. Sussex archaeological collections relating to the history and antiquities of the county. Not long after the building of the Common Mansion,perhaps about the middle of the fifteenth century, twolittle vaulted chambers were inserted at the west end ofthe long crypt. The northern one is now inaccessible—the way into it from the little L-shaped eighteenthcentury house (p. 107) having been boarded up; thesouthern is entered by a wide perpendicular door fromthe Vicars Close, just west of the old outside stair tothe Hall. The end into which the door opens is roofed 106 THE VICARS CLOSE, CHICHESTER.


. Sussex archaeological collections relating to the history and antiquities of the county. Not long after the building of the Common Mansion,perhaps about the middle of the fifteenth century, twolittle vaulted chambers were inserted at the west end ofthe long crypt. The northern one is now inaccessible—the way into it from the little L-shaped eighteenthcentury house (p. 107) having been boarded up; thesouthern is entered by a wide perpendicular door fromthe Vicars Close, just west of the old outside stair tothe Hall. The end into which the door opens is roofed 106 THE VICARS CLOSE, CHICHESTER. with boards, but on the left are the remains of a thinpartition, pierced by another door, whose hinges remain,but one side is only held up by modern brickwork. Itgives access to an oblong chamber roofed with a nearlystraight-sided, flat, tunnel vault of chalk. The twooriginal windows are now closed up. The long cryptitself was blocked up by two brick-tunnelled cellars(separated by a thick wall that encloses the lower part ofthe wooden pillar), one along each side, during the early. WW 10. South Side of Court. From an Engraving by T. Bonnor, 1783. years of the nineteenth century, when the whole under-croft was let to a wine seller. In one place the bins stillremain, but the place is now used for the storage of bulbsand seeds and all that is connected with gardening. THE VICARS CLOSE, CHICHESTER. 107 During the eighteenth century a little L-shaped houseof red and blue bricks was squeezed into the spacebetween the north-west corner of the common mansionand the east wall of St. Faiths. This was erected almostcertainly after the stairs. By Edward IV. the Vicars were incorporated ut decaetero principalis et communitas vicariorum ecclesiaeSanctae Trinitatis riant et nominentur; habeant unumcommune sigillum pro negotiis agendis; et sint capaces adacquierendum terras et tenementa, possessiones, et emolu-menta spiritualia et temporalia. It was probably aboutthe same time that a courty


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Keywords: ., bookauthorsussexarchaeologicals, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910