A cutting in Portsdown Hill

The first cutting through Portsdown Hill was made in about 1800 to ease the route out of Portsmouth to the north and on to London. It is still in evidence today by the George Inn. The debris was taken down the hill and placed in Cosham High Street to lessen the gradient of the road through this section. In the short term this resulted in the road being much higher than the front doors of the adjacent small farm cottages.

As Cosham developed with an increase in through traffic, these dwellings gradually vanished and no trace remains today.

R J Winnicott Limited

This local building company is well into its second century. It was started in 1904 by Robert John Winnicott who was only 21. Initially taking advantage of the building boom in Portsmouth in the early years of the 20th century the company flourished by buying land, building houses and selling some on but also keeping others as investments. As the decades passed, they moved into contract work and opened up several hardware shops in south east Hampshire. The houses they built were in Copnor, Eastney and Cosham. In Copnor they are known to have built houses in Wallington, Copythorn, Westbourne, Cosham, Powerscourt, Tokio, Mayhall, Seafield and Highgate Roads. These were built with bricks from the nearby Portsmouth Brickworks in Burrfield Road. http://www.winnicott.co.uk/history.html