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Selsey () is a seaside town and civil parish, about south of Chichester, West Sussex, England.
Selsey lies at the southernmost point of the Manhood Peninsula, almost cut off from mainland Sussex by the sea. It is in the Chichester district and is bounded to the west by Bracklesham Bay, to the north by Broad Rife, to the east by Pagham Harbour and terminates in the south at Selsey Bill. There are significant rock formations beneath the sea off both of its coasts, named the Owers rocks and The Mixon. Coastal erosion has been an ever-present problem for Selsey. In 2011 the parish had a population of 10,737.
The B2145 is the only road in and out of the town crossing a bridge over the water inlet at Pagham Harbour at a point known as "the ferry". At one time Selsey was inaccessible at flood tide, and a boat was stationed at the ferry to take horses and passengers to and from Sidlesham.
Edward Heron-Allen identified at least twenty different spellings of the place that we now know today as "Selsey".
A selection of versions as identified by Heron-Allen are:
There is evidence of possible Roman activity in Selsey. The archaeologist Barry Cunliffe wrote that in the middle of the first century, the area provided a good base for the transfer of sea-borne goods and the storing and distributing of supplies to support their conquest of south west Britain. When this objective had been achieved the Romans moved their base to Chichester. The Mixon would have been part of the mainland, at the time of the Roman occupation and it is evident that they used its stone for building material.
The Anglo Saxon Chronicle records the legendary foundation of Sussex by Ælle and his sons when they landed near Selsey.
Stephen of Ripon and the Venerable Bede say that Wilfrid arrived in Selsey about and converted the Kingdom of the South Saxons to Christianity. Selsey Abbey stood at Selsey (probably where Church Norton is today), and was the cathedra for the Sussex Diocese until the Council of London ordered the removal of the See to Chichester in 1075, during the reign of William the Conqueror. In all there had been twenty-two Bishops of Selsey over a period of 370 years.
In July 1588 the Spanish Armada arrived off the Isle of Wight with the intention of attacking Portsmouth. The wind changed direction to the south-west. Men from the Manhood Peninsula serving under Francis Drake conceived a plan to lure the Spanish fleet onto the Owers rocks (off Selsey). However the Spanish Admiral, recognising the danger, decided to head for Calais.
In 1647, a fatality was recorded following a cricket match at Selsey when a fielder called Henry Brand was hit on the head by the batsman Thomas Latter, who was trying to hit the ball a second time. The incident repeated one at Horsted Keynes in 1624.
Over the centuries Selsey has derived an income from the sea, not all of it strictly legal. In the eighteenth century Selsey Bill was very much more isolated than it is today, and the sand spit extended farther out to sea. There was only the causeway connected to the mainland and that was covered at high tide. The approach of the local riding officer would have been conspicuous in the extreme. One of the enterprises was smuggling with many local people being involved in the lucrative trade. The Rectors of Selsey reputedly claimed a tithe on all kegs landed there, and stories also tell of a passageway leading from the Old Rectory (at Church Norton) to the remains of a Mound, thought to have been built by the Normans. The course of the tunnel was marked by a depression on the surface of the ground as late as 1911.
The legal export of wool trade had been established for centuries with Chichester being granted staple port status. However, the Selsey area was notorious for the illegal export of wool, in a custom known as owling. During the 1720s one Selsey man ran a regular ferry service to France, travelling back and forth every five weeks, and other prominent Selsey figures made considerable fortunes just from part-time work in the free-trade.
In 1749 fourteen smugglers, members of the notorious Hawkhurst Gang, were accused of the murder of William Galley, a custom-house officer, and Daniel Chater, a shoemaker. A contemporary book written under the pseudonym "A. Gentleman" provides a narrative on the offence, capture, trial and execution of the smugglers involved. Seven were tried and condemned to death at Chichester assizes; one died in gaol before sentence could be carried out and the other six were hanged at the Broyle north of Chichester. Subsequently, the bodies of two of the smugglers, John Cobby and John Hammond, were hung in gibbets at Selsey Bill so that they could be seen at great distance from east and west.
Selsey was connected to Chichester from 1897 to 1935 by a rail link initially called the Hundred of Manhood and Selsey Tramway and later the West Sussex Railway. The light railway rolling stock was all second hand and not very reliable and the journey times lengthy. Various nicknames such as the "Selsey Snail" were attributed to the tram and comic postcards were issued reflecting its poor service.
In the late 1930s the Broadreeds Holiday camp, that was later to be run by Pontins, was used as a transit camp for girls coming on the Kindertransport. The woman appointed as second in command, Sophie Friedlaender describes in her memoir how she first arrived at the camp:
By the time of World War II the Kindertransport had stopped; Broadreeds camp then continued to accept evacuees mainly from London. This was until August 1940 when during a bombing raid, three evacuees and one soldier were killed. All the evacuees were re-evacuated shortly after. Also, during World War II, large areas of the village were closed to the public, particularly as off shore at East Beach, there was secret(at the time) work on the Mulberry harbours. These were eventually towed to Normandy for D-Day.
A private aerodrome, situated at Church Norton, was requisitioned by the RAF in 1942, then in 1943 after some construction work, became an advanced landing ground (ALG) known as RAF Selsey. The airfield from Normandy, was built to support D-Day. It was decommissioned as an ALG shortly after D-Day, it then became a satellite of RAF Tangmere for a while and finally a reserve airfield for the remainder of the war.
Erosion by the sea and flooding has been a constant problem for Selsey. In the 1950s there was major work, to improve the sea walls and groynes, to protect against the winter storms. By the end of the 1980s, with the constant battering from the sea, a lot of the defences needed remedial work. In 2011 the Environment Agency started to build new sea defences between Selsey and Bracklesham, the scheme was described as managed realignment in that it involved the building of new defences inland from the coast and allowing a new "intertidal area" to form seaward of the new defences. "Intertidal" means the land that is exposed at low tide and covered by the sea at high tide. Then in 2013 the scheme was completed. The Environment Agency says that "it will improve the standard of flood protection for over 300 homes, the water treatment works and the main road into Selsey. It will also create important new intertidal wildlife habitat and open up new footpaths, cycleways and bridleways."
A former president was Hubert Doggart, OBE, MA. He was the son of the sportsman Graham Doggart who rose to chair the Football Association. Doggart represented England in two Test matches in 1950. He was President of the M.C.C. (1981–1982), the Cricket Council (1981–1982) and the Cricket Society (1983–1998), and he chaired the Friends of Arundel Castle Cricket Club (1993–2003). In the 1970s he played occasionally for Selsey C.C.
Selsey are a Clubmark Club running two men's League sides, one Ladies League side, several Junior sides and Sunday and Midweek Friendly sides.
The list of artists, who have featured Selsey in their work, include Whistler and J. M. W. Turner.
A new boathouse, to replace the old off shore boathouse, was constructed on shore. The final launch from the old boathouse was made on 1 April 2017 and the old boathouse itself was demolished during the Summer of 2017. The new boathouse accommodates both the inshore lifeboat and the new Shannon-class lifeboat, which has been allocated to Selsey, to replace the Tyne class. The RNLI shop has also been transferred to the new building.
Medmerry Mill is a listed building tower windmill restored in the 1960s and currently in use as a gift shop.
St Peter's Church, a grade II listed building, is the parish church and dates from the 13th century. The church building was originally situated at the location of St Wilfrid's first monastery and cathedral at Church Norton some north of the present centre of population. It was moved from there in the 19th century and is now situated at the entrance to Selsey High Street. When the removed church was re-consecrated in April 1866, due to an oversight it was not consecrated properly to carry out marriages. The omission was not discovered until 1904, by which time 196 marriage services had taken place. These services although canonically correct were not strictly legal. To rectify the situation an Act of Parliament was required. In 1906 an order was made to finally validate all the marriages celebrated between 12 April 1866 and 25 February 1904.
Selsey is also mentioned in Ben Jonson's play Volpone in Act 2 Scene 1 with reference to 'Selsey cockles'
In the opening scene of the Lerner and Loewe 1956 musical My Fair Lady, Professor Higgins correctly identifies one of the characters as coming from Selsey.
Selsey is further referenced in the Madness song "Driving in My Car": "I drive up to Muswell Hill, I've even been to Selsey Bill".
A study published by Princeton University and McGill University, in 2020, concluded that the Manhood Peninsula is at particularly high risk of flooding as its topography is less than above the current mean sea level and that by 2100 Selsey will be subject to permanent inundation.
To mitigate flood risk, Chichester District Council has adopted the "Pagham to East Head Coastal Defence Strategy (2009)". This strategy describes a "Hold the line" policy for Selsey that will keep the coastline in the same place by maintaining sea defences. However, the Strategy cautions what it calls "funding challenges" that could impact the work needed.
The Pagham Harbour Nature Reserve, operated by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), is close to Selsey. It is possible to see a variety of bird species including Dark-bellied Brent Geese, Wigeon, Black-headed Gulls, Common, Sandwich and Little Terns.
Selsey is no longer connected to the national railway system. The railway line between Chichester and Selsey closed in 1935. The nearest rail stations are Chichester and Bognor.
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