Coast

These include The Anglo Saxon Chronicle, the Venerable Bede and then the Bayeux Tapestry all record aspects of the life of the village over hundreds of years.

In those years the village changed its name through history. Experts at the Museum of London say that in Old English it was first called Bosan hamm or Bosa’s water meadow. In AD 750 it was Bosanhamm and it became Boseham in 1086.

Bosham is one of only five places that appear on the map attached to the 12th century Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. By then it had already played a significant part in English history.

Some historians believe that one little daughter of King Canute was drowned in the mill stream which the Romans built and which now runs in front of the church

Harold, the king later to be defeated by the Normans at Hastings, was born here. He also kept his fleet here and from this vantage it is easy to see why.  It was from here that he set off in 1064 for his meeting with William the soon-to-be-conqueror to discuss who would be the next King of England. It’s a sequence of events which are clearly recorded in the Bayeux Tapestry.

After the Battle of Hastings, the Domesday Book records Bosham as one of the wealthiest manors on England. It had by then passed in to the personal control of William the Conqueror.

John Pollock

The local historian John Pollock has produced a reconstruction of the area in Norman times which shows the three mills recorded in Domesday and reconstructs the whole area around the church.

Quay Meadow, where you are now standing, is now in the ownership of the National Trust. At its northern end stands the village war memorial and you can see that some families lost more than one son.

The mill stream lies between here and the church, flowing from the north side of the church past the sailing club’s HQ in the mill house and into the creek. As mentioned earlier in the walk, rare water rats now live here after a conservation programme designed to encourage their return.

Take in the view. You could stop for lunch here on one of the benches. Then turn around and head to the last part of the walk; the church.