Editing Emsworth (section)

==History==

===Pre-Roman===

In prehistoric and early historical times the [[River Ems (Chichester Harbour)|River Ems]] was tidal as far as [[Westbourne, West Sussex|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.<ref name="Reger">Reger, A.J.C. A Short History of Emsworth and Warblington. Havant Borough History Booklet No. 6. (Self-published: 1967).</ref>

===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.<ref name="Reger"/>

===Anglo-Saxon===
[[File:St James' Church, Emsworth, Hampshire.JPG|thumb|St James' Church]]

[[Saxons]] began settling the area after AD 500. Charters were granted by Kings [[Æthelstan]] and [[Æthelred the Unready|Æthelred]] in AD 935 and AD 980 establishing and confirming the boundaries of Warblington. From AD 980–1066 the manor was held by [[Godwin, Earl of Wessex]] and his son [[Harold Godwinson]].<ref name=reger21>{{Cite book|last=Reger|first=A J C|title=A Short History of Emsworth and Warblington|publisher=Pott and Horsey|location=Portsmouth|year=1967|page=21}}</ref>

===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.<ref>{{cite web|last=Powell-Smith|first=Anna|title=Warblington|website=Open Domesday|publisher=Hull University|access-date=4 August 2023|year=2023|url=https://opendomesday.org/place/SU7205/warblington/}}</ref>

The first recorded mention of Emsworth as a separate entity was in AD 1216, when [[John, King of England|King John]] divided the manor of Warblington, accepting annual rent of 'a pair of gilt spurs yearly' from [[Aguillon family|William Aguillon]] for land at ''Emelsworth''. In AD 1239, [[Henry III of England|Henry III]] granted the town a weekly market on Wednesdays and an annual fair on 7 July. The town was mentioned in a [[patent roll]] of a hospital in the Hermitage area in AD 1251.<ref name=timeline>{{cite web|author=Emsworth Museum|title=Emsworth Timeline|website=Exploring Emsworth Museum|url=https://emsworthmuseum.org.uk/emcms/exhibits/show/history-of-emsworth/emsworth-timeline|access-date=4 August 2023|date=2022}}</ref>

In AD 1341 Emsworth was designated as one of five English towns required to provide a ship for defence of the [[Channel Islands]]. It was designated as a customs landing for [[Chichester]] in AD 1346 and in AD 1348 was investigated by a special commission for smuggling.<ref name=timeline/><ref name="Newell">Newell, Linda. Uncovering the Past…..Emsworth, Oysters and Men. (Emsworth Museum: 2006).</ref>

===18th and 19th centuries===
[[File:Emsworth's old flour mill. - panoramio.jpg|thumb|right|The Old Flour Mill]]
[[File:Emsworth6.JPG|thumb|The Promenade]]

During the 18th and 19th centuries, Emsworth was still a port. Emsworth was known for [[shipbuilding]], [[boat building]] and [[rope]] making. Grain from the area was ground into flour by [[Tide mill|tidal mills]] and transported by ship to places such as London and [[Portsmouth]]. Timber from the area was also exported in the 18th and 19th centuries. The [[River Ems (Chichester Harbour)|River Ems]], which is named after the town (not, as often believed, the town being named after the river), flows into the Slipper millpond. The mill itself is now used as offices.

In the 19th century Emsworth had as many as 30 pubs and beer houses; today, only nine remain.

At the beginning of the 19th century, Emsworth had a population of less than 1,200 but it was still considered a large village for the time. By the end of the 18th century, it became fashionable for wealthy people to spend the summer by the sea. In 1805 a [[Public bathing#United Kingdom|bathing house]] was built where people could have a bath in seawater.

St Peter's Chapel was completed in 1790, later becoming [[Emsworth Town Hall]].<ref name="museum">{{cite web |title=St Peter's Chapel |url=https://emsworthmuseum.org.uk/emcms/exhibits/show/property/st-peter-s-chapel |website=Emsworth Museum |access-date=24 June 2024}}</ref> The parish Church of St James was built in 1840 to a design by John Elliott.<ref name=Bailey259 /> It was expanded in the late 1850s this time to a design by John Colson.<ref name=Bailey259 /> Colson's designs were again used in an expansion of 1865.<ref name=Bailey259 /> A final round of building took place in the early 1890s this time to a design by [[Arthur Blomfield]].<ref name=Bailey259 /> The [[reredos]] added in the 1920s features a painting by [[Percy George Bentham]].<ref name=Bailey259>{{cite book |last1=O’Brien |first1=Charles|last2=Bailey |first2=Bruce|last3=Pevsner |first3=Nikolaus |last4=Lloyd |first4=David W. |date=2018 |title=The Buildings of England Hampshire: South |publisher=Yale University Press |page=259|isbn=9780300225037}}</ref>

[[Queen Victoria]] visited Emsworth in 1842, resulting in Queen Street and Victoria Road being named after her. In 1847 the [[London, Brighton and South Coast Railway]] (now the [[West Coastway line]]) came to Emsworth, with a [[Emsworth railway station|railway station]] built to serve the town.

[[Hollybank House, Emsworth|Hollybank House]] to the north of the town was built in 1825 and is now a hotel.

Emsworth became part of [[Warblington Urban District]] which held its first meeting in 1895. The [[Urban district (Great Britain and Ireland)|Urban District]] was abolished in 1932. Emsworth subsequently became part of [[Havant Urban District]].

===Modern===
By 1901 the population of Emsworth was about 2,000. It grew rapidly during the 20th century to about 5,000 by the middle of the century. In 1906 construction began on the [[Post Office (United Kingdom)|post office]], with local [[cricket]]er [[George Wilder (cricketer)|George Wilder]] laying an inscribed brick. The renamed Emsworth Recreation Ground dates from 1909 and is the current home of Emsworth Cricket Club, which was founded in 1811. Cricket in Emsworth has been played at the same ground, Cold Harbour Lawn, since 1761.

In 1902 the once famous Emsworth [[oyster]] industry went into rapid decline. This was after many of the guests at mayoral banquets in Southampton and Winchester became seriously ill and four died after consuming oysters. The infection was due to oysters sourced from Emsworth, as the oyster beds had been contaminated with raw sewage.<ref name=oyster1>{{cite web |title=Emsworth Oysters |publisher=Emsworth Business Association |date=3 February 2016 |url=http://www.emsworth.org.uk/news/emsworths-oysters-video-now-online |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160203191517/http://www.emsworth.org.uk/news/emsworths-oysters-video-now-online |archive-date=3 February 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Bulstrode|first=H. Timbrell|title=Dr. H. Timbrell Bulstrode's report to the Local Government Board upon alleged oyster-home enteric fever and other illness following the mayoral banquets at Winchester and Southampton, and upon enteric fever occurring simultaneously elsewhere and also ascribed to oysters|publisher=HMSO|location=London|year=1903|page=1|url=https://archive.org/stream/b24914812#page/n0/mode/2up|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190707184812/https://archive.org/stream/b24914812|archive-date=7 July 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> Fishing oysters at Emsworth was subsequently halted until new sewers were dug, though the industry never completely recovered.<ref name=oyster1/> J D Foster, an oyster merchant, who had for many years been in occupation of the oyster beds sued Warblington Urban District Council (the owners of the sewers) for nuisance. This was a [[Test case (law)|test case]] as he could not prove title to the land. However, the Court of Appeal held that Foster had a right to sue, as exclusive occupier of the oyster beds, whether or not he had acquired an interest in the land itself.  The judges view was that: {{blockquote|"..the contest arises, in my view, between the person who is in occupation of a portion of the foreshore and a wrongdoer [Warblington Urban District Council]. Whether the plaintiff would be able to resist the claims of the owner of the foreshore, whoever he may be, or the owner of a several fishery, if such fishery exists, or of a member of the public exercising a right of fishery, if there be such a right in the present case, seems to me immaterial for the purposes of this case . ."<small>''(Judge Stirling LJ)''</small>|source={{cite web|author=David Swarbrick|title=Foster v Warblington UDC [1906] 1 KB 648 |url=https://swarb.co.uk/foster-v-warblington-urban-district-council-ca-1906/|publisher=David Swarbrick|date=2023|access-date=4 August 2023}} }}
Foster went on to win his case.<ref name=timeline/>

Recently, Emsworth's last remaining oyster boat, ''[[The Terror (boat)|The Terror]],'' was restored and is now sailing again.<ref name=terror1>{{cite web|url=http://www.conservancy.co.uk/out/terror.asp |title=Terror – Emsworth Oyster Boat |access-date=2007-05-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070205001243/http://www.conservancy.co.uk/out/terror.asp |archive-date=5 February 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref> But the oyster industry is again under threat, because the reproductive rate of the oysters has plunged, as they now contain microscopic glass spicules that are shed into the water from the hulls of the numerous plastic fibreglass boats in Chichester Harbour.<ref>{{cite episode|title=Chichester Harbour|series=Countryfile|station=[[BBC1]]|date=26 July 2020|location=52m|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000lbh4/countryfile-chichester-harbour|url-access=limited|access-date=27 July 2020|archive-date=27 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200727130500/https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000lbh4/countryfile-chichester-harbour|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:A soldier from 101st Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment prepares for D-Day by reading his French handbook at a camp near Portsmouth, 29 May 1944. H38831.jpg|thumb|A soldier from 101st Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment prepares for D-Day by reading his French handbook at a camp in Emsworth, 29 May 1944]]

During the [[Second World War]], nearby [[Thorney Island (West Sussex)|Thorney Island]] was used as a [[Royal Air Force]] station, playing a role in defence in the [[Battle of Britain]]. The north of Emsworth at this time was used for growing flowers and further north was woodland (today Hollybank Woods).<ref name=wood1>{{Cite web |url= http://www.hollybank-woods.hampshire.org.uk/the_woodland.html |title= Hollybank Woods |publisher= Woodland trust |access-date= 2 November 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20151208052747/http://www.hollybank-woods.hampshire.org.uk/the_woodland.html |archive-date=8 December 2015 }}</ref> In the run up to [[D-Day]], the [[Canadian Army]] used these woods as one of their pre-invasion assembly points for men and materiel.<ref name=ddaym>{{Cite web|url=https://theddaystory.com/markers/d-day-marshalling-area-camp-a2-emsworth-common/|title=D-Day marshalling area camp A2, Emsworth Common|publisher=D-Day Museum|access-date=2 November 2015|archive-date=5 December 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181205145738/https://theddaystory.com/markers/d-day-marshalling-area-camp-a2-emsworth-common/|url-status=live}}</ref> Today the foundations of their barracks can still be seen. In the 1960s large parts of this area were developed with a mix of bungalow and terraced housing.

For a few years (2001 to 2007), Emsworth held a food festival.<ref name="Food Festival">{{Cite web|url=http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/dead-as-a-dodo-emsworth-food-festival-bites-the-dust-1-1255740 |title='Dead as a dodo' Emsworth Food Festival bites the dust |publisher=The News, Portsmouth|access-date=24 December 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161224125646/http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/dead-as-a-dodo-emsworth-food-festival-bites-the-dust-1-1255740 |archive-date=24 December 2016 }}</ref> It was the largest event of its type in the UK, with more than 50,000 visitors in 2007. The festival was cancelled due to numerous complaints of disruption to residents and businesses in the proximity.<ref name="Food Festival"/>

A Baptist church was constructed in North Street in 2015.<ref name=Bailey259 />

The harbour is now used for recreational sailing, paddle boarding, kayaking and swimming. The town has two [[yacht club|sailing clubs]], Emsworth Sailing Club (established in 1919) and Emsworth Slipper Sailing Club (in 1921), the latter based at Quay Mill, a former tide mill. Both clubs organise a programme of racing and social events during the sailing season.

<gallery widths="200px" heights="155px">
File:Elegant bus shelter in Emsworth Town Centre - geograph.org.uk - 805167.jpg|Emsworth town centre
File:Quay Mill, Emsworth, West Sussex (geograph 5803415).jpg|Quay Mill, Emsworth
</gallery>