Halfway Houses

This was the original name given to the area of Portsmouth now known as Landport. The name arose, in about 1720, when this area started to be developed, as it stood half way between the new and growing town of Portsea and the parish church, St Mary's, at Kingston.

Mightie Chaine of Yron

Always concerned with the threat of invasion from the sea, over time, Portsmouth saw a series of deterrents put in place to ward off hostile fleets. The deep water channel meant that ships needed to come within fire from Southsea Castle, before the guns from the town walls had to be faced and finally, from 1522, an enormous chain that stretched across the Harbour entrance from the Round Tower to a wooden tower in Gosport. Two links of the chain, which cost £40, have survived in the care of the City’s museum service. The remains of a capstan, used to tension the chain, can still be seen in Capstan Square next to the Round Tower.

The House of Desolation

This was the description given, many years later, to Lorne Lodge in Southsea by Rudyard Kipling. It was here that Kipling was to spend six years of his childhood, 1871-1877, in the care of paid guardians, Captain and Mrs Holloway. Lorne Lodge was situated in Campbell Road and the young Rudyard attended a small private school, Hope House. He had spent his previous childhood in India where he had revelled in the ‘strong light and darkness’ whilst being cared for by doting parents. In contrast, he remembered his time in Portsmouth, during which he suffered both cruelty and neglect, with great bitterness in later life.

Mile End Cemetery

‘It has long been a matter of serious regret that for so large a population as these towns and their environs contain, no suitable and convenient place of sepulture commensurate with the necessities of 50 or 60,000 inhabitants, has been provided, where the funeral obsequies may be performed without noise or intrusion, and where the remains of departed friends may be deposited, without the agonising apprehension of their being purloined from their silent abode for sordid gain of exposure to the dissecting knife of medical practitioner’ Statement issued by the Portsea Island General Cemetery at Mile End when it opened on 23 November 1831. This private cemetery was located on the site of the modern ferry port. The towns referred to are Portsmouth and Portsea, at this time two distinct walled entities.

Merchant Trade

Portsmouth enjoyed a flourishing merchant trade of both national and international repute, based around the Camber, during the 1700 and 1800s. Ships from other British ports mixed with those from France, the New World, the Baltic, Portugal, the Middle East and India. The cargoes they brought included livestock, cloth, coal, cheese, timber, fish, soap, brandy, tobacco, bullion and a vast array of spices. The local community consequently became one of the most cosmopolitan in the British Isles with the townspeople daily rubbing shoulders with sailors from all over the known world.

A Retailing Revolution

A new way of shopping was pioneered in Portsmouth. In 1948 the innovative Portsea Island Mutual Co-operative Society (PIMCO) opened the first completely self service store in the country in Albert Road, Southsea. The venture proved so successful, with trade increasing by 80% over a mere two months, that four more stores operating in the same format were opened during the next year. Self service in food shopping is now so universal it is difficult now to imagine a time when this was a novelty. Portsmouth City Records Office have an extensive collection of PIMCO records which can be freely viewed every week day: www.portsmouthrecordsoffice.co.uk

First Imports

Portsmouth has always had strong links with new worlds. Ralph Lane in 1586 is famously credited with bringing tobacco and potatoes back from Virginia, in the reign of Edward III oranges first arrived from Spain, and it is believed that bananas were also first introduced through Portsmouth. If so, a fitting tribute would be that Fyffes, one of the largest importers of bananas, has its base in the City today.

Preparations for the Spanish Armada

The Earl of Sussex, the Governor of Portsmouth in 1588, was very concerned about the threat of invasion by the Spanish Armada. He had good cause. A pilot’s survey used by the Spanish gave detailed information about the depth of the water at the harbour entrance and stated, ‘Between the two ports (Portsmouth and Southampton) there is a very fine bay where one can cast anchor at all winds apart from the South West.’ This referred to Stokes Bay. Fire beacons were lit on Southsea Castle, St Thomas’s tower and the Isle of Wight. Thousands of part time local militia men mustered to ward off any invasion. These men, although loyal and courageous, would have been ill equipped and poorly trained to against the professional Spanish army. Probably fortunately, they were never tested as the magnificent Armada sailed on by heading for Flanders, and the danger passed.

Bull baiting in Broad Street

In the mid 1700s, a small row of tenements named Fisherman’s Row stood in the middle of Broad Street, Portsmouth. At one end there was a strong post tied to which was an iron ring where each Shrove Tuesday a bull was baited. Fisherman’s Row became an obstruction with the coming of the stagecoach and was demolished in 1771.

Women playing cricket

The open spaces in Portsmouth have always been used for recreation and informal sporting events. In what was probably an unusual event, an unnamed diarist records that on 17 May 1813 a cricket match took place in Milton between 22 women. There was a prize fund of £5 and many thousands turned out to watch. The two teams wore white with orange and blue ribbons respectively. As the diarist notes, ‘the Orange beat’.

A thousand years in Portsmouth

Over a thousand years of chequered history, Portsmouth has been a bastion of England, a strongpoint against the invader, a sally port from which have gone for the King’s men and ships to the uttermost parts of the Seven Seas. In all these centuries it has passed through many ordeals, has been burnt and ravaged, has waxed and waned as the Fleet grew or declined. All down the ages, also, we have given our sons to the national service. We have ‘straw’d our best to the weed’s unrest’ in a long record of silent suffering, bravely borne in peace as well as in war, by the widowed and fatherless in our midst, who know so well the tragic price of admiralty. William G Easthope, 1945

Chaderton Castle

It is hard to imagine Portsmouth as it was in 1544 when Henry VIII, having fallen out with the Pope, decided to hastily build a castle to protect from the threat of invasion. Keat’s Point, where the deep water channel turns directly towards the shore, bringing any challenging vessels within firing range, was an obvious location choice. At this point in time the site was on isolated wasteland, one mile from the walled town of Portsmouth. At first widely known as Chaderton Castle, it was also called South Castle and Portsea Castle before the term Southsea Castle came into general use. This name was then naturally applied to the residential area and sea side resort that, centuries later, grew up around it. Southsea Castle is in the care of the Portsmouth Museums Service: http://www.southseacastle.co.uk/