England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Warblington St Thomas a Becket

The Parish

The parish of Warblington lies in the extreme southeast of Hampshire forming both a stretch of its coastline with The Solent and also of the border with neighbouring Sussex. Warblington is located about a mile east of the town of Havant and sits immediately north of the coastal A27 road which links Portsmouth with Chichester. Warblington is a much changed place, early maps show a separate small village with fields between it and Havant, a small crossroads village sitting on the old Havant to Ensworth road. Today Warblington is an integral part of greater Havant, merely the southeastern suburb of a broad urban area that encompasses a rough circle around 2 miles in diameter. The greater part of the early residents, however, would have resided in Emsworth, which sits directly on the Sussex border, here there was a substantial village with a small port. As a coastal community fringing Chichester Harbour, the sea and its products, shellfish & fish together with coastal shipment of goods, would have been important to the economy. The wider parish would have been farmed with early gazetteers estimating roughly half of the parish acreage as arable, the remainder almost equal part meadows, pastures and woodland. Modern developments have come in abundance to Warblington, the railway line between Portsmouth & Chichester passes through the parish granting Warblington its own small station, in addition the A27 has been re-routed and upgraded to modern dual-carriageway highway speeding the heavy traffic that formerly crowded the village through to the ports. As a coastal community many small streams feed into Chichester Harbour and thence to the Solent and the English Channel. Warblington is sited at around 10 metres above the sea with much of the parish below 20 metres, to the northeast, within Southleigh Forest, a few spots approach the 50 metre contour as the highest ground around. Warblington was an extensive parish covering 3,000 acres which would have supported a population growing rapidly to around 2,250 parishioners. Even by Domesday times Warblington was a substantial settlement its 56 households making it large enough to sit in the top 20% of settlements by population, held by Earl Roger of Shrewsbury its assets were also formidable, 27 ploughs were backed by meadows & woodland in addition there were 6 mills and a fishery making for a wealthy holding indeed.

The Church

St Thomas' church sits away from both Warblington and Emsworth and almost on the shores of Chichester Harbour, it is accessed by Church Lane from the busy A27 & A259 intersection. Prior to 1796 the church was dedicated to "Our Lady" before acquiring it's present dedication. St Thomas has fabric from the earliest times of stone-built churches, the cruciform layout is also indicative of an early church. Curiously it is not the basal stage of the central tower which is the oldest rather the upper stage which is Anglo-Saxon in date and contains many re-used Roman tiles, it probably dates from the 10th or 11th century. The remainder of the church is similar in date to the basal stage which was clearly rebuilt when the majority of the church was constructed. The church, therefore largely dates from the very end of the 12th century to the late 13th. Pevsner's examination reveals that the early church also had a Saxon chancel before the general rebuild, the being traces of the earlier work remaining, it is believed the that the chancel was constructed from the Saxon nave. Despite being considerably enlarged in the late 12th or early 13th century, further enlargement occurred in the period from the late 13th into the 14th century, A new nave was constructed to the west of the old building, a chancel arch was inserted into the lower tower, and the tower was built up to clear the new roof. The chancel was entirely rebuilt on older foundations, and a chapel (now the vestry) was added to the north. The later medieval period of the Perpendicular saw only the addition of the north porch. By the early 19th century the church was in a dilapidated state and major restoration was required being largely completed between 1825 & 1830, the shingled broach spire was added during this work. A further restoration took place in 1893 whilst, following a fire in 2011, the church was once again restored. Church Lane ends at the churchyard where the is a substantial car park allowing a relaxed visit, the churchyard, unfortunately, is rather compact with a line of mature trees south of the church removing the favoured aspects, all other views are available for the photographer.