The simple church of St Nicholas, Boarhunt, occupies a rural location N of Portsmouth. Built of flint with galleting and ashlar dressings, and with tiled roofs, it comprises a nave and a short chancel. Externally, its Anglo-Saxon origins are indicated by lesenes in the E wall and by a deeply splayed N chancel window with a double cable surround.

The nave has a W bell-cote and is entered through a W doorway. N and S doorways of 13thc date, clearly superseding earlier doorways, have been blocked. The W end of the nave is occupied by a shallow gallery, with the font in the NW corner. Beyond this, scars in the N and S walls suggest that a cross-wall divided the nave into two chambers (Irvine 1877) or, alternatively, that the nave terminated at this point and was later extended westwards (Hare 1977).

The round-headed Anglo-Saxon chancel arch has moulded imposts. It is flanked by arched recesses for altars at the E end of the nave. A corbel carved with a human head is set in the E wall of the chancel.

According to the Domesday Book of 1086, there were three principal landowners in Boarhunt. The main manor (later known as West Boarhunt) and the church were held by Earl Roger of Shrewsbury. They passed to the Earls of Arundel in the early 12thc, but at some point between 1262 and 1316 became possessions of Southwick Priory (VCH 1908, 147).

The church has been dated c.1064 (A. R. Green, cited by Pevsner & Lloyd 1967, 111), a surprisingly precise date suggested by comparison with Kirkdale in Yorkshire. Taking a broader view, the Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture has dated the N window 10thc-11thc. The ample proportions of the chancel arch and the absence of long-and-short work favour a date in the mid-11thc.

Considerable work was carried out in the 13thc, but the simple nature of the alterations (new doorways and lancet windows) makes it difficult to determine if they were made before or after Southwick Manor took possession.

In 1853 the church was restored and given a new bell-cote and W doorway.

The large size of the tub font, suitable for the immersion of infants, suggests that it may date from the Anglo-Saxon period. Plain tub fonts, however, continued to be produced into the 13thc.

The corbel in the chancel probably dates from the late 12thc or early 13thc. Evidence for extensive work on the church during the 13thc favours the latter date.