I wish I had read Ian Nairn’s paean to Chichester Cathedral in his aborted contributions to Pevsner’s Sussex, 33 pages of vigorous eulogy, including what he describes as an Aesthetic Summary, not something one normally gets in Pevsner. He describes Bishop Luffa’s original design as ‘paying for its balance and reasonableness with a lack of intensity: good committee-man’s Romanesque’. We only had time to drift in just before evensong, admiring the exterior, much of which is a replica following the collapse of the crossing tower and its reconstruction in the 1860s:-
The Romanesque decoration of the porch at the west end of the south aisle:-
The south aisle:-
And a monumental statue to the first Bishop, St. Richard, which I assumed was one of Walter Hussey’s commissions, but turns out to be by Philip Jackson and quite recent:-




But there is so much that IS Hussey : a great patron, both here and at Pallant House.
Yes, I know, that was why I just assumed St. Richard was one of his commissions, like the Piper tapestrt behind the altar which we weren’t able to see. Charles