After another good breakfast at The Cricketers' Inn, we packed and left.
Our bedroom was upstairs, where the window is open.
Glenda, our host at Esher, had given us the contact details of a gentlemen who sells and restores mechanical music devices so, having ascertained that he would show us around his establishment, we headed for "The Old Church", Church Road, Portfield (near Chichester).
An old church it certainly was. It used to be All Saints', Portfield. It was built in 1869 and made redundant in 1980.
One window is left in the church. It depicts St.Andrew.
The church was full of all sorts of mechanical music machines. Most were disc-playing music boxes such as polyphons and symphonions. There was also a variety of stuffed animals, the church's pipe organ (which nobody has played in twenty years and "probably doesn't work"), the original reredos from Chichester Cathedral (which was moved to another church in 1904 and then to All Saint's in 1981 for safe keeping), some barrel organs, gramophones and a myriad of other bits and pieces. It used to be a museum open to the public but now it is just the owner's workshop. Lester Jones demonstrated a number of the machines for us. I took movies of some of them and you can have a look and listen here. It was a lot of fun and we were there for well over an hour!
This music box is for sale. I am SO tempted but it is NOT cheap. You can hear it via the link above, the last movie.
From there we checked in at our accommodation in Chichester and headed off to the Cathedral.
The Nave
The Quire from the steps of the Sanctuary
The Sanctuary
The Organ
The window in the South Transept
When the Israelites were being bitten by serpents and some died, God told Moses to make a brass serpent and put it on a pole. If the people looked at this serpent when they had been bitten, they would be safe. You can find the story in Numbers 21:4-9.
An interesting part of the South Transept window which shows the four evangelists by their symbols. Can you remember who is who?
Simeon and the baby Jesus
Jesus and the woman of Samaria at the well.
The Cathedral was built on the site of a Roman settlement. This mosaic, discovered in 1966 when some digging was done, is viewed looking down below the floor of the cathedral.
You may remember the Rev'd Walter Hussey from St.Matthew's, Northampton. He became the Dean of Chichester Cathedral and continued his efforts to encourage the arts. This window, by Marc Chagall, was one of his last commissions before he retired. It was installed in 1978 and depicts Psalm 150.
The two photos above are details from the Chagall Window.
The Nativity
The Flight into Egypt
Jesus working with his family in their carpentry shop.
The Lectern (unusually, a pelican)
Worried Mary and Joseph arrive at the temple in search of 12-year-old Jesus who is deep in theological discussion with the priests.
A chalice made in Vienna in 1751
A memorial for, and window depicting, Thomas Weelkes.
The ashes of Gustav Holst are buried here, close to the memorial of Weelkes, his favourite Tudor composer.
A window depicting the hymn writer and translator, John Neale.
The view looking up into the tower.
Mary and John, after the death of Jesus.
This memorial brass on the wall caught my attention. William Bradbridge and his wife Alice had six sons and eight daughters and they are all depicted together. Count them!
I loved this tree in the Deanery Garden.
Unfortunately, the Cathedral Choir was absent for some reason and Evensong was sung by Ardingly College Choir. The responses were by Smith, the canticles Dyson in F and the anthem was Elgar's The Spirit of the Lord. Again the choir was very good but not quite up to the standard of Winchester College.