Old Fishbourne

The historic settlement, Parish of Bosham, West Sussex

Old Fishbourne is the older of the two communities that make up the modern village of Fishbourne, near Chichester in West Sussex. It lies on the edge of Chichester Harbour, within what was historically the parish of Bosham. Its approximate coordinates are 50.838°N, 0.818°W (OS grid reference SU 840 048).

The settlement is distinguished from New Fishbourne, which developed further east within the boundaries of Chichester. The two were united under a single parish council in 1987, but the "Old" and "New" distinction remains in local usage and on historical maps.

The Manor

The Manor of Old Fishbourne first appears in the Domesday Book of 1086. A man named Engeler held two hides of land here, carved from the great manor of Bosham under Earl Roger de Montgomery. The land had been given to Engeler's father by William the Conqueror, placing Old Fishbourne among the settlements directly shaped by the Norman Conquest.

In the twelfth century, Engeler's son Turstin granted the lands to Southwick Priory, an Augustinian house originally founded inside Portchester Castle around 1128. The priory held Old Fishbourne for roughly four hundred years, until the Dissolution of the Monasteries. In 1540, the manor was granted to Anne of Cleves, the fourth wife of Henry VIII, as part of her annulment settlement. This grant is the first recorded use of the word "manor" in connection with Old Fishbourne.

The full manorial descent, sources and detailed research are published at oldfishbourne.com.

The Nearby Roman Palace

Fields to the north and west of Old Fishbourne contain the remains of Fishbourne Roman Palace, discovered in 1960 and dating to around 75 AD. The palace predates the manor by a thousand years, but both occupy the same stretch of coastal plain between the harbour and the Downs.