Warblington Area

Eastern area with ancient parish church, castle ruins, rural harbour-edge character, and a mix of historic and modern residential streets.

Warblington lies to the east of Emsworth town centre and is historically a separate settlement, though it has been absorbed into the broader Emsworth area. The parish church of St Thomas a Becket at Warblington is one of the oldest churches in the district, with fabric dating to the Saxon period. Beside the church stand the ruins of Warblington Castle, a sixteenth-century fortified manor house of which only a single tower and fragments of wall survive. The castle was built by Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, who was executed by Henry VIII in 1541. The area around the church and castle ruins retains a distinctly rural character, with open fields stretching down to the harbour shore. Warblington Cemetery, on the Havant Road, is the main burial ground for the area. Further north, Warblington merges into more suburban housing along the Havant Road corridor. The contrast between the ancient, rural character of the church and castle area and the twentieth-century residential development further north is one of the distinctive features of Warblington. The shore path from Warblington provides access to the harbour edge and connects to the longer coastal walks around Chichester Harbour.