Chichester: From Roman Kings to Budgies

The other day I had an enquiry from a company in Brighton for any awayday, teambuilding style treasure hunt. The only condition was that they wanted to explore somewhere else in Sussex outside of Brighton during the course of the treasure hunt and wanted my ideas on this. I considered the places I have set up treasure hunts with the best routes/most interesting things to see/good clue options or of sufficient distance from Brighton to add the air of mystery! In the end I gave them four options: Lewes, Chichester, Rye and Midhurst. I was very pleased when they chose Chichester.

Chichester is a City. It has a Cathedral with a spire that is is the only one in the country you can see from the sea! Ha!..did you know that? Could be a tiebreaker question! It has an excellent cross section of history allied to the modern influences of having a student population from its University.

Chichester was a Roman town and had the first Roman King of Britain..King Cogidubnus! I don`t know whether he would have been too popular with the local population, but it meant that Chichester is quite nicely laid out and routes within the City walls quite easy to follow. It has a busy market area and in fact the central point of the City is a structure called the Market Cross and generally a good place to meet if you are not so familiar with the City.

I mentioned that as a treasure hunt compiler I want options on good/interesting clues. In Chichester there is a real mixture of influences and people with interesting things of note. William Huskisson was an MP for Chichester, but was run over and killed by Stephensons `Rocket` train on its very first trip in 1825! Talking of rockets..Tim Peake (he of astronaut fame) was born in Chichester. There is a very well established, but modern looking theatre called Chichester Festival Theatre with several clue worthy statues outside. In addition there are nice parks that definitely need treasure hunt routes to find a way through. What else? connections to John Keats the poet, a significant art gallery with outdoor sculptures, a museum housing the Roman baths and a large cage housing many budgerigars!

What else might persuade you to come to Chichester? It has modern shopping areas, well known coffee houses and a good selection of pubs and hotels if you are staying over. It has a Marina, a canal and beautiful surrounding countryside and villages.

I hope you are interested enough now to consider Chichester for the on-line treasure hunt or asking us (info@blackcattreasurehunts.co.uk) to sort out an office awayday treasure hunt for you in this fine City.