Warblington

Warblington
An older house in Warblington, which was partly destroyed by fire in May 2011
Warblington Location within Hampshire
OS grid reference	SU725065
District	Havant
Shire county	Hampshire
Region	South East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	HAVANT
Postcode district	PO9
Dialling code	023
Police	Hampshire and Isle of Wight
Fire	Hampshire and Isle of Wight
Ambulance	South Central
UK Parliament	Havant

Warblington is a suburb of Havant, a town in Hampshire, England. Warblington used to be a civil parish, and before that was part of the Hundred of Bosmere,

Etymology

The root War derives from the Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐍂, which is transliterated as warō in Old English. It means "those that care for, watch, guard, protect, or defend". The word blī is from Old Frisian for "colour" or "hue." The suffix -ing is a cognate of inge, an ethnonym for the Ingaevones. The suffix "ton" is from the Old English word tun meaning "fenced area" or "enclosure."

History

Pre-Roman

In prehistoric and early historical times the River Ems was tidal as far as Westbourne and the Westbrook creek reached to Victoria Road, leaving Emsworth almost isolated at high tide. A coastal route developed that led from Hayling Island through Havant and Rowlands Castle to the Downs. A part of the coastal route followed the Portsdown ridgeway and from Chichester to Belmont Hill in Bedhampton probably skirted the heads of the various creeks which entered the harbour, passing through country still covered with the original thick forest of oak and beech.

Roman

In Roman times a villa existed to the south of the road to Noviomagus Reginorum in the fields of what is now Warblington Castle Farm. Archaeological finds show that the building was a sizeable brick and stone edifice, with floors paved with red brick and coloured sandstone and a view of the harbour and wooded shores of Hayling Island. The fertile landscape suggests the area to have been under continuous cultivation for 1500-1800 years.

Sub-Roman

Settlement patterns demonstrate the existence of a Geatish community at Warblington and nearby Emsworth sometime in the latter half of the fifth century. They defended the eastern section of the road that ran from Venta Belgarum to Noviomagus Reginorum. Their descendants were encountered by Frisians from the Dollart bay region more than 100 years later, who named the area after its hue, likely referring to the colour of the water.

Anglo-Saxon

Ingaevones and Saxons began settling the area sometime after the arrival of the Frisians. People from the area worshipped at St Peter's Chapel or in the church at Warblington. Charters were granted by Kings Æthelstan and Æthelred in 935 AD and 980 AD establishing and confirming the boundaries of Warblington. From 980-1066 AD the manor was held by Godwin, Earl of Wessex and his son Harold Godwinson.

Medieval

After the Norman Conquest, the Manor of Warblington was given to Roger de Montgomery, Earl of Shrewsbury as part of the manor of Westbourne. The Domesday Book lists the latter with two churches, a mill, 29 families and two slaves (about 120 people). There were also seven plough teams, indicating about 850 acres of land under cultivation.

In the 1400s, the people were removed and the area became a private deer park for Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick who then owned the manor.

The village was the site of a medieval manor, now known as Warblington Castle built in 1515 and 1525 and mostly destroyed in 1644 in the English Civil War leaving only a single gate tower, part of a wall, and a gateway.

Modern

The Imperial Gazetteer of 1870-1872 described Warblington as having a population of 2,196 as of 1861 and mentioned that the "church is Saxon".

The parish church of St Thomas à Becket is part of a joint parish with the church of St James, Emsworth. The oldest part of the church is the small central tower, which is Saxon and was built in the 11th century. In 1967 Pevsner and Lloyd described St Thomas à Becket church as essentially late 12th century and notes the "undisturbed" setting. To the north of the church is the locality's most distinctive landmark: the tall octagonal turret of Warblington Castle. In October 1551, Mary of Guise the widow of James V of Scotland stayed a night in Warblington manor as a guest of Sir Richard Cotton.

A cemetery, the ruins of Grade II listed Warblington Castle, on private property, the Grade I Listed St Thomas à Becket Church, Warblington a Grade II listed Old Farmhouse, and the Grade II listed Old Rectory are all within the boundaries of the Warblington Conservation Area.

Unusually, Warblington contains a large secondary school (Warblington School) but no primary school.

Warblington railway station is on the West Coastway line.

Green Pond Corner used to be the local pond. The "corner group" also included Warblington House and Warblington Farm according to records from 1870. The pond was covered over around 1920 and now hosts the One Stop corner shop and local glass and fabric recycling point.

Notable residents

• Sir Peter James Blake KBE (1 October 1948 – 5 December 2001), Sailor, buried in Warblington cemetery
• John Brown (1820 – unknown), cricketer born in Warblington
• George Carter (1846 – unknown), cricketer
• James Norris, President of Corpus Christi College, Oxford 1843–72

Bibliography

• Barron, William (1985). The Castles of Hampshire & Isle of Wight. Paul Cave Publications. p. 50. ISBN 0-86146-048-0.
• Lloyd, David (1974). Buildings of Portsmouth and its Environs. Portsmouth: City of Portsmouth. p. 23. ISBN 978-0901559531.
• Page, William, ed. (1908). "Warblington". A History of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. Victoria County History. Vol. III. London: Archibald Constable & Co. pp. 134–139. ISBN 978-0712905930.
• Pevsner, Nikolaus; Lloyd, David (1967). Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. The Buildings of England. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. pp. 639–641. ISBN 0-14-071032-9.
• Timmins, G (2007). Warblington: a village history. Havant: Havant Museum.

Gallery

• 
  1856 etching of castle and church
• 
  Secondary School
• 
  Tennis Club
• 
  Level Crossing