The Solent Area Virtual Tour no 7 ~ Woolston and Itchen Village

Today I am going to share with you a snapshot of old Wooston through copies of my Grandfather’s book of postcards. They are not dated, but looking at postcards of a similar era I would certainly say they were Edwardian.

Portsmouth Road Woolston Southampton

Above is the Portsmouth Road on its way down towards the Floating Bridge, and below is the Floating Bridge looking over towards Southampton:

The Floating Bridge Woolston

Then, travelling up the road to the outskirts of Itchen is Pear Tree Green church, not changed much today and still on the green overlooking the River Itchen:

Pear Tree Green Church

Still on the Itchen side of the Portsmouth Road is Bridge Road. The little of it left today is under the new bridge:

Bridge Road

Many locals will remember or recognise Ludlow School, still on the Itchen side of the Portsmouth Road although many called it Woolston:

Ludlow School Itchen (Woolston)

Here we have Manor Road. Many of these streets in and around Woolston look much the same today:

Now we move much later and here is an ariel photo of the Supermarine Works in Woolston which I date in the 1930’s. It was bombed and flattened in 1940.

Supermarine Woolston

Finally one of my own postcards from the 1960’s of the hovercraft which ran from just over the river to the Isle of Wight:

….and so what are Woolston and Itchen Village famous for, apart from being the location from which my second novel Ancasta Guide me Swiftly Home flows.

Firstly there’s Supermarine, initially famous for winning Great Britain the Schneider Trophy back in 1931. It was first opened and the name ‘Supermarine’ emblazoned on its roof 100 years ago in 1913. (even though the company was not registered officially under that name until 1916.) Famous in those days for its flying boats and then its sea planes, it must have been a wonderful site, watching them glide along towards Southampton Water and take off. Of course, most people know Supermarine for the Spitfire and it was here that RJ Mitchell developed the first prototype, which my father was lucky enough to see on its inaugural flight.

Even before Supermarine there was Thornycroft, whose land on the banks of the river has finally been made safe, flattened and is being redeveloped. Wikipedia says that the yard launched over 100 ships between 1876 and 1889 alone!

I am going to leave you with a lovely old photo of the River Itchen. Is this the mill at Swaythling just up the river in 1910 or in the late nineteenth century? I can find no photo which looks exactly like this but I’d love to know.

When was the last flight from the River Itchen, Woolston, Southampton?

http://www.bartiesworld.co.uk/

As Woolston is regenerated from a forgotten backwater, passed without a second thought by drivers taking the Itchen Bridge which was opened back in 1977, I hope it will remember its fascinating history. As I research Woolston, this little suburb of Southampton, the more fascinating the history becomes in my mind.

I’m not old enough to remember the first flight of the Spitfire, like my father, or the famous Schneider Trophy winners taking off from Woolston and practicing off Calshot along Southampton Water watched by my grandfather and great grandmother, but I do remember the hovercraft. In fact the last flight out of Woolston, from the River Itchen was neither a flying boat nor a sea plane, but a hovercraft. 

There was a regular hovercraft service from Woolston to Cowes in the Isle of Wight which began in 1962, with its terminal just over the Floating Bridge linking Portsmouth Road Woolston with Southampton before the Itchen Bridge was built, but there is still a hovercraft service from Southsea, Portsmouth to the Isle of Wight today.

 The fact which most excited me recently was finding out that there is a company who works in the development of hovercrafts still thriving in Woolston called Griffon Hoverwork Ltd, based at Hazel Road close to the site of the original Supermarine Works. 

If you would like to know more about this strange mode of transport with a skirt where you fly on water, it’s worth visiting the only Hovercraft Museum in the world only along the coast towards Portsmouth at Lee on Solent. Amongst more serious craft you will see the hovercrafts used by James Bond in ‘Die another Day’ in 2002.