Boxgrove

From Kelly’s Post Office Directory of Essex, Herts, Middlesex, Kent, Surrey and Sussex, 1867

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: a doorway with Norman arches, opened into a cloister, which extended to the refectory and to the apartments of the monks. Goodwood, the seat of his Grace the Duke of Richmond, for the most part lies within this parish: the house consists of a centre and two wings, receding at an angle of 45 degrees: the principal front is 166 feet long, and each of the wings 166 feet; in the centre is a fine portico for entrance, having six Ionic columns above, supported by six Doric ones below; it is surmounted by a balustrade: at all the corners are circular towers. The grounds which surround this fine structure are pleasingly diversified; oak timber of the finest growth, and the wide-spreading beech, whose limbs touch the ground, adorn the extensive park, whilst numerous cedars of Lebanon, of a remarkable size and beauty, Virginian tulip trees, cork trees, and other exotics, give variety and interest to the foliage. The interior of Goodwood House is pleasing, and contains paintings by the first masters: in the dining-room, on the summit of a quadrangular pedestal, in a-glass case 8 feet in height, is an allegorical group in massive silver, presented to His Grace the Duke of Richmond in 1801, by the recipients of the war medal; his Grace is in the costume of a peer of the realm, directing the attention of Britannia to the merits of her military and naval powers, Mars and Neptune; in the panels are the inscriptions and names of the several battles for which the war medals have been granted – viz., Vittoria, the Nile, Trafalgar, &c., &c.: in the same room also, in a glass case, is the silver breakfast plate used by Napoleon Buonaparte on the 15th of June, 1815, at La Ferme du Caillou: the splendid library deserves much notice for its painted ceiling: the entrance hall, 38 feet in length, 35 in width, and 18 feet high, is much admired for its numerous and varied military and naval ornaments. Within the demesnes of Goodwood are the ruins of Halnaker House, which stand on a commanding eminence in a park, containing some Spanish chestnut trees of great size and beauty: the original structure is supposed to have been built by Robert de Haia, who had married a lady of the royal blood, to whom the manor was given by Henry I. The principal landowners are the Duke of Richmond, Colonel Leslie, and Richard Hasler, Esq. 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. HALNAKER and STRETTINGHAM are tithings of Boxgrove

Post Office.– William Soame, receiver. Letters received through Chichester are delivered about 8.30 a.m.; dispatched at 6.35 p.m. The nearest money order office is at Chichester

Richmond His Grace Charles Gordon-Lennox, Duke of, Goodwood house
Bailey Mrs. Halnaker
Burnett Rev. William M..A [vicar]
Bushby Mr. Robert William
Darling Mrs. Halnaker
Haines Mrs. Strettington
Valentine Capt. Thomas Goodwood

COMMERCIAL
Adams Chas. farmer & miller, Halnaker
Bailey George Tewer, farmer, Halnaker
Budd George, blacksmith; Crocker hill
Earwicker James, carpenter
Earwicker John, Anglesey Arms, Halnaker
Earwicker John, carpenter
Fogden Alexander, farmer, Strettington
Freeland Henry, farmer, East Hampnett
Holloway Robert, baker, Strettington
Knight George, butcher
M’Carthy John, boot & shoe maker, Halnaker
Moore Alfred, blacksmith, Halnaker
Pennicott Charles, tailor, Halnaker
Soame William, carpenter, & post office receiving house, Halnaker
Souter George, jun. farmer
Ure Nathaniel, schoolmaster
Valentine Capt. Thomas, agent to His Grace the Duke of Richmond, Goodwood
Watkins John, grocer &. baker, Halnaker
Wilds William, Winterton’s Arms, Crocker hill