The collapsed spire

The Cathedral in 1861

Chichester Cathedral Spire Collapses

Despite desperate attempts to save it, the spire of Chichester Cathedral collapses on
 Thursday, 21st February 1861 at 1.30pm

November 1860 and huge cracks were appearing in the crossing piers of the Cathedral.  In desperation much shoring was put in and timber jackets with iron hoops were also added but to no avail.  Seventy men worked from 3.30am on Thursday, 21st February 1861, fighting to prevent the total collapse of the tower and spire.  But the inevitable happened and at 1.30pm the spire fell.

Robert Willis wrote 'On Thursday morning, the upper part of the pier was found cracked and audibly cracking in many directions, flaked stones fell from it, whole stones burst out and fell.  Finally at half-past one, the whole gave way' (Chichester Cathedral, Mary Hobbs page 152)

As the mass of rubble was cleared away every moulded and carved piece of stone was labelled and registered so that every detail might be preserved.

The work of building the new spire was completed on 28th June 1866 and the old weathercock was refixed on the top of the spire where we still can see it today.