Westbourne

Westbourne lies at the head of the Ems valley on the Hampshire-Sussex border, where the river flows south to Chichester Harbour. The parish was assessed at 36 hides in Domesday Book (rated at 12) with four water-mills valued at 40 shillings. Earl Godwin held the manor before the Conquest. Earl Roger of Montgomery held it in 1086, with six haws in Chichester attached. Payn held four hides as a sub-tenant, formerly held by Alric as belonging to the minster at Selsey. The Hampshire manor of Warblington was attached but severed shortly after 1086 (VCH Sussex, Vol. 4, pp. 126-127).

The manor descended with the Honour of Arundel through the d'Aubigny earls and then the FitzAlan earls of Arundel. In 1243, Hugh d'Aubigny, Earl of Arundel, died and the manor was assigned to his widow Isabel in dower. Isabel died in 1282 and the manor passed to Richard FitzAlan, then a minor. In 1302, an extent after Richard FitzAlan's death records 623 acres of demesne arable, 13 free tenants, 92 customary tenants, and 90 cottagers, with a total value of 73 pounds 7 shillings and 6 pence halfpenny. A detailed rental of about 1375 shows tenements in Bourne itself were mostly small cottager holdings, while Prinsted and Woodmancote contained virgates and half-virgates of about 25 acres each (VCH Sussex, Vol. 4, pp. 127-128).

In 1566, Henry, Earl of Arundel, settled the Sussex manors on his daughter Jane and her husband John, Lord Lumley, retaining a life interest. The Lumley family held the manor until 1721, when Richard Lumley, Earl of Scarborough, bequeathed it to his younger son James. James left it to his nephew George Montagu Dunk, Earl of Halifax. The Earl of Halifax died in 1771, leaving the manor to his natural daughter Anna Maria Montagu. In 1781, Richard Barwell purchased the manor from the trustees. Barwell died in 1805 and his executors sold to the Reverend Lewis Way of Stansted in 1809. Way's executors sold to Charles Dixon in 1829. After Dixon, the manor descended with Stansted in Stoughton parish (VCH Sussex, Vol. 4, pp. 128-130).

The parish contained several distinct sub-manors. Prinsted acquired separate manor status by the mid-sixteenth century. Woodmancote became a separate manor by 1466 and was sold to Arthur Gunter of Racton in 1571, descending thereafter with Racton to the Earls of Dartmouth. Aldsworth was granted by the Earl of Arundel to Ralph de la Roche in the twelfth century, rendering a hunting spear at Martinmas. Nutbourne may represent the four hides held by Payn in 1086. The Aguillon family held Nutbourne from the twelfth century. The eastern half, known as St Clares or Nutbourne Seyntclere, passed through the St Clare and Lovell families. Westbrook derived from lands given to a small priory outside Arundel by Queen Aeliz, widow of Henry I (VCH Sussex, Vol. 4, pp. 130-132).

A weekly market and fair (28 August, feast of the Beheading of St John the Baptist) are recorded from 1302. The market died out by the end of the eighteenth century. Four water-mills were recorded in Domesday. Lumley Mill was purchased by Edward Tollervey in 1802, who installed a bakery supplying bread and biscuit to the Navy at Portsmouth. The Slipper tide-mill south of Hermitage was apparently built in the eighteenth century (VCH Sussex, Vol. 4, pp. 127, 130).