The Port of Portsmouth Hampshire

Hampshire history Portsmouth harbour

Why did Portsmouth become the home of England’s Royal Navy, it had an inauspicious start as a swampy disease ridden island but it grew into an important first line defence against French invasions

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William Cowper Hampshire Surgeon

The memorial and headstone to one of Englands most important surgeon / anatomists, lies in the church of St Nicholas Hampshire. A simple unpretentious church not far from Alresford.

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Hayling Priory

Medieval Tile Hayling

Hayling Island Priory has long since disappeared without trace but the history of it’s links with the French abbey of Jumièges is well documented and an intriguing part of Hampshire history

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Landport Gate and Area 1760

The iconic Landport Gate in Portsmouth This gate maybe attributed to a design by Nicholas Hawksmoor, it is the Landport gate that formed part of the old Portsmouth defences. Thae “Land Port” gate still stands as the gateway to the dockyard and it was named thus and then attributed to the surrounding area around 1831,…

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Samuel Pepys and the Commissioner of The Dockyard Portsmouth 1665

Portsmouth Hampshire

This snippet relates to correspondence written by Thomas Middleton in 1665 (the time Of Newton) regarding the lack of seamen to man the ships in Portsmouth, as with many correspondents throughout the ages Mr Middleton appeared to actively dislike Portsmouth… “For my part to you as a frinde I declayre I intend not to make…

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St Hubert’s Church Idsworth

Church set off road in field possibly site of a plague village

The Medieval wall paintings in the church of St Hubert, formerly St Peter, in Idsworth Hampshire are some of the most poignant Christian wall paintings to be seen. The chapel stands alone in a field, all that is left of an Anglo Saxon settlement, one of a number of lost Hampshire villages, after the spread of the black death throughout the county.

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Early Anglo Saxon Hampshire

Early Anglo Saxon settlement in Hampshire is an elusive creature, traces found on the chalk ridges and river valleys allow us the merest peek of a time of important change. Are current day settlement patterns a result of settlement 1500 years ago or are they a consequence of later Anglo Saxon settlement?

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The Chalk Streams of Hampshire

The chalkstreams of Hampshire offer some of the best fly fishing in the world but they offer so much more than that. The history of Hampshire is inextricably bound up in the valley’s of the Itchen, the Test and the Meon. Investigate Hampshire History and find out what this wonderful county in southern England has to offer

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Mystery of King Alfred’s Final Resting Place

The mystery of King Alfred’s final resting place may be closer to being resolved as St Bartholemew’s church at Hyde prepares to ask for permission to exhume and identify the bones in an unmarked grave at the church.

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King Alfred and The Vikings

King Alfred’s life was dominated by the incessant attacks by the Vikings but how did Alfred succeed in defeating them when so many other kings had failed and did that defeat then propel him to become King of all England.

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Who was on the Mayflower in 1620?

Who was on the Mayflower as it set sail from Southampton Hampshire in 1620 and why did it have to return to Plymouth? The sailing of the Mayflower from Southampton is one of Hampshire’s most iconic historical moments.

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