Holy Trinity Church in Bosham dates from Saxon times and is the oldest church in West Sussex.
It is understood King Canute, who reigned between 1016 and 1035, had a palace in Bosham and appears to have a connection to the church through the death of his daughter. She is believed to have drowned in the nearby millpond and a stone slab set in the floor of the church states she was the daughter of the King aged about 8 years. Her name is not recorded.
I was intrigued by the stone plaque mounted in the wall by the gate which mentions another sad story of a young life lost through drowning so thought I would investigate further.
Jenefer Wornum was a wealthy heiress who lived a stones throw from the Church at Bosham Manor. Having obtained a degree in England, she went to Australia to study Zoology. She drowned when her luxury yacht was washed onto rocks during a bad storm off the New South Wales coast in 1950. The gates at the entrance were designed by her father, a renowned architect, as a memory of his daughter.
A sad story of two young lives lost by drowning both with a connection to a small village in Sussex but almost 1000 years apart!
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