History of Southampton

Its history has been affected by its geographical location, on a major estuary on the English Channel coast with an unusual double high tide, and by its proximity to Winchester and London; the ancient and modern capitals of England.

Southampton became an important port in medieval times, experiencing several hundred years of fluctuating fortunes until it was expanded by the Victorians.

As a centre of commerce, an industrial town and an important military embarkation point, Southampton was a strategic target for the Luftwaffe and was severely damaged in World War II.

[4] The case for Clausentum being situated at Bitterne Manor is based on archaeological evidence[2] and the geography of the site (inside a sharp bend in the River Itchen), which clearly allowed it to be turned into a good defensive position.

[10] Hamwic is referred to as a market[10] in the account of the life of St Willibald, written by an Anglo-Saxon nun named Hygeburg in the late 8th century.

[3] These collectively show that Hamwic was a planned town,[12] that it became an important port and traded with the continent[13] and was a royal administrative centre.

[16] Hamwic is also believed to have been a point of departure for slaves (being sent to the market at Rouen)[10] and pilgrims such as Willibald to important European cities such as Rome.

[18] Southampton's prosperity was assured following the Norman Conquest in 1066, when it became the major port of transit between Winchester (the capital of England until the early 12th century) and Normandy.

Domesday Book indicates that Southampton already had distinct French and English quarters at the time of the Norman Conquest[17] and that the King owned a number of properties for which rent was payable.

[29] Over the years God's House Tower has been used as home to the city's gunner, the town gaol and as storage for the Southampton Harbour Board.

The 12th-century Red Lion pub on the High Street below Bargate within the old walls is where in 1415, immediately prior to King Henry V of England's departure from Southampton to the Battle of Agincourt, the ringleaders of the 'Southampton Plot', Richard, Earl of Cambridge, Henry Scrope, 3rd Baron Scrope of Masham and Sir Thomas Grey of Heton, were tried and found guilty of high treason before being summarily executed outside Bargate.

Since that time it has been the last port of call for millions of emigrants who left the Old World to start a new life in the US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, Barbados[37] and other parts of the world.In 1642, during the English Civil War, a Parliamentary garrison moved into Southampton,[38] initially to defend against seaborne attack from Royalist ships.

[39] In 1689 the right to vote in parliamentary elections, which had previously been limited to freemen, was extended to include those paying Scot and lot in Southampton.

[42] Innovative buildings specifically for this purpose were built at West Quay,[42] with baths that were filled and emptied by the flow of the tide,[42] one of which had an adjustable floor.

[46] The canal would then be extended from Redbridge into the centre of Southampton, passing through a tunnel under the Marlands,[46] branching at Houndwell to serve both Northam and Town Quay.

[46] Walter Taylor's 18th century mechanisation of the block-making process, in Southampton, was a significant step in the Industrial Revolution,[47] winning him a monopoly on the supply of wooden rigging blocks for the Royal Navy from 1759 to 1803.

[54] In 1866, a branch line extended the railway over the River Itchen at St Denys, passing through Bitterne and Woolston to Netley.

[70] The accuracy of the locally based Ordnance Survey's maps did not go unrecognised by the Luftwaffe: German bomber pilots used them to bomb Southampton.

Detailed maps of the time show that within Area C, Sub-area Z extended around the north of Southampton and as far as Hedge End in the east.

[75] The plan was that troops and equipment would be assembled in the camps in sub-areas W, X, Y and Z then brought to the embarkation area to be loaded aboard the ships that were waiting there.

[77] From 1 April to 25 August 1944, Southampton was within Regulated Area (No 2), which placed the local population under certain restrictions that were intended to secure the military operation.

The ex-prisoners were provided with tea, cake and fruit in decorated huts on the quay and then driven in army vehicles to a reception camp on Southampton Common where they would spend their first night back on British soil.

[84] Two new buildings, the John Hansard Gallery with City Eye and a secondary site for the University of Southampton's Nuffield Theatre, in addition to several flats, have been built in the "cultural quarter" adjacent to Guildhall Square in 2017.

As part of nationwide 2017 Women's March, taking place in line with the inauguration of Donald Trump as president of the United States a half-hour public reading was organised in the city.

Its designer, Reginald Mitchell, grew up in Stoke-on-Trent, then had a house in Russell Place in Highfield suburb near the university (now identified by a memorial plaque).

Imperial Airways and its successor, BOAC, had a flying boat base in the docks serving British colonial possessions in Africa and Asia in the 1930s and 1940s.

[118] During World War II, Southamptons Trams were parked overnight in sidings on the Common instead of in the terminus buildings located around the city.

[117] The tram system did not extend very far into the eastern part of the city, passing over the River Itchen and Cobden Bridge and connecting with Bitterne Railway Station.

The Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway was originally intended to run on a separate competing route from Winchester to a new station north of the Royal Pier.

[122] By 1897, the existing Southampton Terminus, the South Western Hotel, a large goods yard and a turntable had all been established, with railway lines running across Canute Road and into every corner of the docks.