Selsey

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Selsey Abbey
13th century seal with (possibly) a picture of Selsey Cathedral.
Capitular seal with picture of Selsey Cathedral?[1][2]
Monastery information
Order Benedictine[3]
Established c.683
Disestablished c.1075 Community moved to Chichester[2]
Dedicated to St Peter?[4]
People
Founder(s) St Wilfrid
Site
Location Church Norton
Selsey
West Sussex
England
Coordinates 50°45′18″N 0°45′54″W / 50.754911°N 0.765111°W / 50.754911; -0.765111

Selsey Abbey was almost certainly built at Church Norton, Selsey, Sussex, England.[5] It was founded in 683AD, and became the seat of the Sussex bishopric, until it was moved in 1075AD to Chichester.[5]

Contents

Historical context [link]

The founder of Selsey Abbey was the exiled St Wilfrid of Northumbria.[6] Wilfrid had spent most of his career in exile having quarrelled with various kings and bishops.[2] He arrived in the kingdom of the South Saxons in 681 and remained there for five years evangelising and baptising the people.[6] The account given by Wilfrid’s biographer Stephen, in his Life of Wilfrid infers that all of the South Saxons were pagan, whereas Bedes Ecclesiastical History is somewhat more contradictory,Bede says that the local king Æðelwealh and his wife Eafe plus the leading thegns and soldiers had already been baptised in Mercia, then he goes on to say that only Queen Eafe was baptised .[6] Kirby suggests that Stephens Life of Wilfrid was extremely partisan, as its purpose was to magnify Wilfrid as well as vindicate him.[7] Also that Queen Eafe was the daughter of Wulfhere the Christian king of Mercia, and that Æðelwealh and his nobles would have been baptised at the Mercian court, and on their return to Sussex, Wulfhere will have sent a number of priests with them, to baptise the ordinary people.[7] He further speculates that Christianity may have secured a foothold in early Sussex via one of its sons, the South Saxon Damian, bishop of Rochester c.660, but the evidence is not certain.[7][8]

When Wilfrid arrived in Sussex, there was a small community of five or six Irish monks, led by Dicul in Bosham however it seems that they had made little headway in evangelising the local people.[2][6] It would not have been unusual to have found Irish monks in Sussex as during this period it was common to follow the ‘’Doctrine of Peregrinatio’’, a self imposed exile to serve God.[2][9][10] Also, the South of England generally was part of the overland route for the Irish travelling to the continent.[11]

At the time of Wilfrid, it would have been a financial expedient to set up a See in an existing monastery rather than build a cathedral church from scratch.[2] Kelly suggests that this may have been why the cathedra was originally set in Selsey rather than Chichester.[2] According to the Domesday Book, at the time of Edward the Confessor, the diocese of Selsey was one of the poorest bishoprics in the country.[12] After the Norman Conquest, however the Norman elite were able to spend vast sums of money on buildings, including churches, so the cost of translating the See to Chichester would not have been a problem.[13]

Foundation and removal [link]

16th century Barnard picture of Cædwalla granting lands to Wilfrid.

King Æðelwealh gave Wilfrid a royal vill and 87 hides to build a monastery at Selsey.[6] Bede says that one of Wilfrid's first acts was to free 250 slaves, who came with the estate, and baptised them.[6] Wilfrid then went onto perform the deeds of Bishop in the area.[6]

A 10th century forged foundation charter, credits Cædwalla as granting Wilfrid the lands.[2][14] Cædwalla was a West Saxon prince who had apparently been banished by Centwine, king of Wessex.[15][16] Cædwalla had spent his exile in the forests of the Chiltern and the Weald, and at some point had befriended Wilfrid.[15][16] Cædwalla vowed that if Wilfrid would be his spiritual father then he would be his obedient son.[16] After entering into this compact, they faithfully fulfilled it, with Wilfrid providing the exile with all kinds of aid.[16]

Eventually, Cædwalla invaded the kingdom of the South Saxons and slew King Æðelwealh.[11] Æðelwealh's successors, Berthun and Andhun drove Cædwalla out, but after the death of Centwine, Cædwalla was able to become King of the West Saxons. He then conquered the South Saxons, killing Berthun in the process.[17] Cædwalla immediately summoned Wilfrid and made him supreme counsellor over his whole kingdom.[16]

In about 686 Archbishop Theodore resolved to arbitrate between the various parties to end Wilfrids exile, he was successful in his efforts and Wilfrid returned north.[18] With Wilfrid gone, Selsey was absorbed by the Diocese of the West Saxons, at Winchester.[17] In temporal matters Sussex was subject to the West Saxon kings, and in ecclesiastical matters it was subject to the bishops of Winchester.[2] By 705AD the West Saxon Diocese had grown to such a size that it became unwieldy to manage, so King Ine, Cædwalla's successor, resolved with his witan to divide the great diocese.[19] Accordingly, a new see was created at Sherbourne and four years later the See of Selsey was revived.[19] Wilfrid had been in charge of the religious community at Selsey, when he left he probably would have nominated a president, any subsequent vacancy would have been filled by election.[20] The abbot of Selsey Eadberht would have been president of the brotherhood in 709 and according to Bede was consecrated the first Bishop of the South Saxons by synodal decree.[21] Wilfrid is credited with being first Bishop of the South Saxons, by William of Malmesbury and Florence of Worcester, also on some later Ecclesiastical lists, but technically he was still Bishop of Northumbria when in charge of Selsey Abbey.[2][20]

From the time of Wilfrid till after the Norman Conquest, when the See was transferred to Chichester, there were about twenty-two Bishops over a period of 370 years.[20] The See was transferred after the Council of London of 1075, which decreed that Sees should be centred in cities.[2]

There is a dearth of documents for the early church in Sussex with gaps in the lists.[22] Most of the documents that do survive are later copies or forgeries, which has made it impossible to reconstruct a detailed history before the Norman Conquest.[22]

Location of the Abbey [link]

Bronze Anglo-Saxon tab.[23]
Top left section of the Barnard painting showing the old Church.

The location of the old Selsey cathedral is not known for sure and although some local legends suggest that it is under the sea, and that the bell can be heard tolling during rough weather.[24] It is thought not to be true and probably was due to Camdens, reference to some obscure remains of that ancient little city, in which those Bishops resided, covered at high water, but plainly visible at low water .[25] The cathedral/ abbey, in reality, was more likely to have been at the site of, what became, the old 13th century parish church at Church Norton.[26] [27]

There is some supporting evidence for this, for example, Bishop William Reade in the 14th century requested, in his will dated 1382, that he should be buried before the high altar of the church at Selsey once the cathedral church of my diocese.[26][28] A late Saxon object found at the 'mound', in Church Norton, was a bronze tab (belt end) of a type found in ecclesiastical contexts.[23][26][29] Also various stone artefacts have been found in the area including remnants of Wilfrids palm cross, that would have stood outside his cathedral.[30] The design on the remains of the cross are similar to those on the Bewcastle Cross and it is thought that the Selsey cross would have been identical to the one at Bewcastle.[24]

In another will dated 1545, Geoffrey Thomson, a Rector of Selsey asked to be buried next to the palm cross in the churchyard.[30]

On the top left of the Barnard painting, that hangs in the south transept, of Chichester cathedral is a representation of the old church and bell tower as it appeared in the 16th century, situated at Church Norton.[2]

Plague and pestilence [link]

In 681, while Eappa was Abbot at the Monastery, the country was ravaged by a plague.[31] As the monastery was also badly afflicted by this disease, the monks set apart three days of fasting and prayer to try to placate the Divine Wrath.[31]

A young boy, in his prayers, appealed to Saint Oswald.[31] Then Saint Peter and Saint Paul were said to have appeared to the boy, at Oswalds request.[31] They told him that all in the Monastery would be cured of the plague apart from the boy.[31]

According to Bede:

"In the monastery at this time lived a Saxon boy, who had recently been converted to the Faith; this child had caught the disease, and for a long time had been confined to bed. About the second hour on the second day of prayer and fasting, he was alone in the place where he lay sick, when, under divine providence, the most blessed Princes of the Apostles deigned to appear to him; for he was a boy of innocent and gentle disposition, who sincerely believed the truths of the Faith that had been accepted. The Apostles greeted him very lovingly, and said: 'Son, put aside the fear of death that is troubling you; for today we are going to take you with us to the kingdom of heaven. But first of all you must wait until the Masses are said, and you have received the Viaticum of the Body and Blood of our Lord. Then you shall be set free from sickness and death, and carried up to the endless joys of heaven. So call the priest Eappa and tell him that our Lord has heard the prayers of the brethren and regarded their fasting and devotion with favour. No one else in this monastery and its possessions is to die of this disease, and all who are now suffering from it will recover and be restored to their former health. You alone are to be set free by death today, and shall be taken to heaven to see the Lord Christ whom you have served so faithfully. God in his mercy has granted you this favour at the intercession of the devout King Oswald, so beloved by God, who once ruled the people of the Northumbrians...."(Bede. Ecclesiastical History. Book 4. Ch. 14)

Land seizure and restoration [link]

In the middle of the 10th century a certain Byrhthelm appears as bishop in a couple of the Selsey charters, dated 956 and 957.[32] The charter of 957(S.1291) tells how Byrhthelm restores 42 hides of land in the Selsey area to the South Saxons.[33] The original foundation confirmed by Cædwalla to Wilfrid was 87 hides, so the 42 hides would have been nearly half the original endowment.

According to Byrhthelm the land was fraudulently seized from the church by a certain Ælfsige, against the canons of the Council of Nicaea (325) when raised to the epsicopal seat of the 'Gewisse' (West Saxons).[34][35] The 15th decree of the first Council of Nicaea 325 stated that neither bishops nor presbyters nor deacons shall transfer from city to city. If after this decision... anyone shall attempt such a thing .. the arrangement shall be totally annulled...[34] Several historians have suggested that the Council of Nicaea reference that bishops should not take over another bishops land infers that the Ælfsige who seized the lands at Selsey, would have been a bishop.[34] The most likely candidate being the Bishop of Winchester (whose name was also Ælfsige) and according to Bede the South Saxon Church was subject to the Bishops of Winchester at the time.[17]

Fictional reference [link]

Rudyard Kipling wrote about St Wilfrid and Selsey and in this poem he refers to a service at Manhood End (Selsey), that was taken by Wilfrids chaplain Stephen of Ripon, referred to as Eddi in the poem :

<poem>

Eddi's Service (AD 687)
Eddi, priest of St. Wilfrid
In his chapel at Manhood End,
Ordered a midnight service
For such as cared to attend.
But the Saxons were keeping Christmas,
And the night was stormy as well.
Nobody came to service,
Though Eddi rang the bell.
"'Wicked weather for walking,"
Said Eddi of Manhood End.
"But I must go on with the service
For such as care to attend."
The altar-lamps were lighted, –
An old marsh-donkey came,
Bold as a guest invited,
And stared at the guttering flame.
The storm beat on at the windows,
The water splashed on the floor,
And a wet, yoke-weary bullock
Pushed in through the open door.
"How do I know what is greatest,
How do I know what is least?
That is My Father's business,"
Said Eddi, Wilfrid's priest.
"But – three are gathered together –
Listen to me and attend.
I bring good news, my brethren!"
Said Eddi of Manhood End.
And he told the Ox of a Manger
And a Stall in Bethlehem,
And he spoke to the Ass of a Rider,
That rode to Jerusalem.
They steamed and dripped in the chancel,
They listened and never stirred,
While, just as though they were Bishops,
Eddi preached them The World,
Till the gale blew off on the marshes
And the windows showed the day,
And the Ox and the Ass together
Wheeled and clattered away.
And when the Saxons mocked him,
Said Eddi of Manhood End,
"I dare not shut His chapel
On such as care to attend."
Rudyard Kipling Rewards and Fairies. p 179.
</poem>

See also [link]

Notes [link]

  1. ^ Heron-Allen.Selsey Historic and Prehistoric. p. 114 and fig.2. ..the seal (was) used by the cathedral authorities down to Bishop Seffrid II(1180 – 1204).. from the Saxon bishops of Selsey.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Kelly. The Bishopric of Selsey in Hobbs. Chichester Cathedral: An Historic Survey. pp. 1 – 10.
  3. ^ Allen.Selsey Historic. p. 117.
  4. ^ Allen. Selsey Historic. pp. 119 – 120. early charters also say that it could have been dedicated to the Virgin Mary and St Paul the Apostle.
  5. ^ a b Tatton-Brown. The Medieval Fabric in Hobbs. Chichester Cathedral: An Historical Survey. p. 25
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Bede.HE.IV.13
  7. ^ a b c Kirby.The South Saxons: The Church in Saxon Sussex. pp. 169 – 170
  8. ^ Bede. HE.III.20
  9. ^ Harbison. Pilgrimage in Ireland: The Monuments and the People. Ch. 4. Peregrinatio: Wandering Irish Peregrini on the continent
  10. ^ Ladner. Images and ideas in the Middle Ages. pp. 883–884.’’The early Christian and medieval idea of estrangement, of peregrinatio, which is of biblical origin, found in for instance, in the 'Second Letter to the Corinthians', in the 'First Letter of St Peter', and in 'Hebrews', as well as in the Old Testament, was a conception which saw true Christians as a band of strangers, of pilgrims, wending their way through the terrestrial world; it was an idea of homelessness or exile in this world, because of the latter's imperfect, preliminary condition and because of a desire to serve only God, by cutting all lesser ties.’’
  11. ^ a b Kirby.The South Saxons: The Church in Saxon Sussex. p. 170.
  12. ^ Barlow. The English Church 1000–1066. p. 222
  13. ^ Wood. Domesday Quest. pp. 140 -141.
  14. ^ Kelly.Charters of Selsey. pp 3 – 13
  15. ^ a b Stephens. Memorials of the See. p. 18
  16. ^ a b c d e Eddius. Life of Wilfrid. Ch. 42 in Farmer.The Age of Bede. pp. 149 - 150
  17. ^ a b c Bede. HE.IV.15
  18. ^ Eddius. Life of Wilfrid. Ch. 43 in Farmer.The Age of Bede. pp. 150 - 151
  19. ^ a b Stephens.The South Saxon Diocese:Selsey- Chichester. p. 14
  20. ^ a b c Stephens. Diocesan Histories. p. 15
  21. ^ Bede. H.E. V.18
  22. ^ a b Kirby.The South Saxons: The Church in Saxon Sussex. p. 171.
  23. ^ a b Allen. Selsey Historic. p. 196, pl. xxxvi
  24. ^ a b Heron-Allen. The Parish Church of St Peter on Selsey Bill Sussex". p. 6
  25. ^ Camden. Britannia.Vol.2. Ch.18.4
  26. ^ a b c Munby. Anglo-Saxon Towns in Southern England:Saxon Chichester and its Predecessors. pp. 317 – 320
  27. ^ Pagham Harbour Local Nature Management Plan 2007. p. 27
  28. ^ Powicke. Will of William Rede, Bishop of Chichester in The Medieval Books of Merton College. p. 87
  29. ^ Aldsworth. Excavations on the Mound. pp. 217 – 221
  30. ^ a b Mee. History of Selsey. pp. 11 – 12
  31. ^ a b c d e Bede.HE.IV.14
  32. ^ Powicke. Handbook. p. 252
  33. ^ Kelly. Charters of Selsey. pp. 85 – 91.
  34. ^ a b c Wormald. Strange Affair of the Selsey Bishopric. p. 131
  35. ^ Wikisource. The First Council of Nicaea

References [link]

External links [link]


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Selsey

Coordinates: 50°44′06″N 0°47′23″W / 50.73502°N 0.78977°W / 50.73502; -0.78977

Selsey is a seaside town and civil parish, about eight miles (12 km) south of Chichester, in the Chichester District of West Sussex, within the historic county of Sussex, England. Selsey lies at the southernmost point of the Manhood Peninsula, almost cut off from mainland Sussex by the sea. It is bounded to the west by Bracklesham Bay, to the north by Broad Rife (rife being the local word for stream or creek), to the east by Pagham Harbour and terminates in the south at Selsey Bill. There are significant rock formations beneath the sea off both of its coasts, named the Owers rocks and Mixon rocks. Coastal erosion has been an ever present problem for Selsey.

There is only one road (the B2145) in and out of the town, which at a point known as "the ferry", crosses a bridge over the water inlet at Pagham Harbour. At one time Selsey was inaccessible at flood tide, and a boat was stationed at the ferry to take horses and passengers to and from Sidlesham.

Selsey (electoral division)

Coordinates: 50°44′39″N 0°46′49″W / 50.74417°N 0.78020°W / 50.74417; -0.78020

Selsey is an electoral division of West Sussex in the United Kingdom, and returns one member to sit on West Sussex County Council.

Extent

The division covers the town of Selsey; and the hamlet of Church Norton.

It comprises the following Chichester District wards: Selsey North Ward and Selsey South Ward; the electoral division is co-terminous with the civil parish of Selsey.

Election Results

2013 Election

Results of the election held on 2 May 2013:

2009 Election

Results of the election held on 4 June 2009:

2005 Election

Results of the election held on 5 May 2005:

References

  • Election Results - West Sussex County Council
  • External links

  • West Sussex County Council
  • Election Maps

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