This is backed up by the presence of several areas of local shops, which served their respective villages in the past, and to an extent still do today.

The Iron Age Hillfort at Tatchbury Mount is evidence of early settlement in the Totton area[5] and Netley Marsh on the edge of Totton was the site of an early battle between Anglo Saxon invaders under Cerdic and Romano-Celtic peoples under Natanleod.

[5] The construction of Testwood Lakes revealed a treasure-trove of ancient artefacts including one of the oldest known bridges in England, believed to date to around c.1,500BC.

[6] Totton Appears on the "Hantoniae sive Sovthantonensis Comitatvs" map in Joan Blaeu's Atlas Major Vol.

5 Published in 1665 [7] The area's history is inevitably closely connected with ship and boat building but more with its timber trade.