Open for viewing at any time during daylight hours. OS map 197, 121 SU908076
Boxgrove Priory and Church offer beautiful detailed buildings and a thousand years of history. With its romantic lodging house ruins this is the perfect place to wander around on a warm day.
Boxgrove Priory was founded in about 1108 by Robert de Haye, a Norman noble. The Domesday Book mentions that Boxgrove had the status of a parish and that a Saxon church existed before the Norman Conquest. All traces of this were obliterated by the Priory, linked to the great Benedictine Abbey of Bec. After the Norman conquest of 1066 lands were given to Norman nobles and in 1108 land was given at Boxgrove to the Norman Abbey of Lessay to build a priory on the site of the original Saxon church.
By 1230 there were around 20 Benedictine monks living in the Priory, providing alms to visitors. The well preserved ruins of the 14th century lodging house still remain to the north, with interesting features including the remains of carved stone heads and gothic stone window arches. The priory is managed by English Heritage who maintain its current state of peaceful decay to ensure it can be enjoyed by future visitors.
When King Henry VIII came to the English throne in 1536, all catholic monasteries were dissolved and their contents removed, with the Church and high altar becoming the adjacent Parish Church. The church dates from the early twelfth century, dedicated to St Mary and to St Blaise, and for 900 years Boxgrove villagers have worshipped here in this magnificent church. Its glory is still much in evidence, despite losing its west end during the dissolution of the monasteries under King Henry.
The church features a stained glass window near the altar of Pilot Officer Billy Fiske, a Hawker Hurricane pilot killed during the Battle of Britain, and the first
serving American to be killed in WWII.
Boxgrove church is also famous for another reason - the church warden's accounts for 1611 mention that a little girl was hit on the head in the graveyard by a cricket ball, one of the earliest records of the game of cricket in England.
Want more of Boxgrove?
See 
videos
We would like everyone to contribute to our research to help us make heritage QR codes better. Please contribute to the 5 minute online questionnaire about your experience of using QR codes.
See www.ITsinConservation.co.uk for more details.
© 2012 ITiC Heritage Consultants. All rights reserved