The Boarstall horn

Tradition said that Boarstall took its name from a wild boar that terrorised Bernwood Forest near Edward the Confessor’s palace at Brill. A huntsman named Nigel dug a pit, baited it with a sow, killed the boar when it fell in, and carried its head to the king on his sword. The king knighted him and gave him land and the keeping of the forest, conveying the grant by a horn, and Nigel built a lodge on the spot which he called Boar-stall. A field was still called Sow Close, and a horn said to be Nigel’s had come down with the manor.