Our heritage

Our Heritage

One mile north of Selsey, a country lane called Rectory Lane, runs eastwards for about a mile and ends at a gate which marks the entrance to the churchyard, fronted by a small car park. Selsey was originally a place of two communities: Sutton - the present day village, and Northtown or Norton with its church, probably on or close to the site of the Cathedral St Wilfrid erected when he became Bishop of the South Saxons in 681. When the Normans conquered England they moved the country bishoprics into towns, so Selsey’s bishop was transferred to Chichester in 1075. By 1866 Sutton had grown into the village now known as Selsey and it made sense to move the Parish Church from Norton. Most of the building travelling the two miles or so by horse and cart, leaving the chancel behind as the present chapel, which was refurbished in 1905, and renamed St Wilfrid’s Chapel in 1917. Occasional services are still held there and the surrounding churchyard still used for interments.

There has been a mill in Selsey for well over 300 years on or near its present site at the end of Mill Lane. The original mill would have been built of timber in the 17th century and had a tidal pond. In 1820 the mill on its present site had suffered so much from the elements it was replaced with a tower windmill built of locally made red bricks with a bee-hive cap. The only mill of its kind in Sussex, it was used for grinding wheat and in 1827 it was also used for grinding salt. The last flour to be milled in Selsey was in 1910, and the mill finished its working life grinding pepper in the 1920’s. The mill fell into disuse and was very dilapidated by the time the White Horse Caravan Company bought the site in 1959. The late Mr J Bunn decided to restore the mill and a programme of restoration was undertaken and completed in 1961. Although the mill can only be viewed externally, the four storey mill is today a permanent reminder of the generations of Selsey millers.

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