and St Wilfrid's Church, Selsey. A brick-built church with a small tower, taken from the road, against a blue sky., Our Lady of Mount Carmel and St Wilfrid's Church, Selsey

References

External links

*
Parish of Our Lady and the Saints of Sussex site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Richard of Chichester Church, Chichester

Saint Richard Richard of Chichester (1197 – 3 April 1253), also known as Richard de Wych, is a saint (canonized 1262) who was Bishop of Chichester. In Chichester Cathedral a shrine dedicated to Richard had become a richly decorated centre of pilgrimag ...