Gosport Leasing

Did You Know?

Gosport is a town in Hampshire on the south coast of the United Kingdom.At the 2011 Census, its population was 82,622.It is situated on a peninsula on the western side of Portsmouth Harbour, opposite the city of Portsmouth.

The Rowner area of the peninsula was settled by the Anglo-Saxons, and is mentioned in the Anglo Saxon Chronicle as Rughenor ("rough bank or slope"). Both Rowner and Alverstoke, the name coming from the point where the River Alver entered the Solent at Stokes Bay, were included in the Domesday Book. Rowner was the earliest known settlement of the peninsula, with many Mesolithic finds and a hunting camp being found, and tumuli on the peninsula investigated.

Gosport was founded early in the 13th century. The name Gosport is probably a corruption of goose port, perhaps because wild geese gathered there. In the Middle Ages Gosport was only a small market town and port. It only had a few hundred inhabitants. Many of the men in the town were fishermen. In the 15th century, a tower called the blockhouse was built on the site of Fort Blockhouse to defend the entrance of the harbour.

In the 16th century a writer described Gosport as a fishermen's village although shipbuilding and sail making were other industries in the town. However, it remained a small market town and port until the 17th century.

In 1642 came civil war between King and Parliament. Gosport supported Parliament, while Portsmouth supported the king. Parliamentary soldiers laid siege to Portsmouth. They set up guns in the town roughly where the bus station is today, behind a protective screen of logs and bombarded Portsmouth, which soon surrendered.

In the 18th century Gosport had 3 main streets, North Street, Middle Street (High Street) and South Street, with minor streets running across them. In Middle Street stood Market House. This building was on stilts. The council met in the building and a market was held underneath. A cobbled slipway called the hard jutted into the sea where the Falkland Gardens are today.

The town actually had the motto such as God’s Port Our Haven. It claims to be the derivation from God’s Port. Even King Stephen was survived there by conducting safe landing within the storm. It was in the year 1144.

In the first week of June 1944, tanks, scout cars and wheeled vehicles of the Sherbrooke Fusilier Regiment, Canadian Army loaded Landing craft tanks in Gosport. Convoys of vehicles had been carefully concealed from German discovery in the areas further inland, and in daylight on 3 June moved through Titchfield and Stubbington to G3 Hard on the Gosport waterfront. There, the M4 Sherman tanks were backed into position in preparation for the Channel crossing.