Warblington

Warblington was originally part of Westbourne in Sussex and was held by Earl Godwin before the Conquest. At his death it passed to Earl Harold. After 1066 the manor was granted to Roger, Earl of Shrewsbury, who died in 1094. His lands passed to his second son Hugh, then to his elder brother Robert of Belleme in 1098. Robert forfeited his holdings through rebellion against Henry I, and the manor became an escheat to the Crown (VCH Hampshire Vol. 3, pp. 134-139).

William de Courci, dapifer to Henry II, was in possession by 1186. His son Robert forfeited his claims and the manor reverted to King John. Matthew son of Herbert, sheriff of Sussex under John and Henry III, received the manor in exchange for lands lost in Normandy. His descendants held it through the thirteenth century. Ralph Monthermer, who had married Joan of Acres, sister of Edward II, received the reversion in 1309, and his son Edward succeeded to Warblington. Margaret, daughter of Thomas Monthermer, married Sir John Montagu, and their son John became Earl of Salisbury (VCH Hampshire Vol. 3, pp. 134-139).

John, Earl of Salisbury, forfeited his lands for resistance to Henry IV. His son Thomas was restored to his father's honours in 1409. The manor descended through Thomas's daughter Alice to Richard Nevill, father of the Kingmaker, and thence to Isabel, wife of George, Duke of Clarence. Their son Edward, Earl of Warwick, was executed in November 1499. His sister Margaret, Countess of Salisbury, was restored to the manor in 1514. She was living at the castle in 1526 and was attainted as a staunch opponent of the king's religious reforms. After her execution the manor was granted temporarily to William, Earl of Southampton, and to Sir Thomas Wriothesley before being settled on Sir Richard Cotton in 1551 (VCH Hampshire Vol. 3, pp. 134-139).

The Cotton family held Warblington from 1551 until 1736. George Cotton was living at Warblington in 1596 and died there in 1609-10. During the Civil War the strong house at Warblington was captured in January 1643-4 by sixty soldiers and a hundred muskets. William Cotton, the last of the family to hold the manor, died in 1736, and under his will it passed to Thomas Panton. Richard Barwell purchased the life interest from Panton and later acquired the reversion. By 1825 the manor had been purchased by Brown and Fenwick, and it was held by the trustees of John Fenwick by 1875. In 1885 the manor was acquired by H. G. Paine and Richard Brettell of Chertsey (VCH Hampshire Vol. 3, pp. 134-139).

The ruins of the sixteenth-century gateway tower survive at the east end of the village. The octagonal turret of red brick and stone rises to four storeys, with square-headed mullioned windows and arched heads to the lights. The structure reportedly housed Queen Elizabeth during her southern progress in 1586. Emsworth, now a town in its own right, was originally a tithing and hamlet of Warblington, not mentioned in the Domesday survey (VCH Hampshire Vol. 3, pp. 134-139).