Return of Hermes after the Falklands conflict

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h24wFe_zWUQ&feature=related

The return of HMS Hermes to Portsmouth Harbour after taking part in the Falklands conflict. A welcome that has been happening through the ages and one only Portsmouth can give!

Samuel Pepys

Samuel Pepys was a burgess in Portsmouth for the years 1662-1703. He had the management of the Admiralty department and Portsmouth features regularly in his diaries.

Pirates in the Solent

The cutter Childers was captured by a privateer under Dutch colours off the Needles last week. The Childers managed to escape later but the same privateer took four brigs and a sloop within the following two days, at the same spot. The Channel is now full of French and Dutch privateers, which come upon our coasts, and take merchantmen from the mouths of our ports’

Taken from the Hampshire Chronicle 29 April 1792

Tin canoes

'We like England very much. It is very beautiful.We have seen Salisbury Cathedral which is very fine and the ship where Nelson died which is all gold with wooden guns, and Westminster Abbey where they crown the kings of England and the Tower, where they cut thier heads off. But the best things in England are the tin canoes at Southsea.'

Andre Maurois, the French author, visiting Portsmouth in the 1920s

Salt

In the later 17th century, the salt production on Portsea Island was ranked second in the country. Although salt has always been an important local industry, with many pre Roman sites being known, and eleven salt works being mentioned in the Domesday Book, it was given a boost by the founding of the Great Salterns works in 1666. A local entreprenuer, Richard Alchorne, dug salt pans in approximately 100 acres of land that had been reclaimed at Gatcombe Haven.
Great Salterns and another large salt pan at Copnor supplied the Navy, providing refined salt that was more reliable at preserving meat by brining rather than dry-salting.

The Festival of Britain

To celebrate the Festival of Britain in 1951, the following events in Portsmouth were held: a Searchlight Tattoo at Fratton Park; a carnival procession; a pageant of physical training and sport at Alexandra Park; an aquatic gala at Hilsea Lido; a trade’s fair on Castle Field, an international youth camp and a children’s week on Castle Field.

Merton Road

 '... it was in a notoriously bad condition, full of holes in some places and in others a perfect pond. Those who drove through the road in carriages were put to great inconvenience and annoyance, for their wheels were no sooner out of one hole than they were into another. The road was highly dangerous.'

A description of Merton Road, Portsmouth, 1877

David Niven’s view of the Common

David Niven described Southsea Common in 1930 as, ‘flat, greasy, wet and windswept, with a dejected flock of dirty sheep morosely munching on its balding surface.’


Taken from D Niven, A Moon’s a Balloon, 1972.

A present from Durham

The Overseers’ and Churchwardens’ account book for Escomb parish in County Durham has the following entry for 4 September 1684: ‘Collected within ye Chappelry of Escombe ye sume of one shilling seven pence halfe peny towards ye rebuilding of ye great church at Portsmouth.'

This was for the rebuilding of St Thomas Church, now Portsmouth Cathedral, following damage inflicted during bombardment in the Civil War.

A turkish bath in Kings Terrace

There were popular Turkish baths in unlikely venue of Kings Terrace, Portsmouth between the years 1875 and 1936 when the premises were demolished.

Visit of the Emperor of Ethopia

On 14 October 1954, the HMS Gambia arrived in Portsmouth wearing the Imperial Standard of the Emperor of Ethiopia and carrying both the Emperor Haile Selassie and his son, His Imperial Highness, Prince Makonnen.

He was officially greeted by the Duke of Gloucester who was representing the Queen, with the welcome address being made by the Lord Mayor of Portsmouth. Part of this address read: ‘Your Imperial Majesty is no stranger to our City and we remember with joy the sojourn which your Majesty spent in Portsmouth during the war and shared with our citizens the dangers and trials of those days.’

The Emperor replied: ‘… It is also a moving moment for me to set foot on British soil in the City of Portsmouth where with you I shared the vicissitudes of war.’

Wartime books

In February 1943 a successful appeal was launched, by the Lord Mayor, to collect a quarter of a million books in 14 days. Of the 261,175 collected, 225,000 were good only for salvage, 24,000 were sent to the troops serving the World War II and 2,700 were allocated to local libraries which had lost their stock in the Blitz. All those sent to the troops had a slip inside them bearing the good wishes of the people of Portsmouth.

Piped water

The Farlington Waterworks Company and the Portsea Island Waterworks Company both began commercially piping water in Portsmouth during 1811. It was many decades however before piped water was found in the majority of the houses in Portsmouth.

Pirates

In 1265 pirates from Dover burnt Portsmouth. It was also raised to the ground by the French on at least four occasions during the Hundred Years’ War in the 1300s leading to the first fortifications being built.

An Arsenal

‘This great arsenal, the most considerable naval emporium and strongest fortress in England, is a seaport, borough and market town, in the Hundred and Division of Portsmouth, but having separate jurisdiction.’

Post Office Hampshire Trades’ Directory 1847

Victory Day Parade, 1946

Victory Day in Portsmouth would probably best be remembered by thousands for the early morning rush to Southsea Front, the mile long parade of the Services and the Civil Defence, the hurried trek homewards and the rain. 

The rush to see the Victory Parade overwhelmed the bus services… People in queues at the intermediate bus stops watched a procession of full buses pass and then decided to walk or return home. From the Clarence Pier to South Parade Pier, it was estimated that over 30,000 people assembled to give a cheer to men and women who represented almost every branch of war time activity. 

Soon after the Parade in which there were about 4,000 marching personnel, rain began to fall and the crowd dispersed.

City of Portsmouth Corporation Records, 1946-1955

Royal Hospital Linen League

The Royal Hospital Linen League was inaugurated by Miss Jane Read and a few friends in 1911. Between 1911 and 1948, when the Royal Portsmouth Hospital became part of the NHS, gifts of money and linen worth more than £10,000 were contributed to the care of patients.

The Matron addressing the annual meeting in 1948 gave the following tribute, ‘You have done a grand job. It has not been an easy task to undertake the work of supplying a hospital like the Royal with its linen and you have done well. You cannot realise how much it has meant to a Ward Sister to know that she could go to the Linen Cupboard and get just what she wanted for her patients’ needs.’

Leigh Park

In the latter stages of WWII, it became apparent that new overspill housing would be necessary for residents of Potsmouth due both to the growing population and those who has lost their homes in the Blitz. In October 1943 negotiations were started to buy Leigh Park House and adjoining land of 497 acres, situated in the nearby Borough of Havant. Subsequently another 1,174 acres were purchased and by 1947 a further 792 acres were also acquired. The first houses were built in 1947 with the families starting to move in during 1949. Most houses were completed by the 1960s although work continued until the 1970s.

There remains to this day the anomaly of residents paying rent to Portsmouth City Council while living within Havant Borough. Some of the wonderful parkland of the original estate is retained as Staunton County Park.

Originally planned as a modern day Utopia, the realities of large scale estate building, housing pressure and financial pressures meant that the original plans were altered beyond recognition. The earliest residents had to cope with deep mud instead of roads, no public transport (with few having cars), no schools, no local employment and the first shops not opening until 1952. However the quality of the housing remained higher than many residents had previous been used to, being spacious, having inside bathrooms with running hot water and set on large plots. Many residents used these to grow their own food, a luxury unheard of in inner city Portsmouth.

H G Wells

H G Wells, the pioneer of science fiction, spent his apprenticeship as a draper at Hyde's Emporium in King Street, Portsmouth, from 1881 to 1883. He did not enjoy the experience and finally, after several entreaties had fallen on deaf ears, walked the 17 miles to the Uppark estate, where his mother was employed, to ask to be released from his apprenticeship. He was allowed to and resumed his education.

It is interesting to note that a young doctor, Arthur Conan Doyle, set up his practice just across the road in 1882 so two of our most famous authors resided in the same road at the same time in Portsmouth.

Wine

By the fourteenth century the commercial port in Portsmouth was thriving. Common imports included wool, grain, wheat, woad, wax and iron, although the port's largest trade was in wine from France.