Boxgrove

BOXGROVE is a large parish, in the Western division of the county, Box and Stockbridge hundred, Chichester county court district, rape, diocese and archdeaconry, West Hampnett union, and rural deanery of Boxgrove, and is bounded by the surrounding parishes of East Dean, West Hampnett, Tangmere, and Eartham. A nave and chancel, without division, and two aisles, constitute the present church of St. Mary and St. Blaize: the interior is particularly handsome: among the monuments in this church is an elegant one on the north side of the chancel, in commemoration of the Countess of Derby; this lady, who died in 1752, in her 85th year, was remarkable, for her charity, and is represented on her monument sitting under an oak and relieving poor travellers, and pointing to a building, representing an hospital in this parish, of her foundation: the Countess founded this hospital in 1741, for the reception of twelve old women; also a school for six boys, who are clothed, and the same number of girls. The living is a vicarage, yearly value £687, with residence, in the gift of the Duke of Richmond, and held by the Rev. William Burnett, M.A., of New College, Oxford. The manor-house is said to have been built by Sir Thomas West, who married, early in the reign of Henry VIII., Elizabeth, the heiress of John Bonville, of Halnaker. Half a mile to the south of Halnaker are the ruins of the Priory of Boxgrove, founded by Robert de Haia in the reign of Henry 1.: the church and the refectory are the only remains of the conventual buildings: the ancient parochial church, which was probably the nave, and of the Early Norman era, has been entirely destroyed; that part of the church eastward of the village was the conventual chapel, and is now used as the parish church... Boxgrove was formerly a place of importance, giving name to the hundred and deanery. On the Downs, near, is Goodwood racecourse. The soil is mixed loam, gravel and chalk in different districts. The population in 1861 was 666, and the area 3,676 acres, of which 1,700 are arable, and the remainder down. CROCKER HILL, EAST HAMPNETT, and SEABEACH are hamlets; the latter is partly in Eartham parish. [Kelly's Post Office Directory of Essex, Herts, Middlesex, Kent, Surrey and Sussex, 1867.]