| Rowlands Castle |
| The castle once stood to the east of the
present day village centre and its battlements are known to have been in
good condition during the 12th century when Henry II spent a while there
hunting. The castle is said to have lasted until the middle of the 14th
century and in the 19th century a report state "the remains of Rowlands
Castle consists of two masses of wall which are about 10 feet thick with
a fosse of considerable depth" Local legends says the castle was built
by a giant named Rowland. The parish, which idyllically stands at the end of a valley near to Charlton Down, on the Hampshire-Sussex border and consists of Blendworth Parish, Idsworth Parish which had been attached to Chalton, and part of another five Parishes. Havant (Redhill) one of the five gave Rowlands Castle the church of St John which was built around 1840. The village has its own green with both houses and shops around it, there are also Almshouses (now Stansted College) on the green and a small Inn. The Railway came to the village in 1858 and two large arches were built for it which changed the whole outlook of the village, this was to the annoyance of the villages as it was built where an alehouse used to be, which was famed for being the site of the murder of two Customs men in 1748. It was pulled down in 1853 and rebuilt and renamed the Castle Inn. The Outen family had the 'Castle Inn' for 200 years and this was said to be the headquarters of a smuggling gang. Idsworth House was built in the Elizabethan Style in 1852 and belonged to Lorna, Countess Howe. In the middle of a field which is said to be where a mediaeval village once stood is the ancient chapel of St Hubert with parts dating back to the 12th century.
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