Bitterne Manor is the site of the original Roman settlement of Clausentum, the forerunner to today's City of Southampton.

[3] Arrangements were made to determine the exact boundaries between the manor and the Abbey lands at Hound and Netley in January 1246.

[3] William Camden visited the manor in around 1586, describing it as "an ancient castle ... at every tide [it] is encompassed for three parts of it by water a great breadth.

[citation needed] The manor, including approximately 50 acres (200,000 m2) of surrounding property, was purchased by Sir Steuert MacNaghten around 1863,[5] and was used as the private residence of his family until his death in 1895.

Following the death of Steuert MacNaghten, most of the land surrounding the manor house was sold to the Southampton Corporation for residential development.

One of these, Lettice MacNaghten, purchased full title from her siblings and continued to live in the house, often taking in paying guests, who at one stage in the 1930s included the family of novelist Nicolas Freeling.

Some of the surrounding grounds, consisting of grassland, woodland and a natural foreshore to the River Itchen, are maintained by the council as a public open space.

The area is bounded on the north, west and south by the River Itchen, and on the east by the railway line linking Southampton to Portsmouth.