Bitterne is an eastern suburb and

ward Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

, in the ceremonial county of

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

, England. Bitterne derives its name not from the similarly named bird, the

bittern Bitterns are birds belonging to the subfamily Botaurinae of the heron family Ardeidae. Bitterns tend to be shorter-necked and more secretive than other members of the family. They were called ''hæferblæte'' and various iterations of ''rared ...

, but probably from the bend in the River Itchen; the

Old English Old English ( or , or ), 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 developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

words ''byht'' and ''ærn'' together mean "house near a bend" or possibly ''bita ærn''; "house of horse bits", either most likely a reference to Bitterne Manor House. A reference from the late 11th century spells the name ''Byterne''. Bitterne Ward comprises the suburbs of Bitterne and Thornhill, and had a population of 13,800 at the 2011 census. The ward borders Sholing Ward and Harefield Ward to the west and north.

History

The focal point of Bitterne today is the former location of Bitterne Village (and is still occasionally referred to by that name), but the village is predated by the settlement at Bitterne Manor, the site of the original Roman settlement of ''

Clausentum Clausentum was a small town in the Roman province of Britannia. The site is believed to be located in Bitterne Manor, which is now a suburb of Southampton. Identification Route VII of the Antonine Itinerary documents the Roman settlement of Cla ...

'', the forerunner of today's City of

. Bitterne is not mentioned in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

but first appears in a late 11th century entry in the

Bishop of Winchester The Bishop of Winchester is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Winchester in the Church of England. The bishop's seat (''cathedra'') is at Winchester Cathedral in Hampshire. The Bishop of Winchester has always held ''ex officio'' the offic ...

's register as ''Byterne''. This is, however, a reference to Bitterne Manor, not to the settlement known as Bitterne today. In 1665, the population of Bitterne was estimated to be 75 inhabitants, across 15 houses, which included Bitterne Manor House and Peartree House. A new estate was built in 1760, known then as Bitterne Grove and today housing St Mary's Independent School. A number of workers' cottages were erected to support the estate and the farming activities at Bitterne Manor and

Townhill Park Townhill Park is a suburb of Southampton, England, bordering Swaythling, Bitterne Park and West End. It is built on land which once belonged to the house which carries the same name. History The Manor of Townhill was granted to ...

; the cottages were in the Mousehole area of Bitterne. In the 1790s, frequent royal visits to Southampton encouraged a spate of land-buying in the area, and further estates were added to the Bitterne area, including Ridgeway, Sydney Farm and

Midanbury Midanbury is a small suburb of Southampton, England, bordering Bitterne, Bitterne Park and Townhill Park. History In 1790 Southampton was a spa town whose popularity led to the construction of several country houses in the surrounding area, ...

Lodge.

House was also built around this time, and Chessel House was built in 1796 by David Lance. Aware that access to his land was poor, Lance encouraged the building of a

bridge A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whi ...

over the River Itchen linking Bitterne Manor to Northam, and another bridge over the

River Hamble The River Hamble in south Hampshire, England, source (river), rises near Bishop's Waltham and flows for through Botley, Hampshire, Botley, Bursledon, and Lower Swanwick before entering Southampton Water between Hamble Common and Warsash. The ...

Bursledon Bursledon is a village on the River Hamble in Hampshire, England. It is located within the borough of Eastleigh. Close to the city of Southampton, Bursledon has a railway station, a marina, dockyards and the Bursledon Windmill. Nearby villages ...

, with a road linking the bridges meeting another new road, to Botley, at the location known as the centre of today's Bitterne. Construction of this new road and the bridges was completed in 1801. Although this new junction on an important communications route would eventually stimulate the growth of Bitterne Village, an account of 1826 mentions only the estate houses and not any hamlet or collection of cottages. By the 20th Century, Bitterne Village was swallowed up by fast expanding

. During the 1950s, Bitterne underwent extensive renovation, with the destruction of Victorian cottage housing areas to be replaced with flats and estates on the old farm land. The Angel pub went to be replaced by Sainsbury's, the Methodist church by Lloyds Bank (with the Methodists joining with the Anglican church). During the 1980s, work was carried out to bypass the bottleneck of the main high street by looping the A3024 from the top of Lances Hill eastwards through some of the poorer housing to a new junction with the Hedge End road and demolishing the old post office and United Reformed Church. This enabled the pedestrianisation of the old high street.

Government

Bitterne is a ward within the

unitary authority A unitary authority is a type of local government, local authority in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Unitary authorities are responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are ...

of Southampton, returning three councillors to the city council. As well as Bitterne itself, the Bitterne ward represents the neighbouring suburb of Thornhill and had a combined population of 13,800 at the 2011 census. As of May 2021, the three councillors representing the ward are Terry Streets, Elliot Prior and Matthew Magee (Conservatives). Bitterne was formerly a

tything A tithing or tything was a historic English legal, administrative or territorial unit, originally ten hides (and hence, one tenth of a hundred). Tithings later came to be seen as subdivisions of a manor or civil parish. The tithing's leader or s ...

and

chapelry A chapelry was a subdivision of an ecclesiastical parish in England and parts of Lowland Scotland up to the mid 19th century. Status A chapelry had a similar status to a Township (England), township, but was so named as it had a chapel of ease ...

in the parish of South Stoneham, on 31 December 1894 Bitterne became a separate

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

, on 1 April 1925 the parish was abolished and merged with Southampton. In 1921 the parish had a population of 3882. It is now in the

unparished area In England, an unparished area is an area that is not covered by a civil parish (the lowest level of local government, not to be confused with an ecclesiastical parish). Most urbanised districts of England are either entirely or partly unparis ...

of Southampton.

Geography

As with many city suburbs the boundaries of Bitterne itself are not well defined; however the ward (which includes neighbouring Thornhill) comprises an area of . The area is entirely suburban in nature, and located northeast of the

Bargate The Bargate is a Grade I listed medieval gatehouse in the city centre of Southampton, England. Constructed in Norman times as part of the Southampton town walls, it was the main gateway to the city. The building is a scheduled monument, which ...

Southampton City Centre Southampton City Centre is the commercial and organisational centre of the City of Southampton, and the transport hub of the city. Because Southampton is on the South Coast of England, the city centre is not at the geometric centre of the city, ...

. It is atop a raised part eastern shoulder of the lower Itchen valley, with views over much of the city visible from parts of the suburb. The road up the valley shoulder from the floodplain was named Lance's Hill after David Lance, who owned Chessel House and encouraged the construction of the Northam Bridge linking Bitterne to central Southampton. The road now bypasses the central shopping area and is a dual carriageway, carrying the A3024 road. Because the Northam Bridge is the southernmost toll-free bridge into Southampton from the east, traffic on this route can be heavy: in 2014 the annual average daily flow was 25,936 motor vehicles (not including motorcycles), 474 motorcycles and 110 pedal cycles. The bypassed section of the road is

pedestrianised Pedestrian zones (also known as auto-free zones and car-free zones, as pedestrian precincts in British English, and as pedestrian malls in the United States and Australia) are areas of a city or town restricted to use by people on foot or ...

, forming a popular shopping precinct.

Demography

Bitterne Ward had a population of 13,800 in the 2011 census, of which 3,079 (22.3%) were under 15, 8,429 (61.1%) of working age and 2,292 (16.6%) aged 65 or over. Proportionately Bitterne has fewer people of working age than Southampton as a whole (69.6%), and more people in both the younger and older age groups. However the population of all three age groups in Bitterne had increased since the 2001 census. The area is predominantly indigenous, with white British comprising 91.1% of the population. No other ethnic group accounts for more than 2.6% of the population. The only ward in Southampton with a higher indigenous proportion in the 2011 census was neighbouring Sholing, with 92.4% being white British. This is against an average for the city of 77.7%. 54.5% of Bitterne's population identified as having a Christian belief in the 2011 census, with 35.9% identifying as having no religion. The next largest religious group in the ward are the Muslims, who accounted for 1.3% of the population. In the 2011 census, 7% of Bitterne Ward's population assessed themselves as being in bad or very bad health; the highest proportion of any ward in Southampton identifying as such. Bitterne also had the highest proportion of the population affected by a long-term health problem or disability that limits day-to-day activities. An article in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' in 2014 identified Bitterne as a working-class community.

Economy

There are no significant industrial estates or manufacturing facilities in Bitterne so employment in the area tends to be oriented around the service industry, and retail in particular. In addition to the permanent stores in the shopping precinct, Bitterne hosts a weekly street market, which was approved by the city council in 2009 following a successful pilot which began in October 2008.

Community facilities

Bitterne Library is one of the largest libraries in Southampton and a number of regular activities take place there, including various reading groups, an IT club, job club, and family history group. There is an active local history society which has published a number of books and runs a charity shop and museum on Peartree Avenue. Bitterne Leisure Centre is managed by Active Nation, a national sport and exercise charity, and offers a wide range of activities, including swimming, exercise classes, table tennis, a gymnasium, badminton, martial arts and children's activities, including birthday parties. There is a commercial gymnasium above Sainsbury's supermarket on the precinct, a location which formerly housed a

ten-pin bowling Tenpin bowling is a type of bowling in which a bowler bowling form, rolls a bowling ball down a wood or synthetic lane toward ten pins positioned Tetractys, evenly in four rows in an equilateral triangle. The goal is to knock down all ten Bowlin ...

centre. This was opened in 1965 as the Excel Bowl before being taken over by

AMF Bowling AMF Bowling (AMF Bowling Worldwide) is a major operator of bowling centers and major manufacturer of bowling equipment. The AMF brand continues in use by the following companies: * In the United States and Mexico, for the AMF Bowling center ...

and renamed "Bitterne Bowl". The centre moved to the Swan Centre in

Eastleigh Eastleigh is a town in Hampshire, England, between Southampton and Winchester. It is the largest town and the administrative seat of the Borough of Eastleigh, with a population of 24,011 at the United Kingdom 2011 census, 2011 census. The town ...

as part of a redevelopment project there in November/December 2008. Between the library and leisure centre is Bitterne Health Centre, which houses a

GP surgery Ambulatory care or outpatient care is Health care, medical care provided on an outpatient basis, including diagnosis, observation, consultation, treatment, intervention, and rehabilitation services. This care can include advanced medical technolog ...

and emergency dental service, as well as an NHS walk-in centre; however the latter is currently earmarked for closure. There are also a number of other GP surgeries in the area.

Transport

Bitterne is at the junction of the A334 and A3024 roads, providing easy access by road 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 moto ...

to the east and

to the southwest. As a result, Bitterne is well served by a number of bus routes with operators including Bluestar and Xelabus. Bitterne railway station is located roughly west of the shopping precinct and is on the

West Coastway Line The West Coastway line is a railway line in England linking the conurbations of Brighton/Hove/Littlehampton and Southampton/Portsmouth. It has short southward branches to Littlehampton and Bognor Regis, which offer direct services to and from ...

. Bus Routes: 3,13,14,16,18 ( Bluestar )

Education

Primary schools in the area include the Bitterne's

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

Primary school, Glenfield Infant School and Beechwood Junior School. There are no public sector secondary schools in Bitterne itself but it is well served by the surrounding areas, with Bitterne Park School, Woodlands Community College and Sholing Technology College all within walking distance. As well as the sixth form at Bitterne Park School, the nearby Itchen College offers a range of further education courses. Primary School * Beechwood Junior School *Bitterne C&E Primary School *Glenfield Infant School *Bitterne Park Primary School Secondary School/Sixth Form College * Bitterne Park School

Religious sites

Bitterne's parish church is dedicated to the Holy Saviour and its spire is a local landmark. The church is an

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

and

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

partnership following the merger of the two congregations and the sale of the Methodist church building in the late 20th century. It is a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

. Bitterne United Reformed Church is located at the top of the pedestrian precinct, next to the parish church, and occupies the first floor of its building with retail outlets underneath. The retail premises are currently occupied by the local

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

supermarket. The Christ the King Roman Catholic Church is another local landmark on the main A3024 road, located between the health centre and library. Bitterne Spiritualist Church was established in 1947 and is located at the top of Lances Hill.

References

External links

Christ the King and St Colman (Roman Catholic) churchBitterne Local History Society
{{Authority control Areas of Southampton Wards of Southampton Former civil parishes in Hampshire