Central Eastleigh

The Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary was formed in 1839 and with the Essex Constabulary is the oldest County Force. It is one of the most successful and one of the fastest growing, since the shift of population towards the South is making Hampshire an increasingly
popular and prosperous area.Before the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary was formed, policing in Hampshire was rural and based on parishes, police officers being parish constables, with only one or two patrolling each parish.

The original Petition of the Eastleigh Urban District Council for Incorporation is dated 10th January 1935, and it is addressed to the King’s Most Excellent Majesty in Council, the King referred to being George V.
The Petition sets out in the scholarly English of F.W. Cuthbertson, then Clerk of the Urban District Council and subsequently Charter Town Clerk, the reasons of history, geography and achievement upon which Eastleigh’s claim to be incorporated as a Municipal Borough was based.

The first train to travel on the newly laid London and Southampton Railway left the station at New Road, Southampton, (the terminus in the Marsh not yet being completed) shortly before 8 a.m. on Monday, 10th June 1839. Hampshire newspapers reported that thousands of people came to witness the event.

ST. MARY'S HOME, EASTLEIGH, 1884 - 1924.
This Home for destitute Catholic girls stood in the part of Upper Market Street which was then known as “Park View”, opposite what is now Safeways Store and the Bus Terminus. Despite the destruction of all the other buildings in the road, St. Mary’s Home (number 18) is still here, although in a very much altered form.

MEMORIES OF EASTLEIGH COLLEGE - A DAMES SCHOOL
I must be the youngest College entrant in the country. I started my education when I was barely three years old at Eastleigh College. This school was on the site now occupied by Delbridge's at the junction of High Street and Leigh Road.* It was a red brick house with a high brick wall and pillastered entrance gate, each pillar topped with a stone ball.

THE. JUNCTION HOTEL. EASTLEIGH

The Junction Hotel was sited at the northern end of the space in front of Eastleigh Station, opposite the Home Tavern. It was pulled down in 1970 to make way for the present station car park. The following notes give an account of its construction and early history.From the following report, which appeared in the Hampshire Advertiser dated Saturday 286 August 1841, it would seem that the Junction Hotel was in the course of erection in August of that year:

I first became associated with Eastleigh in October 1928 when I was transferred from Fratton Loco
Running Shed to Eastleigh Works as a Boilersmith’s Apprentice. I reported to the Staff Office
and was taken to the Boiler Shop where I was to work. I was interviewed by Mr Staples, the
Assistant Foreman, who wanted to know the kind of work I had been doing at Fratton. When I told
him, he said none of it would be of use to me in the Works as it was classed as semi-skilled work

THE LONDON AND SOUTH WESTERN RAILWAY COMPANY’S WORKMEN'S INSTITUTE AT EASTLEIGH
From the building of the Carriage and Wagon Works in 1889 until well into the 1960s the economy of Eastleigh was closely linked to the railway industry, which provided the prime source of employment for men and youths wanting to take up apprenticeships. Since its erection in 1891 the Railway Institute had been a constant reminder of the importance of the railway to the town.

EASTLEIGH is a town put together over the last 150 years by the assembling during that period of a number of ssmall centres of population which had grown into villages and small townships scattered over a rural district situated rougly between Southampton and the River Hamble. This potted history was written by Gordon Cox in 1990.

This paper has been written with the intention of setting down basic facts in the history of Eastleigh as they are known, and of drawing attention to the vast amount of detail still needing to be discovered and recorded.The very name of Eastleigh has its history and, together with all the other place-names in our modem Borough, a long one, with variations in spelling, popularity and expanse of land indicated by the name.Research already carried out by members of the Eastleigh and District Local History Society has been published in a series of occasional and Special Papers.