PORTSMOUTH & SOUTHSEA

The first settlement in the Portsmouth area was at Portchester, built as a Roman defensive port around the year 297. This was abandoned in the late fiurth century, but an Anglo-Saxon village emerged there in the early 500s, and the place became a defensive burh in 902 and a castle again in 1120. By this time however Portsmouth, the city which would one day supplant it, was already on its way.

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1086: Buckland, Frodington (Fratton) and Copenore (Copnor) are recorded as island villages in the Domesday Book. The marshlands south of Frodington are noted as 'Southsea'.

1180: Jean de Gisors, a knight, is given permission to use the Buckland estate to built a new town (possibly there was some housing in the area, but he effected a grid system for the town) on the south of Portsea Island. He calls it Portsmouth, probably after the de Port family from whom he bought Buckland.

1188: The town gets its first church, St. Thomas' (named after the recently-murdered Thomas a Becket, whom Gisors knew) – now the Cathedral. It took seven years to finish.

1194: Gisors makes the mistake of siding with Prince John, and loses all his lands on King Richard I's brief return to England. The king, who now owns the land, awards the town its first charter. The town takes as its arms the badge of Richard's chancellor William de Longchamp, who had adopted a crescent moon and star in honour of the recent Third Crusade.

1212: The first hospital is built in the town. The population is about 1,200.

1338: The French burn the mostly wooden town. It is rebuilt – of wood.

1369: The French burn the mostly wooden town. It is rebuilt – of wood. A military governor is appointed

1377: The French burn the mostly wooden town. It is rebuilt – of wood.

1382: The French burn the mostly wooden town. It is rebuilt – of wood.

1418: The Round Tower is built.

1450: The government sends Bishop Adam Moleyns of Chichester to sort out the sailors who are unhappy about not being paid. But he doesn't take enough money with him, and is murdered by them. The city is excommunicated for 50 years.

1513: King Henry VIII orders four new breweries for the town.

1544: A new castle is built to the south of the town. In time this will become known as Southsea Castle.

1545: Henry VIII visits the castle to see the Battle of the Solent. Oh dear! His newly-renovated flagship, HMS Mary Rose, keels over and sinks right in front of him.

1563: The Black Death hits the city. 300 from a population of just 2,000 killed.

1568-88: Portsmouth's walls are rebuilt in stone.

1600: The population has edged up to around 2,500.

1628: George Duke of Buckingham is stabbed to death in the High Street by a sailor called John Felton. Felton had been denied a promotion because of the duke, so was feeling a bit miffed. Soon after he was feeling worse. He was hanged.

1642: English Civil War. Portsmouth declares for the King, but the forces of Parliament use Southsea Castle to shell the city until it changes sides.

1650: HMS Portsmouth is launched, the first major ship for over 100 years. Portsmouth is soon building many more. The population edges up again, this time to 3,000.

1667-85: Portsmouth's defences are improved.

1704: The first major building away from the docks creates Portsea (the Dockyard had tried to block the building, but locals appealed to Queen Anne's husband Prince George, who overruled them). The population has boomed to 32,000.

1750: Portsmouth Grammar School opens. Southsea Lodge is the first of several houses to be built in what will soon become Southsea.

1805: Admiral Lord Nelson leaves the city to board HMS Victory, just before his great and final victory at the battle of Trafalgar.

1811: Portsmouth gets its first water supply – for the rich, of course.

1830-60: Thomas Ellis Owen is reponsible for many of the beautiful houses built in Southsea.

1839: More building in Southsea around the 'mineral streets' – Gold, Nickel, Silver, Copper, Diamond. The area is known as 'Croxton Town', but will soon become part of Southsea.

1847: Railway line from Portsmouth to London opened.

1848: Clarence Pier is opened by Queen Victoria. It is named for the city's then governor, Lord Frederick Fitzclarence.

1848-9: 800 people die in a cholera outbreak.

1851: St. Jude's Church is built.

1869: Portsmouth and Gosport School of Art and Sciednce opens. It will eventually become the University.

1872: 500 die in an outbreak of smallpox. The population is now around 112,000.

1874: The Battle of Southsea. Portsmouth Town Council, annoyed at some nude bathing, decide to close off the Common to defend Victorian modesty. Big mistake! Led by councillor Barney Miller, the people of the town break down the barricades and riot. After foru days the town has to back down.

1879: Southsea's South Pier is built.

1898: A railway line opens from Portsmouth and Southsea to East Southsea station, by the South Pier.

1914: The East Southsea line closes after just 16 years.

1922: Portsmouth buys Southsea Common. Population now 247,000.

1926: Birth of the future Queen Elizabeth II. Her grandfather George V makes Portsmouth a city. St. Thomas' is rebuilt as a cathedral.

1940-1: The Blitz. Portsmouth, being a major port, gets bombed frequently.

1944: D-Day. Hundreds of thousands of British and Allied soldiers depart to free Europe. One wonders why.

1974: South Pier burnt down, but rebuilt.

1982: The remains of HMS Mary Rose are raised from the sea-bed.

1984: D-Day Museum opens.

1999: Southsea Town Council formed.

2000: City badly flooded when a pumping station fails.

2001: Census reveals the population has slid back to 186,000.

2005: Spinnaker Tower, planned for the Millennium in 2000, finally finished.