Nestled to the west of Chichester is an enchanting village that has been dubbed Sussex’s Venice for its picturesque houses and waterside location. With a population of less than 3,000 people, Bosham is the perfect destination for a rural escape from busy city life. It was even described this year as one of the country's greatest villages by The Telegraph which wrote people "may just expire from sheer overload of beauty".
It added: "Between a quay pleasingly strewn with little wooden boats and a Grade I-listed church, Bosham village green is perfectly orientated for sunset, when locals and regulars gather to picnic, pop corks, play badminton, drag sailing dinghies up the ramp from the water – the whole blissful bucolic scene painted rosy by the sinking sun. "Find a seat in one of the pub gardens in summer, and life doesn’t get much better." But Bosham's quaint atmosphere comes with house prices averaging at an eye-watering £999,143 over the last year.
"The majority of sales in Bosham during the last year were detached properties, selling for an average price of £1,363,165," Rightmove reports. "Semi-detached properties sold for an average of £790,000." A view of Bosham (Image: Phil Brandon Hunter) The village's early history tells of its use as a port by the Romans and its occupation by a monastic order in the seventh century.
Dicul, a Celtic monk, established a church there on the remains of the Roman Basilica and by 750 AD, the village was named Bosanhamm, meaning th.