Sholing, previously Scholing,[2] is a suburb on the eastern side of the city of Southampton, in the ceremonial county of Hampshire, England.

The explanations include that it originates from the heathland's characteristic spiky gorse that still springs up whenever open land is left unattended.

This detail is than conflated by some with the name 'Botany Bay' and the implied lawlessness of the Traveller and Gypsy inhabitants of Sholing to arrive at Spike Island.

The area was then rather desolate, mainly gorse land and heather, and was part of the Parish of Hound, which also included nearby Hamble and Bursledon.

The undeveloped Sholing Common was used as a holding area for troops awaiting embarkation in the late 18th and early 19th century wars with France.

The resultant creation of the road to Portsmouth made the entire district more accessible, adjoining, as it did, the Woolston and Itchen areas.

The latter had become fashionable for the gentry, who wanted to get away from the rapidly developing industrial area of Southampton and live in the nearby countryside.

Sholing never existed as a village but a small hamlet of brick bungalow type cottages were built in the 1790s in the Botany Bay Road area.

Buildings and new roads spread throughout the area and the new residents' spiritual needs were soon served by a Primitive Methodist Chapel, erected in 1856 at a cost of £106 and capable of seating 120 persons.

Sholing was ideal territory for the predominantly working-class dissenting Primitive Methodists at this time, with its high proportion of labourers.

Many inhabitants were in service, went to sea as stokers or stewards, or laboured in the docks, and their wives frequently took in laundry, often working together.

Donkeys were a common form of transport for the numerous laundries and for the pedlars who carried out a thriving trade in the district.

Not to be outdone, the Primitive Methodists' growing popularity was demonstrated by the building of an impressive new Chapel in nearby South-East Road in 1876.

The only known education in the area at that time was in a National School, Sholing Common, on the site of what is now the Salvation Army Hall, North-East Road, with children of all ages crowded into one classroom.

New buildings for 219 boys were also constructed in 1885 in Middle Road, and Sholing Infants School was built nearby in 1911.

This proved to be of great value to the many local strawberry growers, market gardeners and brick makers and helped the area to prosper.

The railway line ran from Southampton to Fareham and on to Portsmouth, and this greatly improved their trading opportunities.

It was also the recipient of Southampton's first flying bomb, above the top of North East Road on 12 July 1944, although there were no fatal casualties.

Extensive post war council development was carried out, arising out of the urgent need to house the hundreds made homeless when large areas of the town were devastated during the many heavy 'blitzes'.

Sholing Girls School completed its transition to a specialist College of Technology with an official ceremony in May 2003.

Middle Road is also home to Itchen College, which started life in 1906 as a Pupil Teacher's Centre in Woolston.

The foundation stone for the present building was laid in December 1925 but many factors, including a major fire, meant that it was not fully completed until 1938.

In June 1940 French troops who escaped from Dunkirk were given tea and sandwiches by the WVS from the window of the Domestic Science room, but a British Restaurant was later established in the school dining hall.

In 1961 the scenic area of Miller's Pond, in the southwest corner of Sholing, was scheduled for largescale development.

It is now home to the Sholing Valley Study Centre, a voluntary environmental group with an interest in the local wildlife.

Below is an excerpt from James Brown's book The Illustrated History of Southampton's Suburbs: Traces of its original rural nature have been retained through the network of Greenways established by the City Council since 1983.

1770: First official mention of the mill at Weston when one Walter Taylor rents it to make rigging blocks for ships – including a certain HMS Victory.

1866: Sholing Station opened on the Southampton to Netley Hospital Railway (the line had been built the previous year).

1975: First of three major hikes in rent for the Southampton Model Railway Society, based in Sholing Station.

1993: Sholing Sports FC forced to close – its owners want to sell the ground for building.