Buncton () is a small

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

in the Horsham District 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 ...

, England, part of the

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 ...

of Wiston north. It lies to the east of the

A24 A24 is an American independent entertainment company that specializes in film and television production, as well as film distribution. It is based in New York City. A24 was founded in 2012 by Daniel Katz, David Fenkel and John Hodges. Pr ...

road, as the crow flies, about by road south of Horsham and north west of Shoreham by Sea. Buncton existed as a settlement at the time of the

Domesday survey 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 ...

in 1086, when it was called ''Bongetune''. Its origins lie in a manor whose land lay within two exclaves of the parish of

Ashington Ashington is a town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, with a population of 27,864 at the 2011 Census. It was once a centre of the coal mining industry. The town is north of Newcastle upon Tyne, west of the A189 and bordered to the ...

within the

Rape of Bramber The Rape of Bramber (also known as Bramber Rape) is one of the rapes, the traditional sub-divisions unique to the historic county of Sussex in England. It is the smallest Sussex rape by area. Bramber is a former barony whose original seat wa ...

, one of the six ancient subdivisions of Sussex. The medieval

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals w ...

has vanished, but a 17th-century replacement still stands. The most notable building in Buncton is All Saints Church, a grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. This 11th or 12th century structure is composed mainly of flint and rubble masonry with some fragments of tile salvaged from the earlier Roman building that existed nearby. The church was built by the monks of neighbouring

Sele Priory Sele Priory was a medieval monastic house in Upper Beeding, West Sussex, England. It was a Benedictine Order priory founded before 1126 and was dedicated to St Peter. It was a dependent priory of the abbey of St Florent in Saumur, France, and w ...

, and parts of the stonework show evidence of having been previously used at Sele. The church contained a curious carving, claimed by some to be an example of a '' sheela-na-gig'', which was destroyed by an act of vandalism in 2004.Pagan whodunnit grips village
Adrian Lee , ''The Times'' (UK), December 20, 2004. Until 2007 All Saints' was a district

chapel of ease A chapel of ease (or chapel-of-ease) is a church architecture, church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently. Often a chapel of ea ...

, subordinate to St Mary's Church at Wiston, but in that year the status of the two buildings was reversed, with All Saints' becoming the Parish Church.

Notes

External links

{{authority control Villages in West Sussex Horsham District