A historic countryside mansion with ties to Henry VIII has gone on sale and even includes its own castle ruins.
Warblington Castle, Hampshire, could be yours for £2.25million along with all its history dating back to the 11th Century.
The beautiful ancient manor house has seven bedrooms, four bathrooms, a swimming pool and pool house, four acres of gardens and even a dry moat. It sits an eight-minute walk from the beach and is close to several charming towns and villages.
On purchase, your name would be forever etched in its ancient records alongside famous owners like Warwick the Kingmaker, Richard Neville, the most powerful man in England during the bloody tales of the Wars of the Roses in the 15th Century.
As the ruined Tudor castle tower suggests, the home holds great stories and was host to parts of the most pivotal history England has seen.
After the cutthroat Wars of the Roses had died down and the Tudor dynasty prevailed, the dastardly Henry VIII gifted the property to Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury and granddaughter of Neville, in 1515.
She was a lady-in-waiting to Henry’s then-wife Catherine of Aragon and one of only two women to be a peeress in her own right with no titled husband in the 16th century.
It was she who then built the castle which now stands in ruins on the grounds today – a singular tower of exquisite Tudor brickwork that looks like it had been plucked from the masonry of Hampton Court.
As so many did, Pole then fell out of favour with temperamental Henry who took back the castle and gifted it to a new friend in 1551 – Sir Edward Cotton.
Pole sadly suffered one of the most brutal botched executions in English history, taking 11 blows to cut off her head at the Tower of London. She was killed because of her Plantagenet lineage made her a threat to Henry’s claim to the throne and her son’s campaigns against his marriage to Anne Boleyn.
During the Civil War, Parliamentary forces stormed the castle and destroyed it in January 1643 – leaving only the hexagonal gatehouse tower, an archway and the dry moat we still see today. The tower serves as a landmark for ships navigating the nearby Langstone Channel.
After the Restoration in 1660, restoring the Stuart monarchy to England, Scotland and Ireland following Oliver Cromwell’s 11-year Puritan-led Commonwealth, the property was given back to the Cottons by Charles II.
The Cottons then built the current manor house which still stands today.
It has stood for nearly 400 years since and is spread across an impressive 5,800sqft of interior space.
In its more recent history, the property was rented by American art collector and socialite Penny Guggenheim in the 1930s and in 1975 Roger Daltrey hand-glided from the ancient tower in The Who’s rock opera film Tommy.
The beautiful home is in keeping with its historic background, featuring a drawing room and scullery, as well as a lounge, dining room, study, utility and cellars.
Sitting on the four acres of gardens and grounds is the remains of the stone tower, as well as the dry moat, swimming pool and pool house, and an old granary with loft storage and outbuildings.
The house itself includes many period features, including old stone flagged floors, huge fireplaces and exposed timbering.
Warblington Castle is situated near the shores of Langstone Harbour, while Emsworth and Havant are a short drive away.
The property is currently available with Felicity Chetworth at House Partnership for £2,250,000.
It had been marketed at £2.6million when it last went on sale in 2018. Before then, it had not been sold for 35 years.
