Gosport is still home to HMS Sultan and a Naval Armament Supply Facility, as well as a helicopter repair base.

Though there are multiple theories which point towards the etymology of Gosport, it is widely purported to derive its name from "goose".

An alternative etymology of "gorse" (from the bushes growing on local heathland) is not supported by the regional name for the plant, "furze".

It is also used as a base for glider clubs, light aeroplanes, HM Coastguard heliport and police aircraft.

[6] The climate of Gosport is milder than that of the surrounding areas, winter frosts being light and short-lived and snow quite rare.

The Rowner area of the peninsula was settled by the Anglo-Saxons, and is mentioned in the Anglo Saxon Chronicle as Rughenor ("rough bank or slope").

Both Rowner and Alverstoke, the name coming from the point where the River Alver entered the Solent at Stokes Bay, were included in the Domesday Book.

Bronze Age items found in a 1960s construction in HMS Sultan included a hoard of axe heads and torcs.

Next to the River Alver which passes the southern and western edge of Rowner is a Norman motte and bailey, the first fortification of the peninsula, giving a vantage point over the Solent, Stokes Bay, Lee-on-the-Solent and the Isle of Wight.

Most of the former naval and military installations have closed since the Second World War, leaving empty sites and buildings.

In response to this, museums have opened, and many of the fortifications and installations (such as Fort Brockhurst, Priddy's Hard (formerly an Armament Depot, now the Explosion!

In November 1850, two ships of the Ottoman Navy, Mirat-ı Zafer and Sürağ-ı Bahri Briki,[17] anchored off the Hardway near Gosport.

The visit lasted several months and during this time some of the members of the crew contracted cholera and were admitted to Haslar Hospital for treatment, where most of them died.

Convoys of vehicles had been carefully concealed from German discovery in the areas further inland, and in daylight on 3 June moved through Titchfield and Stubbington to G3 Hard on the Gosport waterfront.

After the retirement of the Solent Enterprise in 2003, a second modern and slightly larger ferry was added to the fleet and was named the Spirit of Portsmouth.

The trackbed of the former Gosport – Fareham railway is now an exclusive fast bus route and cycle lane.

Tite's station building has been retained for its historical and architectural value and has been converted into a small number of residential properties and offices.

A further development of six terraced homes has been built at the north western end of the site linking with George Street.

The station site was linked with the South Hampshire Rapid Transit scheme, which would have made use of the former railway route.

Now completed, regular service buses between Gosport and Fareham divert onto the new route avoiding lengthy queues on the A32 and speeding up commuting time between the towns for bus passengers.

The study proposed a 670m Immersed tube which would not require long closures of the harbour to construct, and would alleviate traffic congestion in Gosport and the surrounding area.

Their surfaces are covered in mosaic murals designed by Kenneth Barden that rise the full height of the buildings and are illuminated at night.

The Sultan site occupies 179 acres (72 ha) of land within a 3+1⁄2-mile (5.6 km) perimeter and is the largest of the Royal Navy's training establishments, with around 3,000 service and civilian personnel when working at full capacity.

[38][39] It is named after an earlier Thorngate Hall, on a different site in South Street, which was destroyed by bombing in the Second World War.

Future England players Trevor Jesty and Phil Newport played for the club before moving on to first-class careers.

[citation needed] Now it is one of only a few lakes in the world that still races vane steered boats, the more traditional kind without remote control or electricity.

The pebble beach at Stokes Bay slopes steeply into the sea and offers views of the shipping going in and out of Portsmouth and Southampton and the many pleasure craft from the many marinas along The Solent and the Isle of Wight.

The museum is housed in historic buildings at Priddy's Hard, the Navy's former armaments depot, with views across Portsmouth Harbour.

Fort Brockhurst is one of the "Palmerston's Follies", built in the 1850s to defend Portsmouth Harbour against threats of a French invasion.

In September 2016, the Royal Navy Submarine Museum became the set for a scene in Transformers: The Last Knight, which starred HMS Alliance.