England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Arundel St Nicholas

The Parish

The parish of Arundel lies in the south of Western Sussex about 4 miles from its English Channel coast. Arundel is located about 10 miles east of the town of Chichester and stands at the point where the River Arun completes it passage through the South Downs. Arundel is a market town and formerly a coastal trading port, despite the narrow passage upstream along the Arun. Arundel stands on the busy A27 road, Sussex's coastal main road, which connects Chichester with Brighton. Arundel was largely founded as a result of the building of the Norman castle on the excellently defended site of its bluff overlooking the valley. Built immediately after the Conquest by the Earl of Shrewsbury its siting here turned a relatively insignificant hamlet into a market town and burgh. Sadly Victorian mock-mediaeval rebuilding have turned it into something out a Disney fantasy rather than its early days as a defensive strong point protecting the south coast. The castle held a minor role in history, sheltering Queen Matilda from the forces of her rival Stephen during the post-Norman Civil War. As a local market Arundel would have acted for the immediate area offering the usual services to a largely agricultural hinterland, as a port it traded the local produce with other parts of the country as well as France, Ireland and the Low Countries. Today Arundel is something of a tourist attraction as well as market town, rather prettified in the same was as Windsor, bringing visitors fro all over. Modern developments aided that status, the London to Brighton & Chichester rail lines favouring the Arun Valley as a route avoided the challenging terrain of the Downs. The Arun drains the short distance to the English Channel, arriving through the port & town of Littlehampton. Arundel is sited between sea level and 40 metres above, the castle, church and cathedral standing at the southeastern end of a ridge of high ground rising to almost 150 metres within a couple of miles. Arundel parish was fairly typically sized for its area, covering just over 1,800 acres it would have supported a population close to 2,600 parishioners. In Domesday times and prior to the building of the castle it was an insignificant holding of the Earl of Shrewsbury offering only a mill and a fishery.

The Church

St Nicholas' church sits between cathedral and castle on the relative high ground at the end of the bluff that formed the Norman's stronghold. The church was built as a single piece commencing in 1380 and replacing a Norman predecessor. It is thus a complete example of the style of the early Perpendicular, Pevsner states it has "firm masculine proportions and detail" and shows "no flights of fancy". The church does, however, have a curiosity in that the eastern half, consisting of the Fitzalan & Lady Chapels, forms a separate collegiate church and is internally segregated from the western parochial end and only approached by a separate entrance from the castle grounds. The church is rare in having been built in a single episode, commencing with the collegiate portion, and with only minor alteration since that date. The main apparent alteration was the addition of external crests to the Lady Chapel in the 19th century albeit there must have been some refurbishment along the way. The church is normally approached from London Road through an impressive triple-arched gateway, London Road has limited parking. The churchyard is quite cluttered with trees and with such a large building it is difficult to adequately achieve extensive views.