Dell Quay Road
What a wonderful place to have a
classroom!
Converted from an old boat shed, it now has
everything you need to go exploring. This is the
centre for many of our field trips. The walks
are on public footpaths, but children should
bring an adult with them particularly for
activities on the shoreline or at the lock!
The road to Dell Quay looks like any other country road with farmland
and then a small group of houses and a pub making up the village.
As you go round the corner past the Crown and Anchor, the view changes dramatically! In front of you is the quay with a group of buildings above the water. Either side is the shoreline with wonderful views looking south, of the channel fringed with oak woodland, and stunning views northwards up to Fishbourne and the Downs.
The quay was probably built in 1536 as a port for Chichester. All goods travelling by sea came in and out through Dell Quay and these included wool, grain and coal. At one time Dell Quay was the 7th most important port in the country.
The buildings on the quay include Dell Quay Sailing Club and some boat sheds. One of these boat sheds has been converted into a state-of-the-art classroom for schools to use as a base when visiting the harbour for field trips.
Opposite the classroom is the Grain Store that was built in the 19th century and has recently been restored. It still has on display the original winding gear for unloading sacks of grain from the boats.
The quay itself ends next to the deep water channel allowing boats to moor alongside when the tide is high. Although there is plenty of space on the quay, visitors need to be aware that there is a long drop off the edge.
The area around the quay provides a wonderfully sheltered habitat for various sea creatures such as crabs and shrimps. The shore is mud mixed with shingle here so it is safe to walk on with care. Exploring the shore reveals many interesting creatures that live in the mud.
Even though Dell Quay is so small, it has been an important place for shipping for centuries. The quay ends next to the deep-water channel allowing boats to sail up to it, particularly at high tide. At one time it was used by sailing boats trading in such goods as wool, corn and coal but today it is used mainly for pleasure craft.
Dell Quay sailing club has its clubhouse on the quay and many of the sailing craft belonging to their members can be seen on and around the quay.
As you start to walk north from Dell Quay there is a small workshop next to the quay named Wyche Marine. Before World War Two it repaired boats and nets for fishermen. During the war the yard was used to repair aircraft from the air force base near by.
Later racing boats were built here. Today it is mainly used for repairing and fitting out cruisers, moorings and storing boats.
There is a large wooden boat here that has been left here to decay.
Further along the path there is another boat yard, Dell Quay Marine, which repairs fibreglass boats. They have a pontoon and jetty so they can lift out boats for repair using a tractor and trailer and launch them again afterwards.
Between the two boat yards the path is sometimes very narrow and uneven. The path here shows the processes of erosion and coastal squeeze on a small scale.
A new path has just been constructed to provide better access for disabled people. The path is suitable for wheelchairs and is opened with a radar key.
Either side of the path, the Conservancy has planted a small area of woodland, which provides a safe place for wildlife with food and shelter. This woodland was planted in1989 with trees that naturally grow in this country as these normally provide the best food for the birds, mammals, insects and other wildlife.
At one time oak trees would have grown right down to the shoreline all around the harbour. Oak trees provide food and shelter for many different kinds of wildlife
To find out more about the trees that have been planted and how they are good for wildlife, click here.
To find out some of the ways Chichester Harbour Conservancy manages the harbour and balances the needs of people and wildlife, click here.
Just beyond the woodland there is a sunken lane known as Corpse Lane. It runs from Apuldram Church to the harbour's edge. It is said that this lane was used to take dead bodies down to rowing boats that carried them across the water to Bosham for burial as Apuldram did not have its own graveyard
To find out more about this story, click here.
There is a footpath beside Corpse Lane that leads to Apuldram Church. St Marys church was built in the 12th century and was part of the parish of Bosham. It became a parish church in 1447 when it was given its own burial ground in the churchyard, so they no longer needed to use Corpse Lane to take dead bodies to Bosham for burial.
Chichester cathedral can easily be seen from the footpath
Nearby there is a manor house built in the 17th century and a house called Rymans which was built in 1410 and had a moat round it. Rymans has beautiful gardens that are open 3 times a year.
To find out more about Apuldram, follow these links.
www.conservancy.co.uk/learn/Places/harbour places.htm
www.conservancy.co.uk/learn/Places/TL evidence.htm
www.british-history.ac.uk/place
The River Lavant rises about 9 miles north of here near East Dean as a spring from the chalk of the South Downs. It flows mainly in the winter and spring when the water table in the chalk is high and stops flowing for much of its length in the summer and early autumn. There is water in the section joining the harbour all the year round as the water from the treatment works flows into it here.
The River Lavant joins Chichester Harbour by means of a sluice gate in the sea wall.
The River Lavant and Fishbourne stream are good places to study the features of rivers on a small scale. To find out more about rivers fieldwork click here ***To follow***
The channel from the sluice gate to where it meets the main channel is popular with wading birds, ducks, geese and swans at low tide.
Most of the time the Lavant is a gently flowing river. However there are times when it floods. Click here to find out when and why the River Lavant flooded.
At Apuldram there is a water treatment works that cleans dirty waste water so it can be safely released into the harbour.
Water is essential to life and something that is constantly recycled. We need water to drink and to use for many purposes around the home and work place. Water is also essential to all wildlife. Most of this water needs to be clean if it is to be useful. Rubbish dumped in the water is often washed up on the strandline. This can lead to the water becoming polluted, which in turn can cause disease and death.
Find out more about how they clean the water
The top of Fishbourne channel above Dell Quay is very popular with large numbers of birds, especially in winter. Boats are not allowed to sail up here so the birds are not disturbed when they are feeding.
See Fishbourne Sea Wall panorama
The water is shallow for most of the time and when the tide is out there are large areas of mud flats full of food for the birds.
Some birds live here all the year round. There is a large flock of mute swans which can always be found somewhere between Dell Quay and Fishbourne.
When the tide is in, swans, ducks and geese sit on the water. Wading birds roost on the fields nearby until the mud is exposed and they can feed again.
In winter there can be thousands of birds scattered across the mud at low tide. Many of these are only here in the winter. They spend the summer further north, sometimes in the Arctic where the days are long and there is an abundance of insects to feed their young. However as autumn approaches, the days shorten and it becomes cold. The insects die so there is no food. In order to survive they must move elsewhere, so they migrate to where there is food. Brent geese come all the way from the Arctic in northern Russia to spend the winter feeding in Chichester Harbour.
Click here to see pictures of some of the birds you might see. ***to follow***
Some of the birds that come to Chichester Harbour only come in small numbers and we don’t know very much about their life the rest of the year. One of these is the greenshank. It visits the harbour mainly in the autumn and sometimes in the spring but nobody knew exactly where it went for the rest of the year. Chichester Harbour Conservancy has been involved in a research project, which is trying to find out exactly where they go.
They have discovered one greenshank that spends its summers in Norway and its winters in France, visiting Chichester Harbour in the autumn. Each individual bird can be identified by the pattern of coloured rings on its legs.
To find out more about what they have discovered so far, click here.
To find out more about what it is like for a bird to migrate, try playing the
Greenshank Migration Game.
Fishbourne Meadows is an area of low-lying grassland with streams flowing through it. The streams and its position next to the Fishbourne channel mean that the area stays damp all year round.
The ruins of Fishbourne Roman Palace extend down as far as the meadows. There is evidence to suggest that during Roman times there may have been a large lagoon here with a deep water channel which allowed boats access to the palace. The house called Roman Landings backs onto the meadow and has evidence of a Roman quay in the garden just behind where the stream is now. However more recent archaeological evidence suggests that they may only have sailed as far as Copperas Point. There may