Portchester is a locality and suburb northwest of

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most d ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. It is part of the

borough of Fareham The Borough of Fareham is a local government district with borough status and unparished area in Hampshire, England. Its council is based in Fareham. Other places within the borough include Portchester, Hill Head, Stubbington, Titchfield, War ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

. Once a small village, Portchester is now a busy part of the expanding conurbation between Portsmouth and

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

on the A27 main thoroughfare. Its population according to the

2011 United Kingdom census A census of the population of the United Kingdom is taken every ten years. The 2011 census was held in all countries of the UK on 27 March 2011. It was the first UK census which could be completed online via the Internet. The Office for Nationa ...

was 17,789 residents.

Name

Portchester is derived from its former

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

name Portus Adurni and the

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th ...

suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carr ...

''ceaster'' ("fort; fortified town"), itself derived from the Latin word “castrum.”

History

The fort of Portus Adurni is considered the best-preserved

Roman fort In the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, the Latin word ''castrum'', plural ''castra'', was a military-related term. In Latin usage, the singular form ''castrum'' meant 'fort', while the plural form ''castra'' meant 'camp'. The singular and ...

north of

the Alps The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, S ...

. It is sometimes identified as the ''Caer Peris''

Nennius Nennius – or Nemnius or Nemnivus – was a Welsh monk of the 9th century. He has traditionally been attributed with the authorship of the '' Historia Brittonum'', based on the prologue affixed to that work. This attribution is widely considere ...

().

Theodor Mommsen Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen (; 30 November 1817 – 1 November 1903) was a German classical scholar, historian, jurist, journalist, politician and archaeologist. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest classicists of the 19th centur ...

(). ''Historia Brittonum'', VI. Composed after AD 830. Hosted at Latin Wikisource. listed by the 9th-century ''

History of the Britons ''The History of the Britons'' ( la, Historia Brittonum) is a purported history of the indigenous British ( Brittonic) people that was written around 828 and survives in numerous recensions that date from after the 11th century. The ''Historia Br ...

'' as among the 28

cities A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

of Britain.Ford, David Nash.
The 28 Cities of Britain
" at Britannia. 2000.Newman, John Henry & al
p. 92.">''Lives of the English Saints: St. German, Bishop of Auxerre'', Ch. X: "Britain in 429, A. D.", p. 92.
James Toovey (London), 1844. The medieval Portchester Castle was built within the Roman fort.

Amenities

As well as the castle, its

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...

is listed as a Grade I protected building. There are also many historic houses in Castle Street. This suburb is well placed for waterfront leisure activities, only a short distance from the UK's 3rd-largest marina at

Port Solent Port Solent is the commercial business name of a housing and leisure development located in the Paulsgrove suburb of the English city of Portsmouth, Hampshire, comprising a marina, a housing estate, shopping and leisure facilities. The Port S ...

, from the historic city of

, and from the market town of

Fareham Fareham ( ) is a market town at the north-west tip of Portsmouth Harbour, between the cities of Portsmouth and Southampton in south east Hampshire, England. It gives its name to the Borough of Fareham. It was historically an important manufac ...

Public open spaces

* Portchester Castle * Portsdown Hill - Including Portchester Common a

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle ...

(SSSI) * Wicor Recreation Ground - Home to A.F.C. Portchester and Wicor Skate Park.

Schools

* Portchester Community School, a mixed comprehensive community school for 11- to 16-year-olds. * Wicor Primary School * Northern Infant School * Northern Junior School * Red Barn Primary School * Castle Primary School

Crematorium

Opened in 1958, it is on the lower slopes of Portsdown Hill. It is owned by a Joint Committee representing the City of Portsmouth and the Boroughs of Fareham, Havant and Gosport. It has two chapels, the North (added 1969) and South (original). Those cremated there include two

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

Victoria Cross The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious award of the British honours system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British Armed Forces and may be awarded posthumously. It was previousl ...

recipients, Norman Augustus Finch and James Ockendon who both died in 1966.

Sport and leisure

Portchester has a

Non-League football Non-League football describes association football, football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is s ...

club A.F.C. Portchester, which plays at Wicor Recreation Ground.

Notable residents

* Neil Astley, publisher and founding editor of Bloodaxe Books, born in Portchester * Emily Farmer, watercolour painter *

Neil Gaiman Neil Richard MacKinnon GaimanBorn as Neil Richard Gaiman, with "MacKinnon" added on the occasion of his marriage to Amanda Palmer. ; ( Neil Richard Gaiman; born 10 November 1960) is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, gra ...

, author, born in Portchester *

Steve Ridgway Stephen Ridgway, CBE (born 29 September 1951) is a British business executive best known for having been the CEO of Virgin Atlantic. Early life Ridgway was born in Tavistock, Devon, and grew up on a farm in Bantham near Salcombe. He went to sch ...

, Chief Executive, Virgin Atlantic Airways * Mike Hancock, former MP for Portsmouth South and former Councillor for Fratton ward, has lived here for over 30 years * Harry Davis, Councillor for Portchester East, Fareham Borough Council

Transport

Rail

Portchester railway station is managed and operated by South Western Railway with frequent Southern Railway services. Services run along the coast to

, Havant,

Chichester Chichester () is a cathedral city and civil parish in West Sussex, England.OS Explorer map 120: Chichester, South Harting and Selsey Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publishing Date:2009. It is the only ...

and

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

. London services to

London Waterloo Waterloo station (), also known as London Waterloo, is a central London terminus on the National Rail network in the United Kingdom, in the Waterloo area of the London Borough of Lambeth. It is connected to a London Underground station o ...

(via Fareham) and London Victoria (via Barnham) also stop at the station.

Bus services

First Hampshire & Dorset services to

, Havant,

, Titchfield,

Locks Heath Locks Heath is a western residential suburb of Fareham, in the south of Hampshire, England. Locks Heath is immediately surrounded by a collection of villages including Sarisbury to the West, Swanwick, Park Gate and Whiteley to the North, Wars ...

and Warsash.

Road

The

A27 road The A27 is a major road in England. It runs from its junction with the A36 at Whiteparish (near Salisbury) in the county of Wiltshire, follows the south coast of Hampshire and West Sussex, and terminates at Pevensey (near Eastbourne and Bex ...

cuts through the centre of Portchester running east/west between Fareham and Cosham on the northern outskirts of Portsmouth. Access to the

M27 motorway The M27 is a motorway in Hampshire, England. It is long and runs between Cadnam and Portsmouth. It was opened in stages between 1975 and 1983, providing the largest two urban areas in Hampshire ( Southampton and Portsmouth) with a direct m ...

is via Junction 11 at Fareham or Junction 12 at

References

External links

St Mary's

Portchester Castle Information
{{Authority control Borough of Fareham