Eastleigh Leasing

Did You Know?

Eastleigh is a railway town in Hampshire but there was a village called East leah as long ago as the year 932. Leah was a Saxon word meaning a clearing in a forest. The little hamlets of Eastley and Barton continued to exist through the centuries until 1838. In that year the London and SouthWestern Railway Company built a railway from Southampton to Winchester. It passed through the small village of Barton. A station was built there but as Barton was so small the station was named Bishopstoke Junction. (Bishopstoke was the nearest place of any importance). In 1839 the railway was extended to Basingstoke and London and the first train passed through Bishopstoke Junction. The station was renamed Eastleigh and Bishopstoke in 1889 and was finally renamed Eastleigh in 1923.

The modern town of Eastleigh lies on the old Roman road, built in A.D.79 between Winchester  and Bitterne. Roman remains discovered in the Eastleigh area, including a Roman lead coffin excavated in 1908, indicate that a settlement probably existed here in Roman times

The railway company began to build cottages for its employees by the new station. By 1851 Eastley had a population of 213. In 1852 a cheese market was opened by the railway station. It soon became Hampshire's leading cheese market.

In 1868 the two villages of Barton and Eastley were combined into one parish. A new church was built called the Church of the Resurrection. A woman named Charlotte Yonge from Otterburn donated 500 pounds (a huge sum of money in those days) towards the cost of building the new church. She was asked to decide whether the new parish should be called Barton or Eastley. She decided to call it Eastleigh, changing the spelling to make it more modern.

The first school in Eastleigh opened in 1870. The new community continued to grow rapidly in the 1880s and 3 new streets were laid out in 1890. By 1891 Eastleigh had a population of 3,613.

In 1893 a Local Board was formed in Eastleigh. Until then there were no sewers or drains in Eastleigh and no street lights. Roads were in a very poor condition. The Local Board set about creating drains and street lights. They also built pavements and kerbs but roads were not made up until the 20th century.

By 1901 Eastleigh had grown into a small town with a population of over 9,000. The airport began life in 1910 when an early aviator called Eric Moon flew an aircraft called the Moonbeam from fields in a farm. In 1917 the farm was made into a military airfield. In 1929 it became Southampton Municipal Airport. The Spitfire made its maiden flight from the airport in 1936.

Eastleigh has seen a rapid and controlled expansion in residential, industrial and commercial development over recent years. The borough of Eastleigh was ranked the "9th best place to live in the UK 2006" by a Channel 4 programme.

The most famous people linked to Eastleigh are probably Christabel Leighton-Porter, the model for the Second World War cartoon character Jane, and Benny Hill who both lived in the town. Hill's first job was at Woolworths on Leigh Road, Eastleigh. He then moved on to be a milkman for Hanns Dairies, on Factory Road, now Wells Place. His time working in Eastleigh on a horse-drawn milk float gave him his inspiration for his hit record, Ernie, The Fastest Milkman In The West. In Hill's honour, a plaque has been put up close to the site of the now demolished Hanns Dairies building and a new road has been named Benny Hill Close,