Boxgrove
| Boxgrove | |
| Sussex | |
|---|---|
 Church of St. Mary & St. Blaise | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SU907074 |
| Location: | 50°51’33"N, -0°42’46"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 957 (2011) |
| Post town: | Chichester |
| Postcode: | PO18 |
| Dialling code: | 01243 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Chichester |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Chichester |
Boxgrove is a little village in Sussex; in the south-west of the county about three miles north-east of the county town, the City of Chichester. The village is just south of the A285 road which follows the line of the Roman road Stane Street.
The wider civil parish has an area of 2889 acres and according to the 2011 census it contained 957 inhabitants. The parish includes such hamlets as Crockerhill , Strettington and Halnaker.
Archaeology
Boxgrove is best known for the discovery of 'Boxgrove Man', the fossilised shin bones of an early distinctive example of Homo heidelbergensis, found on the site in 1994; the oldest example of a pre-human species found in the British Isles. Teeth from another individual were found two years later.
The bones and numerous related items were found in a Lower Palaeolithic archaeological site discovered in a gravel quarry known as Amey's Eartham Pit located near Boxgrove (though 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 was therefore used by some of the earliest occupants of the British Isles. The Boxgrove Man fossils were discovered in 1994.
Boxgrove Priory
- Main article: Boxgrove Priory
A Benedictine monastery was founded at Boxgrove by William de la Haye in 1115. The priory church remains as the Church of England's parish church 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 in the churchyard on Sunday, 5 May 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 now legendary charge that "a little childe had like to have her braines beaten out with a cricket batt"! The latter situation was because the rules at the time allowed the batsman to hit the ball twice and so fielding near the batsman was very hazardous, as two later incidents resulting in fatalities drastically confirmed. This is the earliest known reference to the cricket bat.[1]
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Boxgrove) |
References
- ↑ McCann, p. xxxi.
- McCann, Timothy J.: 'Sussex Cricket in the Eighteenth Century' (Sussex Record Society, 2004)