Children across Sussex celebrate Arundel Cathedral’s big anniversary by getting creative

A picture sent in by St Philip's Catholic Primary School in Arundel.

Arundel Cathedral celebrates its 150th anniversary on Saturday 1 July with a number of special celebrations and events planned - including a brilliant new exhibition exploring the design, construction (and much more) of the iconic cathedral church, at Arundel Museum.

Excitement surrounding the important anniversary has been building for some time, with pupils from diocesan schools recently invited to get creative and send pictures and paintings of one of Arundel & Brighton’s patron saints, St Philip Howard, to the diocesan Education Service based in Crawley.

St Philip Howard is an important figure for people across the diocese, with the saint’s remains interred at Arundel Cathedral. He was a cousin and great favourite of Queen Elizabeth I - until he converted to Roman Catholicism in 1584. He was later found guilty of treason and was sent to The Tower of London accompanied by his faithful greyhound dog. Philip Howard died at The Tower in 1595 (probably as a result of dysentery) and was canonized in 1970.

Pupils from 27 schools submitted a fantastic range of artworks to the diocesan Education Service, with many hundreds of children taking part across Sussex and Surrey. Speaking about the fantastic response, Julie Oldroyd, Director of the diocesan Education Service said:

“Our Primary RE Coordinator, Anna Flood, was overwhelmed with the response to her call for artwork and it has been wonderful to view the pictures as they have been submitted to us. The Education Service is delighted with the involvement of our schools in this wonderful anniversary celebration.”

A selection of pictures from those submitted can be found on the diocesan Flickr site: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjAJSrE. More than 120 artworks will be included in Arundel Museum’s Exhibition (8 July to 11 August), w: arundelmuseum.org/events/arundel-cathedral-1873-2023/