SHOLING

History of Sholing, where I live, a district in the eastern part of the city of Southampton, England. The name of the area could come from either the Anglo-Saxon for 'hill by the shore', or possibly the ancient Sceolingas tribe who lived somewhere in this part of Hampshire.

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c. 6000 BC: Ice Age ends. Floods cut off Britain from Europe, Wight from Britain, and make Southampton Water from Solent Valley. The Sholing Valleys, formerly quite small, become a large marshy area when the Solent floods.

50: Romans found Clausentum (Bitterne). The Roman road from Bitterne to Chichester runs through the future Sholing; possibly Sholing Road, which runs beside the Veracity park, is built over it.

495: Cerdic, a Jutish prince, lands near Totton and founds the Gewissan kingdom. This tiny statelet will one day grow to become England.

c. 500: Cerdic takes Clausentum (Bitterne), which is then abandoned.

c.510: Probable founding of royal estate of Hamtun at St. Mary’s.

534: Death of Cerdic. His territories later becomes Hamtunscir. Hamtun has about 150 people.

980: Southampton raided by Vikings. Town gradually moves from St. Mary’s to modern site.

c.990: Viking settlement at Ulfston (Woolston).

1086: The Domesday Book records two Eastside settlements at Olvestune (Woolston) and Latelei (Netley). Bitterne was probably also settled by this time.

c. 1300: Probable beginning of Weston Mill, in what is now Mayfield Park. Miller's Pond takes its name from this building.

1537: Henry VIII closes Netley Abbey (Dissolution of the Monasteries).

1610: A Stuart map of the area shows a flooded valley surrounded by a marsh.

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.

1781: Finding the power of the stream insufficient, Taylor moves his operation upstream to Woodmill.

1791: Another map of the area shows it almost deserted.

1821: The Eastside villages, Bitterne, Sholing and Woolston, are incorporated into Southampton. A few people live in Sholing.

1839-40: Docks and Southampton-London railway built; steamboats to many parts of the British Empire. Southampton's growth begins to accelerate, as does Sholing's.

1866: Sholing Station opened on the Southampton to Netley Hospital Railway (the line had been built the previous year). Portsmouth Road diverted slightly, and Miller's Pond reduced at its southern end by the new embankment.

1867: Sholing Church (St. Mary's) built in Victorian style (i.e. a mess). Sholing parish created out of the parishes of St. Mary Extra and Hound.

1871: A population survey shows Sholing has 1,444 people living there.

1875: Maps show an alternative spelling, Scholing.

1889: Railway extended to Fareham and Portsmouth.

1890: First mention of the brickyard (probably much older) on Brickyard Hill (now upper Station Road). The first area of Sholing to be heavily urbanized, this today has become the last green area.

1930s: Sholing Brick Company ceases operations.

1940: Battle of Britain. Woolston a prime target due to Spitfire factory. Sholing gets a battering.

1975: First of three major hikes in rent for the Southampton Model Railway Society, based in Sholing Station. These will eventually force it to quit in 1986.

1977: Itchen Toll Bridge opens, replacing old ‘floating bridges’, with a promise of free passage after 20 years (hah!). Direct road access to the City Centre.

1978: Miller's Pond partly restored.

1983: Work starts on the strangely-named Shoreburs Greenway, connecting the two valleys to the Solent Way footpath.

1988: Sholing Valleys Study centre opens. British Rail pulls down the buildings on Sholing Station and replaces them with two bus-shelters.

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

2005: Loss of Sholing Station Post Office, leaving just the main post office and the small one on the border with Thornhill

2008: Both remaining post offices close.