504 REPORT— 1882. 



there intervenes a tract between the chalk range and the sea, which ultimately 

 acquires a width of ten miles, as from Lavant to Selsea. This tract is low and level, 

 presenting a series of superficial accumulations, remnants of a definite Tertiary 

 period, of which at no other place in England is there any such record, and to 

 which I ask your attention should any journey to inspect the phenomena exposed 

 along the shore of Bracklesham Bay, or between Wittering and Pagham Harbour, 

 or Bognor be proposed. Especially may I refer to interesting evidence as to local 

 <'.onditions during the glacial period. It may not be known to many, or all present, 

 that the peninsula of Selsea is celebrated in English history as one of the places 

 where Christianity was first taught in this country. It was one of the most ancient 

 Saxon establishments. This peninsula was granted by Edilwalch, King of the 

 South Saxons, to Wilfred the exOed Bishop of York, about the year 680. At that 

 time it is stated to have contained 6,220 acres of land, with 85 families and 250 

 slaves. The parish now contains only 2,880 acres ; 2,340 having been slowly 

 denuded away by the action and encroachment of the sea. This encroachment and 

 destruction during the past 800 years has been very extensive. 



The creek called Pagham Harbour, on the south-east side of the Bill or pen- 

 insula, was due to an irruption before the year 1.346, when 2,700 acres of land were 

 destroyed. The site of the ancient cathedral and episcopal palace of Selsea, be- 

 lieved to have been situated to the south-east of the present church of Pagham, is 

 no longer to be determined, but there is no reason to doubt but that it stood nearly 

 a mile out in what is now sea. Camden, in his ' Britannia,' states that ' in this isle 

 remaineth only the dead carkase as it were, of that ancient little citie (where those 

 bishops (of Selsea) had their seat), hidden quite with water at every tide, but at 

 low water evident and plain to be seen.' 



The Bishop's Park, as the shore and sands are still called, extended for many 

 acres on the south-east coast, and the remaining fragment has still the name of Park 

 Coppice. The sea has gained more than a mile on this coast since the see and cathe- 

 dral of Selsea was established a.d. 680 ; Wilfrid was the first Bishop of Selsea in 

 that year, and Stigand was the first Bishop of Chichester a.d. 1070. No less than 

 twenty-two Bishops had occupied the episcopal chair of Selsea, and resided there, be- 

 fore the removal to Chichester. The parish that divides Selsea from Bognor is called 

 Pagham, and the extensive estuary, which is a mile long and broad in places, Pagham 

 Harbour. The remarkable church is dedicated to St. Thomas a Becket, and the 

 ruins of the archiepiscopal palace are still visible south-east of the church. Arch- 

 bishop Becket resided here with a large retinue, and his interference with a manor 

 within this lordship gave rise to his dissension with Henry II. which terminated 

 in his assassination. That part of the coast marked 'the Park/ now covered by the 

 sea, was part of the prelate's extensive estate, and is still visible at low water. The 

 houses of the village are built of an arenaceous limestone almost entirely made up 

 of microscopical shells, of the genera Miliola and Alveolina. This stone was formerly 

 procured abundantly from an extensive range or ledge of rocks (called the Clibs 

 and Mixen) south of Selsea Bill, and extending some distance east and west. In 

 1830 the removal of this bed of stone was forbidden, forming, as it did and does, a 

 barrier to the encroachment of the sea. 



This digression and somewhat archaeological dissertation is necessary for my 

 purpose, when drawing your attention to those recent geological changes that have 

 taken place along that coast almost within modern times. 



Thorney, Ham, and Medmeney marshes, behind Bracklesham Bay, and between 

 Bracklesham and Selsea, are of marine or estuarine origin, separating Selsea from 

 the mainland, making it what its name expresses, an island, ' Seles-eu,' or ' I.«land 

 of the Sea-calf.' We are thus led to believe that when Selsea became known to 

 the English nation it was an island, and that iu Bede's time the process of silting 

 up the estuary must have commenced, and the completion of this process would 

 seem to have been before the Conquest. The action of the tides on this coast carries 

 the sand and shingle from west to east, therefore the gradual wasting which has 

 taken place on the shore of Bracklesham Bay has served to supply a large 

 portion of the material of which these marshes are formed. 



The ground on which Selsea, Bognor, Littlehampton, Worthing, and other 



