Purbrook

Purbrook was a hamlet situated in the northwest of Farlington parish on the London to Portsmouth road, at the foot of Portsdown Hill. The VCH describes it as surrounded by small copses and woods which once formed part of the Forest of Bere. The village comprised a main street with a few houses and inns, including the White Hart, the Leopard, and the Woodman. The church of St John the Baptist was built in the nineteenth century, with a Primitive Methodist chapel erected in 1875. The Cosham and Horndean light railway ran along the main street (VCH Hampshire Vol. 3, pp. 148-151).

Purbrook shared the manorial history of Farlington. In 1248 Roger de Merlay granted one and a half carucates and 7s. rent to William son of Alan Stake and Ellen, at an annual payment of a pair of gilt spurs or 6d. at Michaelmas. By 1312 John de Berewyk died seised of the manor, with Roger Husee as his heir, though Roger de Upton, Berewyk's servant, claimed the estate by charter grant and had taken possession by 1316. Upton's son John conveyed the manor to Hugh le Despenser in 1320 (VCH Hampshire Vol. 3, pp. 148-151).

After Despenser's forfeiture and death in 1327, the Crown granted the manor (valued at £20 annually) to Alice, widow of Edmund, Earl of Arundel, for the maintenance of herself and her children. In 1330 the manor returned to the Crown and was granted to John Montgomerie and his wife Rose for life. Following Montgomerie's death in 1347, the manor passed to the Prior and Convent of Southwick in 1348, pursuant to a grant of 1346 made in compensation for losses suffered during French coastal raids (VCH Hampshire Vol. 3, pp. 148-151).

Southwick Priory held the manor until the Dissolution, when the ministers' accounts record 10s. returned for a fishing farm. In 1540 the manor was granted to William Pound of Beaumonds. His father William, son of Sir John Pound and Elizabeth Holt, had held lands of the prior of Southwick and died in 1525. William Pound died seised in 1558 and was succeeded by his son Thomas, then aged 20. In 1663 Henry Pound conveyed to John Wolfe, and in 1684 another conveyance was made to Nathaniel Hunt, who sold to Thomas Smith. In 1769 trustees sold to Peter Taylor; in 1815 Taylor's trustees sold to Lord Keith by private Act of Parliament. Lord Keith sold to John Walker in 1818, and Walker's trustees sold to John Deverell in 1857. John Deverell died in 1880 and the manor passed to his son William Deverell, who was lord at the time of the VCH publication (VCH Hampshire Vol. 3, pp. 148-151).

Notable properties in Purbrook included Purbrook Heath House (residence of Thomas William Harvey), Purbrook Park of approximately eighty acres (property of William Deverell and residence of Major Henry Gundry), and Morelands (residence of General Sir John William Collman Williams, K.C.B., J.P.). The Portsmouth and South Hants Industrial School occupied a substantial building south of Stakes on the Stakes Hill road (VCH Hampshire Vol. 3, pp. 148-151).