Travel with us to Chichester and enjoy a walking tour of the city before visiting Pallant House Gallery to see a new exhibition “British Landscapes: A Sense of Place” which brings together more than 60 artists. The permanent collection can also be viewed and a visit to Chichester Cathedral will be available.

Chichester is a Roman cathedral city and the only city in West Sussex. Its historical evidence of Roman settlement can be found all over the city, including some Roman baths, a city wall (which was replaced by a Georgian wall), an amphitheatre which is now a park and the old Roman road,  State Street, linking Chichester with London.

It has a plethora of grade II listed buildings, and other points of interest include the Chichester City Cross, which is a type of butter market and sits in the centre of North, East, South and West streets. The City Cross was built in 1500 by Bishop Edward Storey as a shelter for people who sold their wares on market day.

The cathedral, built in the 11th century, is a must-see and a great place to wander down the cobbled floors and admire the architecture. Chichester Cathedral replaced the cathedral that was founded in 681 in Selsey, which is about eight miles south of Chichester. The cathedral, now in an area with a higher population, began being constructed in 1076 and was finished in 1008. The bell tower is detached, and this, along with the spire and cloisters of the cathedral, was built around 1400.

The Pallant Gallery's collection is founded on works left to the city of Chichester by Walter Hussey in 1977, on his retirement from the position as Dean of Chichester Cathedral which he held from 1955. Hussey's collection included works by Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore, John Piper, Ceri Richards and Graham Sutherland. Hussey stipulated that the collection must be shown in Pallant House.

The Gallery's collection has been augmented by other donations. In 1989, property developer Charles Kearley donated works by British artists such as John Piper and Ben Nicholson and European artists such as Paul Cézanne, André Derain, Fernand Léger, and Gino Severini. In 2006, architect Sir Colin St John Wilson donated works by Michael Andrews, Peter Blake, David Bomberg, Patrick Caulfield, Lucian Freud, Richard Hamilton, R. B. Kitaj, Eduardo Paolozzi, Walter Sickert and Victor Willing. Many of the works were acquired directly from the artists, who were friends of Wilson: indeed, he designed homes for several. Other works are displayed on long-term loan, many on the understanding that they will be donated to the gallery in due course. As well as modern British art, the Gallery had one of the world's outstanding collections of 18th-century Bow porcelain, donated by Geoffrey Freeman, but it has since been transferred to the Holburne Museum in Bath.

British Landscapes: A Sense of Place Exhibition. This landmark exhibition explores how artists from the 18th to the 20th century have responded to the landscapes of the British Isles. Bringing together works by more than 60 artists, the exhibition reveals landscape not simply as scenery, but as a powerful expression of memory, identity and emotion. 

Spanning Romanticism, Modernism and postwar abstraction, the exhibition traces a rich lineage from Thomas Gainsborough and the golden age of British watercolour to the postwar works of Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, Barbara Hepworth, Paul Nash, and Eric Ravilious.

From quiet lanes and chalk hills to industrial sites and abstract coastlines, painters, printmakers and sculptors have depicted places shaped by labour, conflict and imagination. British Landscapes: A Sense of Place invites visitors to reflect on how Britain’s landscapes have been lived in, remembered and reimagined – and how they continue to shape our collective sense of belonging and resilience.

This exhibition is accompanied by a new illustrated catalogue written by Director Simon Martin, with contributions from contemporary artist, Haroun Hayward, whose exhibition Haroun Hayward: Path through Trees runs alongside British Landscapes: A Sense of Place.

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The Cotswolds was one of the first rural centres of the Arts and Crafts Movement. William Morris created a country idyll at Kelmscott and drew great inspiration from the unspoilt authenticity of the house’s architecture and craftsmanship and its organic relationship with its setting, especially its garden. 

At nearby Buscot Park, the renowned art collection includes the magnificent setting that Edward Burne-Jones designed for his ‘Legend of the Briar Rose’ series of painting together with the gardens, famed for their Italianate water gardens designed by Edwardian landscape architect Harold Peto.

Kelmscott

Kelmscott Manor was the country home of the writer, designer and socialist William Morris from 1871 until his death in 1896. Today it is owned by the Society of Antiquaries of London.

Morris drew great inspiration from the unspoilt authenticity of the house's architecture and craftsmanship, and its organic relationship with its setting, especially its garden. The Manor is featured in Morris' work News from Nowhere. It also appears in the background of Water Willow, a portrait of his wife, Jane Morris, painted by Dante Gabriel Rossetti in 1871.

After William Morris's death in 1896, the Manor continued to be occupied by his widow, Jane Morris (who purchased it in 1913) and later, his daughters Jenny and May. Jenny died in 1935 and May in 1938. She bequeathed the house to Oxford University, on the basis the contents were preserved and the public were granted access. The university were unwilling to preserve the house as 'a museum piece' and passed the house and land to the Society of Antiquaries in 1962.

The first permanent residents to live in the Manor after the Morris family were the artists Edward and Stephanie Scott-Godwin, who were friends of May Morris. They lived there from 1940 until 1948, publishing a book on William Morris during that time with their own illustrations. According to Simon Poë this period marked "a transitional moment in the history of the house, between its Victorian heyday and its present incarnation as a heritage site and visitor attraction".

The manor was in a precarious state of decay when passed to The Society and much of the 1960s work was to make sure that the manor house did not deteriorate further. Most of the main roof beams were rotten which meant that a lot of the structure needed to be replaced. Internal walls and floors were strengthened and a new porch added to the North entrance. The associated barns were purchased by the Society in the 1970s and converted into a shop and tearoom.

The internal décor today is substantially that of Morris and includes many of his famous textile patterns as well as much of his furniture. Visitors can explore all three floors of the manor, including the attic spaces which would originally have been used by farm labourers. Morris's bedroom contains many of his original books, and a collection of Dürer prints. Other rooms display furniture from Red House in Bexleyheath, Kelmscott House in Hammersmith and other family homes. There are also further works by Rossetti, Sir Edward Burne-Jones, and Pieter Brueghel the Younger.

The manor was reopened in April 2022 after a major restoration project undertaken by the Society. The work, funded by grants totalling £6m from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and the Kelmscott: Past Present and Future campaign, has seen extensive work undertaken to the structure of the house, as well as renovation of the interior. 

The garden includes many old trees, including a very old black mulberry at the rear of the house. The front garden is walled with a summer house in one corner, and both the wall and the summerhouse are Grade II listed. The front garden contains many standard roses. Although part of the original orchard has been removed to make a small car park, many fruit trees have been left intact.

Buscot Park

Buscot Park was built around 1780 in the Palladian style for the wonderfully-named Edward Loveden Loveden. Born Edward Loveden Townend, he inherited the Buscot estate from his great-uncle Edward Loveden and adopted his surname in accordance with the terms of the bequest. After four generations of Lovedens, Buscot Park was sold in 1859 to an Australian entrepreneur, Robert Tertius Campbell who turned the estate into a model of agricultural industrialisation. Innovations such as battery cattle farming, deep ploughing, a narrow-gauge railway and spirit-distilling proved ultimately unprofitable, and after his death, the heavily-mortgaged estate was sold in 1889 to Alexander Henderson, a wealthy and talented stockbroker from London.

Alexander Henderson, later ennobled as the first Baron Faringdon, laid the foundations of the Faringdon Collection, acquiring paintings by Old Masters such as Rembrandt, Botticelli, Murillo and Reynolds. He was also a major collector of modern (ie. Victorian) art, acquiring paintings by Rossetti, Watts, Leighton, and most importantly, Edward Burne-Jones’ ‘Legend of the Briar Rose’ series. This cycle of paintings, which tell the legend of Sleeping Beauty, caused a sensation when they were first exhibited in 1890, and are still displayed in the setting designed for them by the artist. Alexander also commissioned the famed Italianate water garden from Edwardian garden designer, Harold Peto.

Alexander was succeeded in 1934 by his grandson, Gavin, 2nd Lord Faringdon, who defied expectations of the English aristocracy by embracing Socialist politics with zeal. He represented the Labour Party in the House of Lords and on the London County Council, and entertained a great many Labour politicians at Buscot, including several Prime Ministers of Britain and other nations. The murals painted by the swimming pool by Gavin’s friend and fellow socialist Jack Hastings, 16th Earl of Huntingdon, an artist who trained under Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, suggest a wry self-awareness of these ‘champagne socialists’. Gavin continued to add to the collection, acquiring paintings by old and modern masters such as Gainsborough and Rubens, Ravilious and Sutherland, and indulging his passion for Empire and Regency furniture, including a superb ‘Egyptian’ couch and armchairs designed by Thomas Hope.

Since 1977, Buscot has been lived in and looked after by Gavin’s nephew, Charles, 3rd Baron Faringdon and his family, who look after the property on behalf of the National Trust. The collection is separately managed through the Faringdon Collection Trust. Lord Faringdon, advised by the Trustees, continues to add to the collection, and as a result, historic and contemporary art are displayed side by side, giving the house an eclectic, lived-in feel that is often remarked on by visitors. Lord and Lady Faringdon have created the Four Seasons Garden on the site of the former kitchen gardens, where herbaceous borders bloom successively throughout the season, and a beautiful wisteria archway leads to a circular pool.