Old Fishbourne

Old Fishbourne is a historic settlement on the edge of Chichester Harbour in West Sussex, England. The manor has been documented since 1086, but people have lived here for thousands of years before that.

Archaeological evidence from the area dates human presence here to the Mesolithic period, around 5000 BC.

The Manor of Old Fishbourne first appears in the Domesday Book of 1086, when a man named Engeler held two hides of land here from the great manor of Bosham, under Earl Roger de Montgomery. In the twelfth century, Engeler's son Turstin granted these lands to Southwick Priory, which held them until the Dissolution of the Monasteries. In 1540, the manor was granted to Anne of Cleves, the fourth wife of Henry VIII, as part of her annulment settlement.

Fishbourne Roman Palace, discovered in nearby fields in 1960, is the largest known Roman residential building north of the Alps. Its mosaics, including the Cupid on a Dolphin, are some of the best-preserved examples of Roman decorative art in Britain.

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The Manorial Descent

The full history of Old Fishbourne traces a manorial descent across nearly a thousand years of documented record. From the Norman lord who received these lands directly from William the Conqueror, through four centuries of monastic stewardship, to a queen of England, the manor's story touches some of the most significant chapters in English history.

The Hundred of Bosham, one of the wealthiest estates in Domesday England, provides the wider context. Bosham was held by Earl Godwin before the Conquest and is depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry. Old Fishbourne sat within this hundred, and the two communities have been connected since before 1066.

Southwick Priory held the manor from the twelfth century until the Dissolution in 1538. The priory was founded inside Portchester Castle around 1128 before moving to Southwick. Its former site later became Southwick House, where General Eisenhower made the decision to launch the D-Day invasion on 6 June 1944.

The grant to Anne of Cleves in 1540 is significant for a specific reason: it is the first time Old Fishbourne was described as "the manor" in the legal record, formally constituting its manorial identity. Anne held it until her death in 1557, after which the Victoria County History records that "its subsequent descent has not been traced."

The Wider Landscape

Fishbourne Roman Palace was built around 75 AD, probably for the client king Tiberius Claudius Cogidubnus. Its discovery in 1960 reshaped understanding of Roman Britain and put the Fishbourne area on the international archaeological map. The palace sits in the fields beside Old Fishbourne, and the two histories are inseparable.

Old Fishbourne lies on the north shore of Chichester Harbour, roughly two miles west of Chichester. The setting is described in detail, along with the harbour and mills that shaped the local economy for centuries, and the parish history that explains how Old Fishbourne and New Fishbourne came to form a single village.

The lordship is held by Morgan Sheldon, who succeeded to it in 2023. The succession and the manor's place in the wider heritage landscape are documented on this site, alongside a full bibliography of published sources and external links for further reading.