Rowlands Castle is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the

East Hampshire East Hampshire is a local government district in Hampshire, England. Its council is based in the town of Petersfield, although the largest town is Alton. The district also contains the town of Bordon along with many villages and surroundin ...

district of

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

, England. It is 2.9 miles (4.7 km) north of

Havant Havant ( ) is a town in the south-east corner of Hampshire, England. Nearby places include Portsmouth to the south-west, Southampton to the west, Waterlooville to north, Chichester to the east and Hayling Island to the south. The wider borough ...

, on the Hampshire/West Sussex border. The focal point of the village is the

village green A village green is a commons, common open area within a village or other settlement. Historically, a village green was common pasture, grassland with a pond for watering cattle and other stock, often at the edge of a rural settlement, used for ...

which is shaped somewhat like a lung. Surrounded by roads it is about long and about wide at its eastern end while tapering to almost a point at the western end near the railway arch. The village takes its name from a

motte-and-bailey A motte-and-bailey castle is a European fortification with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised area of ground called a motte, accompanied by a walled courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade. Relatively eas ...

castle, the remains of which are situated to the south of Redhill Road and west of the railway line, east of the current centre of the village.

History

Evidence the

Romans Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

made pottery, brick and tiles in the Rowland's Castle vicinity has been uncovered, and this would have been aided due to the availability of suitable clay. The castle was built at some time between 1066 and 1189 and is first documented under the name ROLOKECASTEL in 1381. It was in good repair in the twelfth century, when

Henry II Henry II may refer to: Kings * Saint Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor (972–1024), crowned King of Germany in 1002, of Italy in 1004 and Emperor in 1014 *Henry II of England (1133–89), reigned from 1154 *Henry II of Jerusalem and Cyprus (1271–1 ...

spent several days there in hunting and amusement, but was abandoned by the 15th century. The site was damaged by the railway and quarrying in the 19th century, and now only the earthworks and a few small areas of wall remain.

Governance

Rowlands Castle is a ward and a parish council area within the

local government district Local may refer to: Geography and transportation * Local (train), a train serving local traffic demand * Local, Missouri, a community in the United States Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Local'' (comics), a limited series comic book by Bria ...

. It is also part of the

UK Parliament constituency.

Geography

The village lies in the area of the former

Forest of Bere The Forest of Bere is a mixed-use partially forested area in Hampshire immediately north of Fareham, Portsmouth and Roman Road, Havant and including a small part of the South Downs National Park.Stoughton is Stansted Park. Rowlands Castle lies on the northern edge of the

Neogene The Neogene ( ,) is a geologic period and system that spans 20.45 million years from the end of the Paleogene Period million years ago ( Mya) to the beginning of the present Quaternary Period million years ago. It is the second period of th ...

deposits of the

Hampshire Basin The Hampshire Basin is a geological basin of Palaeogene age in southern England, underlying parts of Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Dorset, and Sussex. Like the London Basin to the northeast, it is filled with sands and clays of Paleocene and ...

. The north of the village lies on the chalk of the southern

South Downs The South Downs are a range of chalk hills in the south-eastern coastal counties of England that extends for about across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, in the ...

. In the south is the

Reading Formation The Reading Formation is a geologic formation in southern England. It dates to the Paleocene period, and is part of the Lambeth Group. It overlies the London Basin and is below the Harwich Formation. The formation is composed of "a series of le ...

which gave rise to the former local brick industry.

Facilities

It is largely a quiet residential village, with two pubs and a few small shops, including a hardware store and a local convenience store. A

model railway Railway modelling (UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland) or model railroading (US and Canada) is a hobby in which rail transport systems are Model building, modelled at a reduced Scale (ratio), scale. The scale models include locomotives ...

depicting the village during the war has been created and is on display at nearby Stansted House.

Transport

Rowlands Castle is served by

Rowlands Castle railway station Rowlands Castle railway station serves the village of Rowland's Castle, Hampshire, England. It is located on the Portsmouth Direct Line, down the line from via Woking. History The main station building, dating to 1859, was designed by Willi ...

on the Portsmouth Direct line between

London Waterloo Waterloo station (), also known as London Waterloo, is a major central London railway terminus on the National Rail network in the United Kingdom, in the Waterloo area of the London Borough of Lambeth. It is connected to a London Undergroun ...

and

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...

served by the generally hourly

South Western Railway South Western Railway Limited, trading as South Western Railway (SWR), is the British state-owned train operating company that took over the services of the South Western Railway (2017–2025), operator of the same name from FirstGroup and MTR ...

stopping service. There is just one significant

First Hampshire & Dorset First Hampshire & Dorset is a bus operator providing services in the counties of Hampshire and Dorset. It is a subsidiary of FirstGroup. History Formation First Hampshire & Dorset was created out of various different smaller companies which ...

bus route which operates every two hours during core daytime and goes via

Leigh Park Leigh Park is a large suburb (population 27,500) of Havant, in Hampshire, England. It currently forms the bulk or whole of four electoral wards: Battins, Bondfields, Barncroft and Warren Park (generally referred to as 'The Warren'). Staunton ...

and

Denvilles Denvilles is a locality within Havant Havant ( ) is a town in the south-east corner of Hampshire, England. Nearby places include Portsmouth to the south-west, Southampton to the west, Waterlooville to north, Chichester to the east and Hay ...

Emsworth Emsworth is a town in the Borough of Havant in the county of Hampshire, on the south coast of England near the border with West Sussex. It lies at the north end of an arm of Chichester Harbour, a large and shallow inlet from the English Channe ...

. The village is crossed by several long-distance footpaths: the

Monarch's Way The Monarch's Way is a long-distance footpath in England that approximates the escape route taken by King Charles II in 1651 after being defeated in the Battle of Worcester. It runs from Worcester via Bristol and Yeovil to Shoreham, West S ...

Sussex Border Path The Sussex Border Path is a long-distance Long-distance trail, footpath around the borders of Sussex, a Historic counties of England, historic county and Kingdom of Sussex, former medieval kingdom in southern England. The main path is long and ...

, Staunton Way and Shipwrights Way.

National Cycle Route 22 National Cycle Route 22 (NCR22) runs from Banstead to Brockenhurst in the New Forest via Dorking, Guildford, Farnham, Petersfield, Havant, Portsmouth, Ryde, Yarmouth and Lymington. Due to the route going over the Isle of Wight, ferry connect ...

passes by the village green on its route from Havant to

Petersfield Petersfield is a market town and civil parish in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It is north of Portsmouth. The town has its own Petersfield railway station, railway station on the Portsmouth Direct line, the mainline rai ...

Religious sites

St John the Baptist

The Church of England parish church of St John the Baptist is situated to the west of the centre of the village close to the B2149 road. It is an aisled church with transept and chapels with the east window being a stained-glass depiction of the Crucifixion by Francis Austin.

Church on the Green

The Church on the Green

United Reformed Church The United Reformed Church (URC) is a Protestant Christian church in the United Kingdom. As of 2024 it had approximately 44,000 members in around 1,250 congregations with 334 stipendiary ministers. The URC is a Trinitarian church whose theolog ...

is prominent at the west end of the green.

St. Hubert's chapel

St Hubert's chapel or church is in the far north of the civil parish,

Idsworth Idsworth is an isolated hamlet, with mediaeval Saxons, Saxon origins, in the civil parish of Rowlands Castle, in the East Hampshire district and South Downs National Park in Hampshire, England. It was formerly the centre of a Normans, Norman man ...

.Nearby.Org Co-ordinate converter
coordinate location It was built in 1053 and was originally dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul. It is a

Grade I listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

building, listed on 16 March 1954. The chapel contains examples of medieval paintings from around 1300 which include paintings around the altar window of St Peter, St Paul, and two angels. On the north wall there is a painting of St. Hubert and St John the Baptist. The

narthex The narthex is an architectural element typical of Early Christian art and architecture, early Christian and Byzantine architecture, Byzantine basilicas and Church architecture, churches consisting of the entrance or Vestibule (architecture), ve ...

contains an octagonal stone font and above it is a gallery which contains the church organ. Idsworth, based on its compact late

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

church, was a chapelry long including Rowlands Castle and until a recent date unknown was dependent on the mother church of

Chalton Chalton may refer to: * Chalton, Bedfordshire, England * Chalton, Hampshire, England See also * Charlton (disambiguation) {{place name disambiguation ...

. Hence a dispute concerning the right to appoint the chaplain arose in 1275 between Henry de Bonynges, lord of the manor of Idsworth, who claimed it as an ''appurtenance'', versus the prioress of Nuneaton, who made good (made out better) her right as patron of Chalton church, and therefore of the ''appendant'' chapel. The rectors of Chalton were bound from very early times to find a chaplain at the chapel to say mass on Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and on double feasts throughout the year, and to administer the sacraments and other rites (except the burial of the dead) for the inhabitants of the hamlets of Idsworth "and Dene" (Horndean, or perhaps Finchdean). Sir William Haughe, rector of Chalton, discontinued this practice in 1394 and so proceedings were taken against him in the

Court of Arches The Arches Court or Court of Arches, presided over by the Dean of Arches, is an ecclesiastical court of the Church of England covering the Province of Canterbury. Its equivalent in the Province of York is the Chancery Court. It takes its name fr ...

by Richard Romyn, lord of Idsworth manor, and the rest of the inhabitants of the two villages before Thomas Stowe and Adam Uske, who decided that the rector was liable by custom to find a chaplain to minister in Idsworth Chapel. This "sentence" (ruling) was published by the

bishop of Winchester The Bishop of Winchester is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Winchester in the Church of England. The bishop's seat (''cathedra'') is at Winchester Cathedral in Hampshire. The Bishop of Winchester has always held ''ex officio'' the offic ...

on 1 May 1398, and confirmed by the prior and chapter of Winchester on 3 June.'Parishes: Chalton', in A History of the County of Hampshire: Volume 3, ed. William Page (London, 1908), pp. 102–110. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/hants/vol3/pp102-110 ccessed 27 January 2019 To mark the year 2000 a new fresco was added to the church’s nave.

Sport and leisure

The village has an 18-hole golf course; the club being formed in 1902 with a 9-hole course. In 1994 Stage 5 of the Tour de France passed through Rowland's Castle, attracting large crowds with its carnival atmosphere.

Notable people

Former

Van Morrison Sir George Ivan "Van" Morrison (born 31 August 1945) is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician whose recording career started in the 1960s. Morrison's albums have performed well in the UK and Ireland, with more than 40 reaching the UK ...

guitarist and

Britain's Got Talent ''Britain's Got Talent'' (often abbreviated to ''BGT'') is a televised British talent show competition, and part of the global '' Got Talent'' franchise created by Simon Cowell. Presented by Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly (colloquial ...

contestant

Herbie Armstrong Herbert Christopher Armstrong (born 14 May 1944) is a Northern Irish guitarist, singer and songwriter. He is known for his collaborations with Kenny Young in the bands Fox and Yellow Dog, and with Van Morrison in the early 1960s and again in t ...

once ran ''The Fountain Inn'' in the centre of the village next to the village green. His weekly live music evenings attracted music lovers from across the region, and have been known to include some famous faces;

Mick Hucknall Michael James Hucknall (born 8 June 1960) is an English singer and songwriter. Hucknall achieved international fame in the 1980s as the lead singer and songwriter of the soul-influenced pop band Simply Red, with whom he enjoyed a 25-year caree ...

on one occasion. Former British No. 1 tennis player

Chris Wilkinson Christopher Wilkinson (born 5 January 1970) is a former tennis player from England. Career Born and bred in Southampton, Chris Wilkinson has achieved much in the world of tennis. But it could have been very different as his first passion was ...

remains active at the local, county and national levels.

Gallery

Image:RCURC P1010103.JPG, The Church on the Green Image:RCVHP1010107.JPG, Parish Hall Image:RCFP1010101.JPG, The Fountain (live music venue) Image:BowesHJnctnP1010094.JPG, Bowes Hill Junction

References

External links

Parish Council website

Rowlands Castle village website and discussion forum

Rowlands Castle Heritage Centre website

Church on the Green
{{authority control Castles in Hampshire Villages in Hampshire Civil parishes in Hampshire East Hampshire District