St Paul's

11/4 – Part 1 – Portsmouth overview
We were early into Portsmouth, sailed in quietly and I looked out just in time to see an aircraft carrier and another of the several Royal Navy ships in port, this being home to two thirds of the UK’s surface fleet, and an important base for many centuries. There’s a lot to see, far more than a morning allows so we knew the overview bus tour included in the tour would be useful. I’d love to have seen the Mary Rose and Victory but maybe another time? No visit to the Victory but we did see plenty to do with Admiral Nelson such as his statue in the old port area, Portchester Castle in the distance, church where the king married Catherine of Braganza, and the Victorian Fort Nelson up on the hills above the town. And the guide’s brother coincidentally happens to live in Nelson, New Zealand.

Unfortunately it was another squished bus, 38 people and quite hard to see but the commentary was pretty much non-stop, I’ll never remember it all but it was fascinating all the same. I’ve attached the Wikipedia link in case you want a lot of detail. Most of the city is built on Portsea Island and there are a series of harbours, historical defences including four concrete constructions/forts just out to sea (one of which is now a hotel), huge long brick walls around the naval establishments, centuries-old sea and defence walls. Henry VII built the world’s first drydock in 1496, still in existence though rebuilt in later years. The Vikings were here, the French have attacked time and again, the Spanish had a go, and the Germans, all driven off. And although extensively bombed in WW2 the city was the HQ for the planning of the D-Day landings

We drove through the town and up along the long ridge, Portsdown Hill, above the town which has great views showing the extent of the harbour. It also has a series of Victorian forts which include Fort Nelson which contains the Royal Armouries Museum. There’s also a fake ship, or the top half of what looks to be a ship, visible on the skyline which is used for various practices by the military. Going a bit further into the country we passed through a couple of very pretty villages which had some flint cottages, thatched cottages, narrow roads, very ‘chocolate box’. We could see Southwick House near here, Eisenhower’s HQ, and the pub where he and Churchill would go at lunchtime for a break and informal talks. The house is still occupied by the military even now, and the family are aiming to finally get it back though they have their land and farms around it.

We had a couple of brief stops to have a look at ancient walls, a cannon, the site of the Mary Rose’s capsize on her first voyage (top-heavy, all hands lost, and now recovered and a famous archaeological site), and a huge tank landing craft from D-Day which had been (of all things) turned into a nightclub somewhere up north, sunk and was recovered and brought to Portsmouth. The chain link statue is a memorial to the emigrants to Australia, a kind of sister-city thing, and there’s also a memorial on the nearby wall with poppies, plaques, Australian flag.

And fun fact – windsurfing was invented at Hayling Island by a boy called Peter and his dad who had a surfboard and fixed a small sail to it, there were photos in the paper and quite a write-up. A few years later a big company tried to take out a patent for windsurf boards (if that’s what they are called), claiming it was their invention, but got thrown out of court because of all the evidence against them.

A busy morning, ready for lunch and then on to Arundel Castle in the afternoon – see the next entry, too many photos for just one entry. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PortsmouthRead more