Boxgrove is a village, ecclesiastical parish and civil parish in the Chichester District of the English county of West Sussex, about north east of the city of Chichester. The village is just south of the

A285 road List of A roads in zone 2 in Great Britain starting south of the River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the ...

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 ...

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 t ...

in the same name exists. This ward stretches northwest to

West Dean West Dean may refer to several places in England: *West Dean, Gloucestershire *West Dean, West Sussex *West Dean, Wiltshire *Westdean Cuckmere Valley is a civil parish in the Wealden District of East Sussex, England. As its name suggests, the p ...

with a total population taken at the 2011 census of 2,235.

History

Archaeology

Boxgrove is best known for the Lower Palaeolithic archaeological site 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. Numerous Acheulean flint tools 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. Remains of '' Homo heidelbergensis'' 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 of Boxgrove was listed in the Domesday Book (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 Aldingb ...

, 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. T ...

, 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 an ...

, Westhampnett 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 lon ...

, and Boxgrove village itself had 13 households.

Boxgrove Priory

A Benedictine monastery 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 striki ...

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