St. Richard of Chichester

Introduction

Saint Richard of Chichester in Chichester, within the Diocese of Arundel and Brighton, was built in 1958 to the design of Tomei and Maxwell of London. The church's stained glass is the largest scheme in this country by Gabriel Loire.

History

The parish's first Roman Catholic church was built in 1855, before which Mass was celebrated in a room of the Bedford Hotel. In 1829, after Catholic Emancipation, Masses were said in the Bedford Hotel in Southgate.

The first church was a small Victorian Gothic building at the junction of Market Avenue and Southgate, funded by private donation on land given by Anne, Countess of Newburgh. The first post-Reformation Catholic church was built in 1855 thanks to a donation from Mary and Anne Henshaw, domestic servants, and the site was donated by Anne, Countess of Newburgh. The first church was designed by William Wardell, a noted Victorian civil engineer and architect.

The present church was built on a new site at the junction of Market Avenue and Cawley Road in 1958 by Messrs A Booker and Son of Walberton. The first Mass in the new church was celebrated on 19 March 1958. In 2008, a reordering project moved the font from the baptistery to a more prominent place in front of the sanctuary. On 1 November 2021, St Richard's became the administrative centre of an enlarged parish when the parishes of Selsey, the Witterings and Chichester were suppressed and a new parish created.

In 1963-5, the marble cladding of the altar and sanctuary and the stained glass panels from Chartres and paintings by David O'Connell were added to the plain shell of the church. In 2010, installation of a new stone ambo completed the reordering project begun in 2008. In 1999, the bell, Gabriel, was blessed before it was rehung in the tower; the bell had been out of use for many years.

Architecture and furnishings

The church is of concrete portal frame construction with red and grey brick and a shallow-pitched corrugated roof, with a T-shaped plan. The interior roof is supported by exposed concrete portal frames in the form of Tudor arches. The altar is of Tinos green marble on a step and curb of Belgian black fossil marble. The stained glass is of 'dalle de verre' construction, with glass pieces set into a concrete and resin framework.

The main north transept window depicts the life of St Richard, Bishop of Chichester from 1244 to 1253. The Stations of the Cross, the altarpiece painting and the paintings beside the tabernacle are the work of David O'Connell. The building is divided into bays by cement pilasters socketed into a moulded plastic eaves cornice. The main west entrance has a canopied porch linked by a flat roof to the campanile to the south, which has an openwork cap, clock and prominent cross.

The west window depicts Our Blessed Lady, Mary the Mother of Christ, in heaven surrounded by angels. Above the main door is an almost life-size depiction of the Crucifixion, set against the large stained glass window in the west of Our Blessed Lady. The south transept gable window depicts symbols of Baptism. The clerestorey windows to the north transept depict the present-day church.

The baptistery has a large window with symbols of Baptism and new life. The Blessed Sacrament Chapel (formerly dedicated to Our Lady of Walsingham) incorporates the Baptistery, also designed by David O'Connell. The font is of white Portland stone with a base design in Westmorland slate, gold glass mosaic and white Sicilian marble. The baptistery has walls of polished marble and floor of Italian slate.

The benches are Sepele mahogany, matching the flooring of the sanctuary. The main body of the church has parquet flooring.

Parish life

The parish opened a nursery unit on 14 April 1997, after an appeal raised £50,000 within weeks. The parish rooms were built in 1986. The Football Pool, a parish fundraising scheme, ceased in 1981 after raising more than £750,000 for St Richard's Church and Presbytery and contributing to other churches, schools, and the city's old swimming pool. In 1994 the Carmelite nuns, who had lived at Hunston since 1872, visited St Richard's for a Farewell Mass before leaving the parish for Sclerder Abbey in Cornwall.

Visiting

The ceiling above the altar is adorned with gold-leaf tracery. The clerestorey windows on the nave south wall depict the Biblical story of the world's preparation for the coming of Christ.