Home DestinationsEnglandWest SussexBosham Photographing English Villages: Bosham Village, West Sussex
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Photographing English Villages: Bosham Village, West Sussex

by Katie Dawes

Bosham sits on the South Coast of England and for want of a better description is nothing short of cute. I’ve visited before but never taken more than a few steps outside their fantastic Indian Restaurant. What can I say? I’m originally from West London. So after my first Photography Walkshop with Strong Island I was excited to catch up with the other Walkshoppers and finally see what the quaint English villages had to offer outside of Chicken Tikka Biriyani.

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Photographing English Villages

I don’t know how you guys feel about seeing and hearing more about English villages, but my Snapchat followers always love it when I show them the delicate pastel streets and overgrown old churchyards that dot my home country.

And their enthusiasm has definitely inspired me to see England from a newer, fresher perspective. Coupled with the Photography Walkshops from Strong Island that I now look forward to every week, I’m hoping I can start to show you more English villages on a regular basis!

If you’re keen, let me know in the comments…

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So just like the week before, we were lucky enough to be shown around Bosham by Paul. I didn’t tell you much about him last time, so to sum it up he’s a self-taught photographer who co-founded his own media company.

A media company that happens to print some of my favourite t-shirts…

But back to Bosham. As always, I was extremely organised and managed to make the walk, despite not booking in advance (it was sold out!) and having to make a little dash for the parking meter to arrive on time. My excuse is that my penchant for being late reflects my optimistic personality – here’s the study to prove it!

And boy was I optimistic once I saw the stunning beauty of Bosham Church. Also, as I’m now basically a PhotoWalk pro it was hard to not be excited by these leading lines…

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Bosham Church is believed to be the ‘to be the oldest site of Christianity in Sussex‘ and parts of the building have stood since before the Norman Conquest of 1066. Standing on Roman foundations, that makes the area over 1,000 years old!

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Photographing English Villages Bosham West Sussex 10

But it’s not just religious history that dots the graveyard in Bosham. Rumour has it that the last ever Anglo-Saxon King, Harold II, is buried here.

Harold Godwinson only got ten months on the throne of England before inadvertently ending around 566 years of Anglo-Saxon Rule by being killed and apparently dismembered (a totally civilised way to treat dead Kings back in the Medieval days by the way…) by Norman knights at the Battle of Hastings.

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It’s quite a sad way to go considering the Norman rule of England lasted less than 90 years after that. I imagine that if Harry’s grave is in Bosham churchyard then he probably turned in it a few times.

It’s also likely that the ghost of the dead King is one of the many who went on to rename William the Conquerer (the first Norman King of England) as William the Bastard.

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So if you’re a history buff and like touching old walls then you’ll definitely find a few stories in Bosham. Following Harry’s death to the Normans, Bosham Church continued to stand through the Plantagenets (the rulers no one remembers), the Tudors, Elizabethans, Stuarts, Georgians, Victorians, and Edwardians all the way through to today!

If churchyards don’t do it for you (don’t answer that until you’ve seen this Non-Catholic Cemetery in Rome!) then you might enjoy the photos from the next part of our Photo Walkshop that led us past a beautiful wooded stream towards Bosham harbour.

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I struggled a bit here to find the right angles and perspectives, which is where Paul kindly jumped in and reminded me that the perfect cure for photographic frustration is practice!

Which is when I spotted this puddle that made my day. Who doesn’t love a #PuddleGram?

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And then all of a sudden we reached a place where the heaven meets the ocean and I was back in my element. I love blues and other cold colours far more than the greens and browns of Bosham Church, especially when coupled with a still sea.

Which is what makes this Photo Walkshop so great – I was able to practice scenes I naturally find difficult at the start of the morning before moving on to end the walk with scenes I love the most…

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Just before we got to the harbour, Paul had been talking about the benefits of finding small pockets of colour to brighten up dull landscapes. And then we had the perfect opportunity to practice with this stunning boat below.

Thank you Emma for being the perfect model…

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Finally, I want to point out how much fun the Photo Walkshops have been not only because of the great practice and chance to explore places I wouldn’t usually visit, but because of the people that join them!

This is Petula and I playing around with my wonderfully garish reflective sunglasses. I was feeling a bit down because I had struggled to get the photo I wanted of a poppy when Petula asked if we could use my glasses to reflect the harbour.

We got the shot of the harbour, but I prefer this one as I think it shows how much fun we have with our cameras when out walking with Paul and the gang!

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So now it’s your turn! Let me know in the comments whether you would rather go to Farlington Marshes (the location of my first Photo Walkshop) or beautiful Bosham! It will help me to discover the perfect English villages to show you in the future!

And if you find yourself in the South Coast of England make sure to check out Strong Island’s Photo Walkshops for a fun two hours behind the lens! You don’t need a proper camera – a lot of walkers get great results with their smartphones. And I should also point out that I’m not paid to keep writing good things about the walks; I pay to attend and write about them because they’re awesome! And I’m a shameless fangirl…

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2 comments

Sophie Nadeau | solosophie July 5, 2016 - 4:49 pm

I love the English countryside and little towns/ villages. That little blue door is just so cute!

The Hostel Girl July 5, 2016 - 7:23 pm

There were so many more beautiful doors but the houses had names and I wasn’t sure if it was right to post them on the internet after talking about the village name…!

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