Picturing the Past-Chichester

FOR more than half a century the Market Cross has been the centre of Chichester life '“ alongside the cathedral, one of the city's two iconic images.

By The Newsroom

Published 29th Aug 2008, 14:18 BST

Updated 8th Jun 2018, 03:16 BST

The cross has been bystander to the great moments in the city's history '“ and backdrop to its everyday existence, as these images held at Worthing Library amply show.

For our third Picturing The Past feature, we turn to Chichester '“ and you don't have to look for long before the cross starts to stand tall.

A particularly arresting image sees it as the focal point of a different world. Drawn in 1861, it is depicted at the centre of a quieter world, pre-cars, pre-pedestrianisation.

Skip forward half a century and it is the cross that the Territorials symbolically stride away from as they leave for battle in a haunting photograph dating probably from the very start of the First World War.

You can almost hear the tramp of their feet as the soldiers march south towards the station, the first leg of their trip to the killing fields of France and Flanders.

For full feature and more pictures see West Sussex Gazette September 3