Saint Wilfrid Founds the Bishopric of Selsey

681 AD

In 681 AD, Saint Wilfrid of York arrived in the kingdom of the South Saxons, one of the last pagan areas of England, and established a monastery and episcopal seat at Selsey. The king of the South Saxons granted Wilfrid land on the peninsula, and the new bishopric became the centre of Christianity for the entire Sussex region. Wilfrid taught the local people improved fishing techniques using nets, according to Bede's Ecclesiastical History, and baptised many of the population. The cathedral church was built at what is now Church Norton, overlooking the tidal inlet of Pagham Harbour. For nearly four hundred years, the bishops of the South Saxons governed from Selsey, making this modest coastal settlement one of the most important ecclesiastical centres in Anglo-Saxon England.