Fishbourne Harbour and Mills
Old Fishbourne sits at the head of a tidal creek running into Chichester Harbour, one of the largest natural harbours on the south coast of England. The harbour has shaped life here from the earliest times, offering shelter, food, and a way out to the wider world.
The Roman Harbour
In Roman times, the harbour inlet at Fishbourne was deeper and more navigable than it is today. It served as the landing point for the military supply base established around 43 AD, and the great palace built a generation later faced the water deliberately. The harbour gave direct access to the English Channel and, via the Roman road network, to Noviomagus Reginorum (Chichester) just two miles to the east.
Over the centuries, silting and land reclamation have narrowed things considerably. The tidal creek that once reached the palace site is now a slim channel winding through saltmarsh and mudflats. It is still beautiful, still tidal, but no longer capable of receiving seagoing vessels.
Dell Quay
By the medieval period, the main commercial port on the Fishbourne channel had shifted south to Dell Quay, which served as the principal harbour for Chichester throughout the medieval and early modern periods. Wool, grain, and timber went out; wine, salt, and luxury goods came in. Dell Quay's importance declined in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as larger ports with deeper water, particularly Portsmouth and Southampton, captured the coastal trade.
Today Chichester Harbour is used mainly for recreational sailing and is designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The harbour and its surrounding mudflats, saltmarshes, and grasslands are internationally important for overwintering wading birds and wildfowl.
Mills
The tidal creeks and streams around Fishbourne powered several mills over the centuries. Water mills were a standard feature of the medieval rural economy; the Domesday Book records over 6,000 across England in 1086. The Domesday entry for Old Fishbourne does not specifically mention a mill, but mills in the surrounding area are well documented.
Fishbourne Mill, on the stream running through the village, operated into the nineteenth century. The mill pond and traces of the mill leat are still visible in the landscape. Like most rural mills, it would have ground grain for the local community: wheat for bread, barley for animal feed and brewing.