Locks Heath is a residential

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...

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 ...

, in the south 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 England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. Locks Heath is immediately surrounded by a collection of villages including Sarisbury to the west, Swanwick, Park Gate and Whiteley to the north, Warsash to the southwest and

Titchfield Titchfield is a village and former civil parish in the Borough of Fareham, Fareham district, in southern Hampshire, England, by the River Meon. The village has a history stretching back to the 6th century. During the medieval period, the villa ...

to the southeast. Within the heart of the area its shopping village is located with a community centre. The population of the village itself in 2011 was 7,104 whilst the wider Locks Heath residential area (including surrounding villages) equaled 43,359 as of 2011.

Origin of name

The heathland surrounding Locks Farm.

History

In the late 19th and early 20th Century, the most important local activity in this area was

strawberry The garden strawberry (or simply strawberry; ''Fragaria × ananassa'') is a widely grown Hybrid (biology), hybrid plant cultivated worldwide for its fruit. The genus ''Fragaria'', the strawberries, is in the rose family, Rosaceae. The fruit ...

growing. The industry developed as a result of the 1866 Enclosure Acts which allowed the common land to be split into a large number of small plots. Swanwick railway station opened on 2 September 1889 and helped to facilitate the transportation of large quantities of strawberries to customers all over the country. Strawberries were transported to the waiting trains by horse and cart. A lasting reminder of this is a rail on the outside edge of what is now the pavement leading down the hill to the station. This was used to line up the wheels of the horse-drawn carts, so as to enable easy unloading of the carts. The station was also originally much bigger with what remains of a second branch line still visible under the tarmac of what is now the station car park. A short way from the station a warehouse can be seen which used to be the 'Swanwick and District Basket Factory' which supplied the baskets to pack the strawberries into for transportation. The outline of the old signage is still visible on the outside of the building. The strawberry industry hit its peak in the 1920s and then began to slip into decline. This was caused by a variety of factors, including the demand for development land, competition from abroad and the increasingly strict requirements of retailers for standardised products. Although strawberries are still grown in the area, much of the land once used is now covered with houses. Because of the nature of the plots of land which were once the strawberry farms, many of the houses are built in relatively small estates. There are numerous references to strawberries in the area, such as the Talisman pub (Talisman being a variety of strawberry) and the

Joseph Paxton Sir Joseph Paxton (3 August 1803 – 8 June 1865) was an English gardener, architect, engineer and Liberal Party (UK), Liberal Member of Parliament. He is best known for designing the Crystal Palace, which was built in Hyde Park, London, Hyde ...

pub, the name of a locally-grown strawberry named after the gardener and designer of Crystal Palace. St John the Baptist church was built in 1895 to a design by

Ewan Christian Ewan Christian (1814–1895) was a British architect. He is most frequently noted for the restorations of Southwell Minster and Carlisle Cathedral, and the design of the National Portrait Gallery (London), National Portrait Gallery. He was Arch ...

. It was extended in 1998.

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (195 ...

and David Wharton Lloyd wrote of Locks Heath in 1967 that "Pocket package suburbanization snow proceeding piecemeal; there is no need to try to describe the resultant mess".

Facilities

The mid-1980s saw development of the Locks Heath area with the construction of new housing. The Lockswood Centre was built to provide additional facilities including the Lock Stock and Barrel pub (renamed the Strawberry Field Tavern in 2013) and a supermarket operated by Waitrose. The centre also includes a library/community centre and a GP surgery.

Schools

There are many junior schools including St John’s School and Locks Heath Junior School where most of the Locks Heath infants pupils go to after they leave primary school, Hook-with-Warsash Junior School, Park Gate Primary School and Sarisbury Junior School. The only state secondary school is Brookfield Community School.

Sport and leisure

Locks Heath 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 ...

club Locks Heath F.C. who play at Locks Heath Recreation ground on Warsash Road since 1894. They are currently playing in the

Hampshire Premier League The Hampshire Premier League or uhlsport Hampshire Premier League, for sponsorship reasons, is a football (soccer), football competition based in Hampshire, England. The league was formed in 2007 and currently consists of a 'Senior Division' of ...

. Also in Locks Heath is a badminton club, bowls and tennis club. Locks Heath has one pub located within the Locks Heath Shopping Centre, called ''The Strawberry Tavern'', previously known as ''The Lock Stock and Barrel''.

Notes

External links

Hook-with-Warsash Junior SchoolLocks Heath Junior SchoolPark Gate Primary SchoolSt Johns SchoolSarisbury Junior SchoolSarisbury, Locks Heath and Warsash Townscape Assessment 2010Locks Heath Web site
{{Hampshire Populated places in Hampshire Borough of Fareham