Astronaut Tim, the Domesday Book and Brexit - 10 top facts about Chichester

1) When the Domesday Book was compiled in 1086, Cicestre (Chichester) consisted of 300 dwellings and a population of 1,500 people.

2) The city’s original Roman city wall was more than 6 feet thick. It survived for 1,500 years and was then replaced by a thinner Georgian wall.

3) Chichester Cathedral was founded in the 11th century. Its spire was built of weak local stone and rebuilt after it collapsed during the 19th century.

4) Chichester voters backed the UK leaving the EU in the referendum. The turnout was 77.9 per cent, 51 per cent backed leave and 49 per cent voted to remain.

5) Astronaut Tim Peake was born in Chichester in 1972 and later attended Chichester High School for Boys.

6) The City of Chichester is twinned with Chartres, France and Ravenna, Italy.

7) Former Chichester MP William Huskisson died after he was run over by Stephenson’s Rocket at the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in 1830.

8) Chichester was one of the fortified towns established by Alfred the Great in 878-9.

9) The Chichester Canal runs for 4.5 miles from Chichester Harbour to Chichester through two locks. It was opened in 1822 and took three years to build.

10) In April 2017 a parchment manuscript copy of the United States Declaration of Independence was discovered in the archives of The West Sussex Record Office in Orchard Street.