PORTSDOWN HUNDRED 



BOARHUNT 



brackets, that on the north side being the larger, 

 while that on the south has a carved human head 

 beneath it. Close to the latter is a small piscina 

 with a groove for a shelf and a projecting bowl, and 

 near it in the south wall, in the jamb of the south 

 window, is a second recess which has been fitted with 

 a shelf. 



The chancel has had a flat ceiling, perhaps repre- 

 senting the original arrangement, but is now covered 

 with a canted plastered ceiling. The chancel arch, 

 6 ft. 8 in. wide, is semicircular, of a single plain order, 

 with a square-edged rib-mould, and a deep moulded 

 abacus chamfered below, and setting out to take the 

 rib, which was originally continued down the jambs, 

 though now cut back. The masonry here, as in the 

 external quoins, shows no tendency to 'long and 

 short' work. 



The west face of the wall on either side of the 

 chancel arch is occupied by segmental-headed recesses 

 20 in. deep, the side walls of the nave being also cut 

 back at the east end and carried on half arches ; the 

 object being to make convenient room for the nave 

 altars. The northern recess is lighted on the north 

 by a small lancet, but the southern recess has lost its 

 south half-arch by the insertion of a square-headed 

 two-light sixteenth-century window. The recesses 

 are of thirteenth-century date, as shown by 

 the moulded strings at the west of the lateral 

 recesses, and the corbel which is set beneath 

 the abacus of the rib-mould on the north jamb 

 of the chancel arch is of the same date. Below 

 the south window is a small piscina. 



The present nave was originally divided into 

 a nave and a western chamber by a wall 2 ft. 

 6 in. thick, which crossed it at right angles 

 26ft. from the chancel arch. In it was prob- 

 ably an archway, and the western chamber may 

 have been of two floors, but nothing beyond 

 the bonding of the cross wall now remains. 



The original north and south doorways of 

 the nave, of which traces only remain, were 

 further to the east than those which now exist. 

 These are blocked with masonry, but show pointed 

 archways of thirteenth-century date, their eastern 

 jambs just overlapping the western limits of the door- 

 ways they replace. The cross-wall was probably in 

 existence when they were built, or they would have 

 been set further to the west. At the same time lancet 

 windows were inserted in the north and south walls of 

 the western chamber at a height which tells against 

 any division into two floors at the time. Both lancets 

 are widely splayed, with sloping sills, and in the west 

 wall is a third lancet in modern stonework with a 

 modern west doorway below it. The west wall with 

 its buttresses and bell-cot above is all modern or refaced. 



The nave has a canted plaster ceiling with deal- 

 cased tie-beams, and the fittings of the church are of 

 plain deal, with a west gallery. In the chancel are 

 considerable remains of wall paintings, with indis- 

 tinct subjects under a trefoiled arcade and painted 

 drapery below. 



The font, at the south-west of the nave, has a 

 plain round tapering bowl without a shaft or any 

 detail to suggest its approximate date. 



Against the north wall of the chancel is set a monu- 

 ment dated 1577, with no inscription except the initials 

 C P, R H, and K P of the persons commemorated. 



The upper part has three panels surmounted by a 

 flat cornice on which are three pediments, one of 

 rounded form between two which are angular ; on 

 these stand three headless figures, apparently Charity 

 between Faith and Hope. Under the soffit of the 

 cornice are angels holding shields inscribed with I H S, 

 and the panels below are divided from each other by 

 Corinthian columns carrying an architrave, on which 

 over the columns is the date 1577, one figure over 

 each column, and over the panels the initials already 

 noted. In the panels are shields, as follows : Under 

 C P, the arms of Pound, Argent a fesse gules between 

 two dragons' heads and a cross formy fitchy sable 

 with three molets argent on the fesse ; under R H, 

 the arms of Henslow, Argent a cross gules with five 

 lions' heads erased or on the cross ; and under K P, 

 the arms of Poole, Party or and sable a saltire engrailed 

 counterchanged. The central shield is that of Ralph 

 Henslow, who married a sister of John White, the 

 grantee of Southwick Priory. 



In the bell-cot is one modern bell. 



The plate comprises a silver communion cup of 

 Elizabethan type, c . 1 5 70, with a wide engraved band 



BOARHUNT CHURCH 



3P 



(DQISeoun | 



IlStontllroodern 



on the bowl, a standing paten of 1691, and a plated 

 flagon and almsdish. 



The earliest book of registers contains baptisms 

 from 1578 to 1628, and burials from 1588, and the 

 next contains all entries from 1653 to 1805. The 

 remaining entries to 1812 are in three small books. 



At the time of the Domesday 

 JOrOfTSON Survey there was a church in 

 Boarhunt, 41 which probably became 

 at a later date the parish church of West Boarhunt 

 as it was called. The church and the advowson of 

 the rectory of West Boarhunt evidently passed into 

 the hands of the prior and convent of Southwick 

 between 1262 and 1 3 1 6, together with the manor 

 of West Boarhunt (q.v.), and remained in their 

 possession until the time of the Dissolution. 6 * The 

 value of the rectory was given in 1291 as j 6/. &d., 

 tithes 14^. %d. u After the Dissolution the advowson 

 followed the descent of the manor (q.v.). The living 

 is now consolidated with that of Southwick, and is in 

 the gift of Mr. Alexander Thistlethwayte, who is 

 lord of the manor. 



1 V.C.H. Hants, i, 477. 



58 ffyktham'i Register (Hants Rec. Soc.), 

 25, 122, 137, 191. 



Pofe Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 211*. 



