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Hilsea

Suburb of Portsmouth, Hampshire, England

Hilsea
Summary

Suburb of Portsmouth, Hampshire, England

FieldValue
static_image_nameHilsea Lagoon footbridge.JPG
static_image_captionHilsea Lagoon footbridge
countryEngland
coordinates
official_nameHilsea
unitary_englandPortsmouth
lieutenancy_englandHampshire
regionSouth East England
constituency_westminsterPortsmouth North
population13,552
population_ref(2011 Census. Hilsea Ward)
post_townPortsmouth
postcode_districtPO2, PO3
postcode_areaPO
dial_code023
os_grid_referenceSU663035

Hilsea is a district of the city of Portsmouth in the English county of Hampshire. Hilsea is home to one of Portsmouth's main sports and leisure facilities – the Mountbatten centre. Trafalgar School (formerly the City of Portsmouth Boys' School) is also in Hilsea. It is also the home of Portsmouth rugby football club and to Portsmouth Football Club's training ground.

A map of Hilsea from 1833

Located at the Northern end of Portsea Island, for most of its history, Hilsea was a small hamlet on the Portsmouth to London road. The name "Hilsea" probably means 'holly island'. The boundaries of Portsmouth were not extended to encompass the hamlet until 1832. The last working farm in Portsmouth, Green Farm, was located in the area up to the 1990s. This area is now a residential estate and is marked by a pub and hotel, still known locally as the Green Farm, although its external sign bears only the name of the Toby Carvery chain which now owns it.

Construction of Hilsea Barracks started in 1780. Over the decades, they underwent various rebuildings and changes of use, before being knocked down to allow for housing development in the 1960s.

In the years after 1926, Hilsea expanded with the building of the Hilsea Crescent Estate, which was constructed on former allotments. The Church of England church of St Nicholas was built in the area between 1929 and 1930.

The North of the district composes the Hilsea Lines, former defensive fortifications that are now a nature reserve, known locally as Fox's Forest. In the 1930s, the Western end of the Lines moat became known as the Hilsea Lagoon and in the mid-1930s work was done on the banks and it was turned into a boating lake. In the same period, the land around the Eastern end of the boating lake was converted into Hilsea Bastion Gardens. The terraces that formed part of the gardens were demolished in 2000. In 1938, a bridge was built across the boating lake section of the moat. It was demolished in 1999 and later replaced by the current structure.

The area is home to the Coach & Horses pub. This was originally the first public house reached when arriving on Portsea island from the mainland. It was damaged in a fire in 1870 and had to be rebuilt.

Another facility in the area was the Hilsea Lido which opened in July 1935. It closed in 2008, and it re-opened in July 2014.

St Francis CofE church was built on Northern Parade in 1936.

The North West of Hilsea is protected from the sea by Stamshaw Esplanade which was built between 1936 and 1938.

In 1969 the area became home to local newspaper The News when it moved to The News Centre.

Modern Hilsea is a mixture of residential and industrial areas. One of the major routes into Portsmouth still runs through the area. In addition, a small halt called Hilsea railway station serves the area.

Portsmouth Football Club training ground

Portsmouth's training ground in Hilsea, Portsmouth

Portsmouth F.C. have been using their training ground at 442 Copnor Road (PO3 5EW) in the Hilsea area of Portsea Island since 2014.{{cite web | url=https://www.portsmouthfc.news/club/training-ground/ | title=Training Ground

Portsmouth Airport & Anchorage Park

Between 1932–1973, the North-East corner of Hilsea was previously the location of Portsmouth Airport, and was one of the last remaining commercial grass runway airports in the United Kingdom. The airport offered little scope for expansion and, following some near-miss accidents with larger Hawker Siddeley 748 aircraft in the 1960s, the airport was restricted to small aircraft from then on, was uneconomic and closed in 1973. During the 1980s, the former airport land was redeveloped into an industrial area and a housing estate now known as Anchorage Park.

References

References

  1. "Portsmouth Ward population 2011".
  2. "Hilsea Key to English Place-names". The University of Nottingham.
  3. "Gatcombe House". British Listed Buildings.
  4. Mitchell, Garry. (1988). "Hilsea Lines and Portsbridge". Garry Mitchell.
  5. Smith, Jane. (2002). "The book of Hilsea Gateway to Portsmouth". Halsgrove.
  6. (2018). "The Buildings of England Hampshire: South". Yale University Press.
  7. Smith, Jane. (2002). "The book of Hilsea Gateway to Portsmouth". Halsgrove.
  8. Smith, Jane. (2002). "The book of Hilsea Gateway to Portsmouth". Halsgrove.
  9. Smith, Jane. (2002). "The book of Hilsea Gateway to Portsmouth". Halsgrove.
  10. Slater, John. (July 2006). "Hilsea Lido area action plan – preferred options". Portsmouth city council.
  11. Smith, Jane. (2002). "The book of Hilsea Gateway to Portsmouth". Halsgrove.
  12. Smith, Jane. (2002). "The book of Hilsea Gateway to Portsmouth". Halsgrove.
  13. Smith, Jane. (2002). "The book of Hilsea Gateway to Portsmouth". Halsgrove.
  14. Smith, Jane. (2002). "The book of Hilsea Gateway to Portsmouth". Halsgrove.
  15. Smith, Jane. (2002). "The book of Hilsea Gateway to Portsmouth". Halsgrove.
  16. Judd, Emma. (22 September 2010). "Hilsea Lido trust: There is still work to do". The News.
  17. (2018). "The Buildings of England Hampshire: South". Yale University Press.
  18. Smith, Jane. (2002). "The book of Hilsea Gateway to Portsmouth". Halsgrove.
  19. Wright, Josh. (22 July 2023). "The News Centre building in Portsmouth set for demolition to create a new super bus depot". The News.
  20. Cross, Jordan. (16 June 2021). "Portsmouth announce landmark move to buy Hilsea training facility and Roko health club". The Portsmouth News.
  21. "Portsmouth - Airfields of Britain Conservation Trust UK".
  22. "Anchorage Park, Hilsea, Portsmouth".
Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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