Exbury - History

History

People have lived near Exbury since prehistoric times. An Iron-Age promontory fort is visible on the east bank of the Beaulieu River, where it is defended on the east side by a bank and outer ditch.

In the 13th century the Foliot family were holders of the Exbury in chief of the Crown. At the end of the century the estate was divided into two, but by the end of the 14th century both parts were in the hands of John de Bettesthorne. On the death of John de Bettesthorne in 1399, his inheritance passed to his daughter Elizabeth and her husband Sir John de Berkeley. It remained in the hands of the Berkeley family for most of the 15th century. At the end of that century the manor had passed to Katherine Berkeley, who had married John Brewerton, and it then descended to the Comptons of Compton Wynyates, Warwickshire, who held it for the next two hundred years.

In 1718 Exbury passed to William Mitford, and by the early 1800s it had descended to his grandson William Mitford the historian of Greece. William decided to build a new village at Upper Exbury. The original village and its chapel at Lower Exbury to the south-west were removed, and a site was designated for a new church, which was built in 1827. William Mitford died in 1827, and his grandson Henry Reveley Mitford succeeded to the estate. He sold it, in the 1880s, to Major John Forster. His son Henry William Forster inherited Exbury, living in Lepe House.