Boxgrove is a village,

ecclesiastical parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

in the

Chichester District Chichester is a local government district in West Sussex, England. Its council is based in the city of Chichester and the district also covers a large rural area to the north. History The district was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Go ...

of the English county of

West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ...

, about north east of the city of

Chichester Chichester () is a cathedral city and civil parish in West Sussex, England.OS Explorer map 120: Chichester, South Harting and Selsey Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publishing Date:2009. It is the only ...

. The village is just south of the A285 road which follows the line of the

Roman road Roman roads ( la, viae Romanae ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, and were built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Re ...

Stane Street. The Anglican parish has an area of . According to the 2001 census it had a population of 901 people living in 423 households of whom 397 were economically active. The 2011 Census indicated at population of 957. Included in the parish are the hamlets of Crockerhill, Strettington and

Halnaker Halnaker is a hamlet in the Chichester district of West Sussex, England. It lies on the A285 road 3.5 miles (5.6 km) northeast of Chichester, where it follows the line of the Roman road to London called Stane Street. There is a pub, ''The A ...

Governance

electoral ward A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected to ...

in the same name exists. This ward stretches northwest to West Dean with a total population taken at the 2011 census of 2,235.

History

Archaeology

Boxgrove is best known for the Lower Palaeolithic

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology an ...

discovered in a gravel quarry known as Amey's Eartham Pit located near the village but in Eartham Parish. Parts of the site complex were excavated between 1983 and 1996 by a team led by Mark Roberts of

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

. Numerous

Acheulean Acheulean (; also Acheulian and Mode II), from the French ''acheuléen'' after the type site of Saint-Acheul, is an archaeological industry of stone tool manufacture characterized by the distinctive oval and pear-shaped "hand axes" associated ...

flint tool A stone tool is, in the most general sense, any tool made either partially or entirely out of stone. Although stone tool-dependent societies and cultures still exist today, most stone tools are associated with prehistoric (particularly Stone Ag ...

s and remains of animals (some butchered) dating to around 500,000 years ago were found at the site. The area therefore was used by some of the earliest occupants of the

British Isles The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isl ...

. Remains of ''

Homo heidelbergensis ''Homo heidelbergensis'' (also ''H. sapiens heidelbergensis''), sometimes called Heidelbergs, is an extinct species or subspecies of archaic human which existed during the Middle Pleistocene. It was subsumed as a subspecies of '' H. erectus'' i ...

'' were found on the site in 1994, the only postcranial hominid bone to have been found in Northern Europe. Teeth from another individual were found two years later.

Hundred of Boxgrove

The ancient

hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to des ...

of Boxgrove was listed in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

(1086) as comprising nine settlements with 246 households. The settlements were

Aldingbourne Aldingbourne is a mixed rural and residential civil and ecclesiastical parish in the Arun district of West Sussex, England. It is centred north of Bognor Regis and east of Chichester. The civil parish, named after the small village of Alding ...

, Strettington,

Runcton Runcton is a hamlet in the Chichester district of West Sussex, England. It lies on the B2166 road 1.9 miles (3 km) southeast of Chichester. In the 2011 census the population of the hamlet was included in the civil parish of North Mundham. ...

, East Hampnett,

Merston Merston is a village and parish in the Chichester district of West Sussex, England. It lies just south of the A259 road southeast of Chichester. It is in the civil parish of Oving. History Merston was listed in the Domesday Book (1086) in the a ...

Westhampnett Westhampnett (or West Hampnett) is a village and civil parish in the district of Chichester in West Sussex, England, located northeast of Chichester on the former A27 road, now by-passed. The village is pre-Norman and is home to many listed bui ...

and

Upwaltham Upwaltham is a scattered settlement and civil parish in the South Downs, in the District of Chichester of West Sussex, England. It surrounds a parish church, which is about south-southwest of Petworth on the A285 road. The parish is about lo ...

, and Boxgrove village itself had 13 households.

Boxgrove Priory

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer whic ...

was founded at Boxgrove by Robert de Haia (or de la Haye) early in the 12th century. The priory church remains as the

Church of England parish church A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ca ...

of St Mary and St Blaise, minus the original nave, and mostly dates from the 13th century.

Early cricket

Several parishioners of Boxgrove were prosecuted for playing

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

in the churchyard in 1622. There were three reasons for the prosecution: one was that it contravened a local bye-law; another reflected concern about church windows which may or may not have been broken; the third was the charge that "a little childe had like to have her braines beaten out with a cricket batt".McCann T (2004) ''Sussex Cricket in the Eighteenth Century'', p.xxxi. Sussex Record Society.

19th century

The population of the parish in 1861 was 666, and the area , of which 1,700 were arable, and the remainder downland.

References

External links

Further historical information and sources on GENUKI

British History online: Boxgrove area
{{authority control Chichester District Cricket in Sussex English cricket in the 14th to 17th centuries Villages in West Sussex