Holy Trinity Church is a

Grade I listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

church, a parish church in

Bosham Bosham () is a coastal village, ecclesiastical parish and civil parish in the Chichester District of West Sussex, within the historic county of Sussex, England, centred about west of Chichester with its clustered developed part west of this. ...

West Sussex West Sussex is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Surrey to the north, East Sussex to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Hampshire to the west. The largest settlement is Cr ...

. There was a church on this site in Saxon times, and the oldest parts of the building date from that period.

History

Background

Bede Bede (; ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, Bede of Jarrow, the Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable (), was an English monk, author and scholar. He was one of the most known writers during the Early Middle Ages, and his most f ...

wrote that Bishop

Wilfrid Wilfrid ( – 709 or 710) was an English bishop and saint. Born a Northumbrian noble, he entered religious life as a teenager and studied at Lindisfarne, at Canterbury, in Francia, and at Rome; he returned to Northumbria in about 660, and beca ...

, visiting Bosham in 681, found a small monastery with five or six brethren led by Dicul, an Irish monk. The building may have been on or near the site of the present church.Church History
boshamchurch.org.uk. Retrieved 25 July 2018.Holy Trinity, Bosham, Sussex
The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland. Retrieved 25 July 2018. Before the

Norman Conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Normans, Norman, French people, French, Flemish people, Flemish, and Bretons, Breton troops, all led by the Du ...

, Bosham Church and its estate were given by King

Edward the Confessor Edward the Confessor ( 1003 – 5 January 1066) was King of England from 1042 until his death in 1066. He was the last reigning monarch of the House of Wessex. Edward was the son of Æthelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy. He succeede ...

to his Norman chaplain

Osbern FitzOsbern __NOTOC__ Osbern FitzOsbern (d. 1103) was a Norman churchman. He was a relative of King Edward the Confessor as well as being a royal chaplain.Barlow ''Edward the Confessor'' p. 164 During Edward's reign he received the church at Bosham, near ...

. Osbern retained these after the Conquest; he became

Bishop of Exeter The Bishop of Exeter is the Ordinary (officer), ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Exeter in the Province of Canterbury. The current bishop is Mike Harrison (bishop), Mike Harrison, since 2024. From the first bishop until the sixteent ...

in 1072 and attached these holdings to the bishopric. Succeeding Bishops of Exeter continued to hold the church and estate of Bosham until the Dissolution of the Monasteries."Bosham"
''A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 4, the Rape of Chichester'', ed. L F Salzman (London, 1953), pp. 182–188. British History Online. Retrieved 25 July 2018.

The building

Roman remains have been found in Bosham, and it is thought the church may be on the site of a Roman

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica (Greek Basiliké) was a large public building with multiple functions that was typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek Eas ...

. The church is built of rubble with

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

dressing; it has a tiled roof and a shingled spire. The lower part of the tower of the church, the chancel arch, and the tower arch, are Saxon. The

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

was extended to the east in the 12th century, and again in the 13th century when a

sacristy A sacristy, also known as a vestry or preparation room, is a room in Christianity, Christian churches for the keeping of vestments (such as the alb and chasuble) and other church furnishings, sacred vessels, and parish records. The sacristy is us ...

was added on the north side; about this time aisles were added to the nave. The top storey of the tower is of the 15th century. The font is of the late 12th century; it is an octagonal block with two shallow arches carved on each side, supported by a thick central shaft and four slender shafts. The south porch is of the 16th or 17th century.

King Canute's daughter

There is a tradition that a daughter of King

Canute Cnut ( ; ; – 12 November 1035), also known as Canute and with the epithet the Great, was King of England from 1016, King of Denmark from 1018, and King of Norway from 1028 until his death in 1035. The three kingdoms united under Cnut's rul ...

drowned in a nearby millstream and was buried in the church. A small stone coffin was found near the chancel arch in 1865, but it is not known if there is any connection.

King Harold

Bosham was the principal home of

Harold Godwinson Harold Godwinson ( – 14 October 1066), also called Harold II, was the last crowned Anglo-Saxon King of England. Harold reigned from 6 January 1066 until his death at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066, the decisive battle of the Norman ...

, king of England in 1066; the

Bayeux Tapestry The Bayeux Tapestry is an embroidery, embroidered cloth nearly long and tall that depicts the events leading up to the Norman Conquest, Norman Conquest of England in 1066, led by William the Conqueror, William, Duke of Normandy challenging H ...

shows him and his retinue riding to Bosham before sailing to

Normandy Normandy (; or ) is a geographical and cultural region in northwestern Europe, roughly coextensive with the historical Duchy of Normandy. Normandy comprises Normandy (administrative region), mainland Normandy (a part of France) and insular N ...

to meet

William, Duke of Normandy William the Conqueror (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), sometimes called William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England (as William I), reigning from 1066 until his death. A descendant of Rollo, he was ...

. In 1954, workmen replacing stones under the chancel arch rediscovered the coffin thought to be of King Canute's daughter, and also found a coffin containing a headless and legless skeleton; the coffin was resealed after examination of the remains by a coroner.King's grave mystery may be unearthed
BBC News, 24 November 2003. Retrieved 25 July 2018. In 2003, amateur historians sought permission from the

consistory court A consistory court is a type of ecclesiastical court, especially within the Church of England where they were originally established pursuant to a charter of King William the Conqueror, and still exist today, although since about the middle of th ...

of the

Diocese of Chichester The Diocese of Chichester is a Church of England diocese based in Chichester, covering Sussex. It was founded in 681 as the ancient Diocese of Selsey, which was based at Selsey Abbey, until the see was translated to Chichester in 1075. The cathe ...

to exhume the remains, in order to confirm if they were those of King Harold. DNA was to be compared with DNA of three people claiming to be his descendants.Exhumation of "Harold" refused
BBC News, 10 December 2003. Retrieved 25 July 2018. Permission was refused. It was stated that exhumation should only be carried out on "special and exceptional grounds" or for a "good reason"; the court heard that the three supposed descendants each had different DNA.

References

External links

Holy Trinity Church Bosham
Choral Evensong {{DEFAULTSORT:Bosham, Holy Trinity Church 12th-century church buildings in England Grade I listed churches in West Sussex Church of England church buildings in West Sussex English churches with Norman architecture Churches with elements of Anglo-Saxon work

Holy Trinity Church, Bosham Holy Trinity Church is a Listed building, Grade I listed Anglican church, a parish church in Bosham, West Sussex. There was a church on this site in History of Anglo-Saxon England, Saxon times, and the oldest parts of the building date from that p ...

Bosham