Litten Gardens

Litten Gardens. . , Chichester War Memorial , The War Memorial was dedicated by the Dean of Chichester, and unveiled by Field Marshal Sir William Robertson in Eastgate Square on 20 July 1921. It was erected in remembrance of the three hundred and twenty three men of Chichester who gave their lives for their Country in the Great War (1914-18). Field Marshal Sir William Robertson was an extraordinary man. He enlisted in the ranks as a private soldier at the age of 17 and rose to the highest rank of Field Marshal in 1920 -- the only man in the British Army's history to achieve this feat. He died in 1933., The Memorial was subsequently moved to Litten Gardens in 1940 because of growing traffic congestion in and around Eastgate Square. Litten Gardens was also deemed to be a more fitting location for the Memorial. The four stone tablets were added in 2001 to commemorate the service personnel of Chichester who died in the Second World War (1939-45)., Every year on Remembrance Sunday, the Mayor and the City Council process from North Street to the War Memorial to join with members of the public in a Service of Remembrance for those men and women who have died in the service of their Country in both World Wars and other conflicts., The Litten Burial Ground , Where you are standing used to be the burial ground for Chichester. It was probably first used in the early 1100s, although there had been an earlier Roman cemetery on part of the site. The burial ground was divided in two by what is now New Park Road. Few burials were permitted after 1860 and sheep were allowed to graze but the area was generally neglected., In 1937 the inscriptions on the gravestones were recorded and the stones were moved into rows. The inscriptions were recorded again in the late 1990s and can be seen at the West Sussex Record Office, Orchard Street, Chichester., People buried here include the Smith brothers, who were celebrated local artists, together with their three young siblings who all died from smallpox in August 1759, women who died in childbirth, and a man killed by the kick of a horse. The oldest gravestone dates back to 1690., In 2008 gravestones which had been in the New Park Road car park were moved across the road and repositioned., An archaeological dig in 2011 removed more human remains from the New Park car park former burial ground and these were reburied in the churchyard of All Saints, Portfield, and the gravestones related in bitten Gardens in 2012.