St Nicholas, South Boarhunt
St Nicholas, South Boarhunt
St Nicholas is a Grade I parish church of a largely deserted village on Portsdown Hill, Hampshire, one of the most complete Anglo-Saxon churches in the county.
- Location
- South Boarhunt, Hampshire
- Country
- England
- County
- Hampshire
- City / town
- South Boarhunt
- Address
- Village, South Boarhunt, Hampshire, PO17 6HP
- Postcode
- PO17 6HP
- Built
- Saxon, about 1064, with C13 features; restored 1853
- Denomination
- Church of England
- Dedication
- Nicholas
- Diocese
- Portsmouth
- Parish
- Boarhunt
- Grade
- I
- Style
- Anglo-Saxon
- Materials
- Flint walls with stone dressings, some areas plastered; tile roof
- Grid reference
- SU 609 093
- Opening hours
- Access to the church can be arranged by contacting the verger or chaplain.
- Access
- Level access to the main areas. Accessible toilets nearby
Overview
Historic England records a parish church that is Saxon (about 1064) with thirteenth-century features and a restoration of 1853 that included the east and west walls. The fabric is flint with stone dressings, some areas plastered; the chancel has coursed work with fine galletting. The roof is tiled. The plan is an aisleless nave and chancel of original form, with a stone bell turret. One Saxon window, now filled, has a deep exterior splay and cable decoration; the east gable has vertical and horizontal lesenes. Blocked north and south nave doorways have pointed arches. Inside is a tall Saxon chancel arch with moulded impost blocks, a stone tub font, and an Elizabethan classical tomb monument of 1577 to the Henslow family.
A feature of the building is a set of early-eighteenth-style pine furnishings, possibly of 1853, including communion rails, a three-decker pulpit, a squire's pew and a western gallery. The parish site of St James, Southwick, notes that the church is a Donative Lay Peculiar in the care of the squire, Mr Thistlethwayte, and that published dates such as 1027 remain conjectural in the absence of a Saxon charter. The Victoria County History called it a very valuable specimen of a small pre-Conquest building.