Boxgrove Priory

The guest house and other remains of a Benedictine priory: much of the fine 12th to 14th century monastic church survives as the parish church.

The Benedictine priory of St Mary the Virgin and St Blaise was founded in about 1117 by Robert de la Haye, Lord of Halnaker. It was a cell of the abbey at Lessay in Normandy in France and, when founded, had a community of only three monks.

In 1149 Roger St John increased the number of monks but the priory remained a cell of the French abbey.

In 1339, when other alien monastic properties were seized by Edward III, Boxgrove became independent.

Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries the buildings and land were granted to Sir Thomas West, Baron de la Warr.

Of the monastic buildings only the lodging house and part of the church and chapter house remain. They are grouped around a small field, which is the site of the cloister of the monastery.