St Wilfrid's Chapel, Church Norton

St Wilfrid's Chapel
The chapel from the southwest
50°45′18″N 0°45′55″W / 50.7549°N 0.7652°W / 50.7549; -0.7652Coordinates: 50°45′18″N 0°45′55″W / 50.7549°N 0.7652°W / 50.7549; -0.7652
Location	Rectory Lane, Church Norton, Selsey, West Sussex PO20 9DT
Country	United Kingdom
Denomination	Anglican
History
Former name(s)	St Peter's Church
Founded	13th century
Dedication	Saint Wilfrid
Dedicated	1917 (rededicated to St Wilfrid)
Architecture
Status	Church
Functional status	Redundant
Heritage designation	Grade I
Designated	5 June 1958

St Wilfrid's Chapel, also known as St Wilfrid's Church and originally as St Peter's Church, is a former Anglican church at Church Norton, a rural location near the village of Selsey in West Sussex, England. In its original, larger form, the church served as Selsey's parish church from the 13th century until the mid 1860s; when half of it was dismantled, moved to the centre of the village and rebuilt along with modern additions. Only the chancel of the old church survived in its harbourside location of "sequestered leafiness", resembling a cemetery chapel in the middle of its graveyard. It was rededicated to St Wilfrid—7th-century founder of a now vanished cathedral at Selsey—and served as a chapel of ease until the Diocese of Chichester declared it redundant in 1990. Since then it has been in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust charity. The tiny chapel, which may occupy the site of an ancient monastery built by St Wilfrid, is protected as a Grade I Listed building.

The parish of Selsey is in the far southwestern corner of Sussex and was once an island: the English Channel lies to the east and south, and Pagham Harbour forms the northern boundary and originally had a connection to the sea on the west side as well. Two settlements developed in the parish: the main village (Selsey) and a hamlet called Church Norton (or Norton) about 1 ¹⁄₂ miles (2.4 km) to the northeast, on the "wild shoreline" of Pagham Harbour.

This land is considered the most likely site of Cymenshore, the place where Ælle of Sussex—the first King of the South Saxons—came ashore in 477. Two centuries later, Wilfrid (later canonised as Saint Wilfrid) Christianised the area, using Selsey as his base. He was apparently granted land on the island in the 7th century, upon which he founded a monastery in 681. This later became a cathedral, and 25 bishops served between 681 and 1075. After the Norman conquest the Council of London, in 1075, decreed that the See should be moved from Selsey to, the nearby former Roman settlement of Chichester. The site chosen for the new cathedral was shared with the original St Peter's church, in Chichester.