England · Partial ruin
Warblington Castle
Warblington Castle (Warblington manor) is a Tudor moated manor near Langstone in Havant parish, Hampshire. Most of the complex was demolished during the English Civil War, leaving primarily a single octagonal gate tower, fragments of curtain wall and the gateway arch; the site remains on private land.
Its prime
1525
Today
Partial ruin
As it stood in 1525
What Warblington Castle looked like in its prime.
At its prime the site was a moated Tudor manor dominated by a tall octagonal gate tower with a battlemented parapet, built largely of brick with ashlar stone dressings. The tower rose several storeys above the moat and joined continuous masonry curtain walls that enclosed a central courtyard. A moulded stone gateway with drawbridge supports pierced the curtain; the east wall faced into the courtyard. The manor stood on low ground beside the channel, surrounded by parkland and service ranges.
Its story
The story of Warblington Castle.
From Domesday to Warwick's Deer Park
A Saxon settlement stood at Warblington, near Langstone in Hampshire, from the 7th century, and the Domesday Book of 1086 records a community of about 120 people. The manor then belonged to Roger, Earl of Shrewsbury; on his death in 1094 it passed to his second son Hugh, and by 1186 it was held by William de Courci. A licence to crenellate is claimed for 1340, though the claim is disputed. In the 15th century the manor came to Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, who removed the villagers and turned the land into a private deer park. When Henry VII executed Edward Plantagenet, 17th Earl of Warwick, the manor passed to the crown.
Margaret Pole's Moated Manor, 1515–1525
In 1513 Henry VIII gave Warblington to Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, who had a new moated manor built there between 1515 and 1525. After her attainder for treason the manor went in temporary grants to William FitzWilliam and Thomas Wriothesley, successive Earls of Southampton, before Henry VIII settled it on Sir Richard Cotton. The house drew royal guests: Mary of Guise, widow of James V of Scotland, stayed a night on 28 October 1551; Edward VI visited the "fair house of Sir Richard Cotton" in August 1552; and Elizabeth I may have spent two days there in 1586.
The Cottons kept the old faith. George Cotton of Warblington was a Catholic recusant, visited by priests including Thomas Lister, alias Butler, in 1603, and in 1613 a reliquary of the martyr Mark Barkworth was found in John Cotton's study.
Hopton's Siege and the Slighting, 1643
In January 1643 Parliamentarians under Colonel Richard Norton of Southwick Park garrisoned the house with a force of between 40 and 80 men. It was besieged and taken by the Royalist commander Ralph Hopton, 1st Baron Hopton, though Norton escaped. Because the Cotton family were Royalists, Parliamentarian forces largely demolished the manor — sparing one turret of the gatehouse, an octagonal brick tower with stone dressings and battlements, left standing as an aid to navigation for ships in the Langstone channel.
After the Stuart Restoration the property was returned to the Cottons, who built a farmhouse near the ruin. The turret, the moulded stone arch of the gate and the drawbridge support in the moat still survive, protected as a scheduled monument and a Grade II* listed building, on private land with no public access. The tower had a late flourish of fame: in Ken Russell's 1975 film of The Who's Tommy, Roger Daltrey leapt from its top strapped to a hang glider.
Step inside
8 places to explore in 1525.
The record describes 8 distinct spots at Warblington Castle, including 3 interiors: south‑east octagonal stair turret (interior), gateway arch and passage, east wall facing the courtyard. Create your own photoreal reconstruction and explore every one, more scenes means more rooms, more angles, and more of the place to stand in.
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Clans who held Warblington Castle.
The families that held Warblington Castle for a decade or more across its history, follow a name to its clan.
Neville
In the possession of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, in the 15th century.
Pole
Held by Margaret Pole until her attainder for treason.
Cotton
Granted to Sir Richard Cotton by Henry VIII; the Cottons held Warblington until the English Civil War.
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