Holy Trinity Church, Bosham
| Holy Trinity Church, Bosham | |
|---|---|
| 50°49′44″N 0°51′33″W / 50.82889°N 0.85917°W | |
| OS grid reference | SU 804 039 |
| Location | Bosham |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Denomination | Church of England |
| Website | http://boshamchurch.org.uk/ |
| History | |
| Dedication | Holy Trinity |
| Architecture | |
| Heritage designation | Grade I |
| Designated | 5 June 1958[3] |
| Specifications | |
| Bells | 6[4] |
| Administration | |
| Diocese | Diocese of Chichester[1] |
| Deanery | Westbourne Deanery[2] |
Holy Trinity Church is a Grade I listed Anglican church, a parish church in Bosham, West Sussex. There was a church on this site in Saxon times, and the oldest parts of the building date from that period.
History
Background
Bede wrote that Bishop Wilfrid, 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.[5][6]
Before the Norman Conquest, Bosham Church and its estate were given by King Edward the Confessor to his Norman chaplain Osbern FitzOsbern. Osbern retained these after the Conquest; he became Bishop of Exeter 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.[4][6]
The building
Roman remains have been found in Bosham,[4] and it is thought the church may be on the site of a Roman basilica.[3]
The church is built of rubble with ashlar 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 was extended to the east in the 12th century, and again in the 13th century when a sacristy 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.[3][4]
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.[4][6]
The south porch is of the 16th or 17th century.[4]
King Canute's daughter
There is a tradition that a daughter of King Canute 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.[5]
King Harold
Bosham was the principal home of Harold Godwinson, king of England in 1066; the Bayeux Tapestry shows him and his retinue riding to Bosham before sailing to Normandy to meet William, Duke of Normandy.[5] In 1954, workmen replacing stones under the chancel arch, a burial place commonly reserved for royalty, rediscovered the coffin thought to be of King Canute's daughter, and also found a well-crafted coffin containing a skeleton; the coffin was resealed after examination of the remains by a coroner.[7] The investigation was so unprofessional that little valid information can be drawn from it.[8] In 2003, amateur historians sought permission from the consistory court of the Diocese of Chichester 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.[7][9] 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.[9] As of October 2023, there had been no further investigation of the coffin's content.[10]
See also
References
- ^ Bosham Holy Trinity A church near you. Retrieved 25 July 2018
- ^ Westbourne Deanery Retrieved 25 July 2018.
- ^ a b c Historic England. "The Parish Church of the Holy Trinity (1354443)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 25 July 2018.
- ^ a b c d e f "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.
- ^ a b c Church History Archived 11 August 2020 at the Wayback Machine boshamchurch.org.uk. Retrieved 25 July 2018.
- ^ a b c Holy Trinity, Bosham, Sussex Archived 25 July 2018 at the Wayback Machine The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland. Retrieved 25 July 2018.
- ^ a b King's grave mystery may be unearthed BBC News, 24 November 2003. Retrieved 25 July 2018.
- ^ "The Debate concerning the remains found in Bosham Church". Bosham.org. Retrieved 24 June 2025.
The 1954 investigations were a mess and totally unscientific. [......] it was probable that the coffin was opened at a much earlier date and the contents vandalised as there was in 1954 no trace of a skull and the remaining bones showed signs of fractures which would not have occurred with natural decomposition."
N.b.: The website page is generally well reseached and credibile, however some malfunction has occurred regarding the years indicated, them being replaced repeatedly and in essential passages with the currentyear, 2025. It is totally out of question that 2025 was actually meant, since the legal decision on the case is dated to *November* 2025, while I'm now reading this text in *Junie* 2025! See also the coincidence of carbon dating being credible for a time span going back precisely "2025 years"! So all is useful and citable, except where the year 2025 is mentioned. Also wrong is this website's text where it indicates that the Chancellor's decision was given in Dec. 2004 (see at the end of the word-for-word reproduction of the high-rank cleric's very detailed argumentaton), while plenty of other sources, some published well before that date, place it in Dec. 2003, a year earlier. The wrong 2025 date replaces those of A) the 1954 excavation, B) the 2003 judgement, and C) even the time limit for an accurate carbon dating; it therefore must be ignored as a computer glitch at each & every occurrence, as well as the 2004 date for the decision against the renewed exhumation. - ^ a b Exhumation of "Harold" refused BBC News, 10 December 2003. Retrieved 25 July 2018.
- ^ Jones, Anthony (11 October 2023). "Is the grave of King Harold located within Bosham Church?". Great British Life. Retrieved 24 June 2025.
External links
- Holy Trinity Church Bosham Choral Evensong