The Story of Southampton E-Book

Peter Neal

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Sachliteratur, Reportagen, Biografien
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Seitenzahl: 357

Beschreibung

The Story of Southampton is a long overdue and engaging general history of the city, from the earliest times to the present day, taking into account its unique architectural development and heritage. It not only looks at the local history, but also how those events had a wider significance – especially in relation to the sea and communications. Peter Neal has an eye for a telling anecdote, and this, together with his lively tone and authoritative research, will make the book appealing to anyone who is seeking to find out more about this fascinating city.

Leseprobe

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

As is customary, I must pay tribute to the many people who have so graciously and selflessly assisted me in the writing of this book, without whom I would not have been able to achieve all that I have. First and foremost, my gratitude goes to the staff at the Local Studies section of Southampton City Library, who have so helpfully and efficiently dealt with my queries. I am particularly thankful to Vicky Green and Penny Rudkin, while Dave Hollingworth played a crucial role in organising the use of many of the photographic images of Southampton that have been reproduced in the book. Additional help with the photographs was provided by David Rymill at Hampshire Record Office and Lindsay Mulholland at Associated British Ports. I must also thank my family and friends for their interest and encouragement, with a special mention to my mum, whose faith in me has been unwavering.

West Gate, Southampton. (Library of Congress, LC-DIG-ppmsc-08846)

CONTENTS

Title

Acknowledgements

Introduction

one

Beginnings

two

Canute, Conquest, Castle

three

Ransack & Recovery

four

European Trade

five

Mayflower, Civil War & Plague

six

Spa Town

seven

Military Might

eight

Growth & Reform

nine

Railway & Docks

ten

The Shipping Companies

eleven

Expansion of the Town & Docks

twelve

RMS Titanic & the First World War

thirteen

The New Docks & Civic Centre

fourteen

Bloodied but Unbeaten

fifteen

City Status

Bibliography

Copyright

Plan of the Clausentum. (Courtesy of Southampton Record Office)

INTRODUCTION

As with all towns and cities, Southampton has seen a great many changes in the 2,000 years of history covered in this book – from humble beginnings as a small Roman settlement to the busy, sprawling metropolis of modern times. Its genesis lay in its location as a seaport with access to both the southern half of England and routes to Europe and beyond – a pivotal point through which both people and trade have passed for two millennia. The shelter afforded by the Isle of Wight and the associated double tide that its position benefits from have meant that this traffic has come through Southampton for much of this period.

Of course, fate and fortune have fluctuated over the years and, like any other town, Southampton has known good times and bad in this period. From the depths of destitution following a French raid in 1338 to the ocean-going boom of the mid-twentieth century, when the greatest and largest ships of the day steamed in and out of the port. Promotional posters once declared Southampton the ‘Gateway to the World’ and, although the glamour and grace of the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth have gone forever, Southampton is still primarily a portal to distant lands across the seas – whether it is for holidaymakers, or for the thousands of consumer goods that leave and enter the port every day.

With 2014 marking the fifty-year anniversary of Southampton being granted city status, it is appropriate that this work relates its entire story and allows its own citizens and others alike to appreciate the rich and varied events that have created the Southampton we know today.

Peter Neal, 2014

one

BEGINNINGS

The Roman invasion of Britain in AD 43 was met with little resistance initially, but was followed by two large battles, the first of which was at Rochester in Kent and the second at the point where the Romans came to cross the Thames. Here they waited until joined by their emperor, Claudius, who led his men to the triumphal climax of the first stage of the invasion – the conquest of the British stronghold Camulodunum (today’s Colchester). The town was the capital of the Catuvellauni region and the Romans made it their first capital of Britain.

Once Camulodunum had been taken, legions were dispatched to extend the Roman invasion into other areas of the country. One of these, II Legion, was led by Vespasian, who in AD 69 would become head of the entire Roman Empire. Vespasian took his men in a south-westerly direction, and by AD 47, the conquest had reached as far as Somerset and Devon. For the time being at least, this was the extent of the Roman conquest in this area: Claudius’s commander-in-chief Aulus Plautius returned to Rome in triumph with his part in the operation complete. It is thus fair to say that the Romans had a presence in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight within a few years of the initial invasion. The theory has been expressed that a temporary naval and supply base at Clausentum may have existed before AD 50 to service the Romans’ ongoing western progress, but greater certainty can be attached to the existence of a port in the location in about AD 70.

By this time, the Romans had established a sizeable town at Venta Belgarum (Winchester), the site of a previous tribal capital. The town created a demand for items such as wine and oil that the new residents wished to enjoy in their new homes as they had on the Continent. Thus, a port was needed, and trade routes to Gaul were soon in place, with exports such as wool, corn and even slaves crossing the Channel in return. Clausentum was located on the eastern bank of the River Itchen, around 3 miles inland from what is now known as Southampton Water. It was sited on a peninsula created by a curve in the river and was divided into islands by two fosses (large ditches) running from north to south. The western island was approximately semi-circular in shape, with its curved edge following that of the river, while the second island was almost rectangular. This rectangular island was sparsely occupied by a few wooden-framed buildings; however, it was the semi-circular island that the Romans chose for most of their habitation. It was reached by a road that led away from the main gate, across the second island, and joined a road linking Winchester and Portchester. Originally, the island is likely to have been edged by a fence punctuated by towers and accessed by a main gate that overlooked the fosse. When it was first dug, the inner fosse was around 60ft wide and was made yet wider over the following decades, up to about 100ft. At particularly high tides, the fosse was partially filled with water, even as late as the nineteenth century.

There was at least one road within the fenced area of Clausentum, traces of which were uncovered when graves were dug in Bitterne cemetery. It was formed with a lower layer of limestone and topped with a covering of gravel, and possibly terminated at the riverside, since evidence has been found on the riverbank of a wooden quayside built to accommodate Roman shipping. An important discovery in 1918 added weight to this theory, when two lead pigs were discovered during the construction of foundations at a riverside site. The lead pigs were found at a depth of around 2½ft, weighed almost 180lb and were about 2ft in length. They were engraved with text dating them to the Vespasian period and were thought to have originated from the Mendip lead mines. It is possible that the lead had initially been transported to the Continent to be cast into shape, and the pigs were making their return journey when they were somehow deposited in the Itchen. The discovery led to a further hypothesis that Clausentum and Venta Belgarum were linked by road at an early stage following the Roman invasion; the fact that stone from the Isle of Wight was used in buildings in Venta Belgarum makes the road connection even more likely.

Bembridge limestone from the Isle of Wight was used at Clausentum as well as Venta Belgarum, for example in a private bathing house uncovered during excavations in 1951. This structure was adjacent to another larger building near the northern town perimeter in the area later occupied by Bitterne Manor House. During the first century of the Roman occupation of Britain, great quantities of marble were extracted from the Purbeck quarries in Dorset. Since stone from them was used as far afield as Chichester, Cirencester and Colchester, it seems highly likely to have featured in at least some of the buildings of Clausentum as well. The Purbeck area was also home to many pottery kilns, some dating from the first century AD, and a network of Roman roads allowed the pottery to be distributed throughout the region. In later years, the kilns in the New Forest increased their production, with the pieces making the shorter journey to Clausentum.

The town’s life as a port linking central England and Gaul lasted around two centuries, and towards the end of this period, it was mentioned in a Roman text for the only time: the Antonine Itinerary recorded routes used by the Romans and the distances between towns. At about the same time wooden houses first built in the settlement were gradually replaced with stone structures. The third century brought with it the period known as the ‘occupation gap’, during which there is little evidence of significant activity in Clausentum. Suggestions have been put forward that the town was affected, to one degree or another, by a fire and subsequently fell into disrepair; but this is merely one theory. Therefore, the ‘occupation gap’ may be more accurately thought of as a gap in evidence and knowledge, rather than a time in which Clausentum was necessarily deserted.

As the third century neared its close, changes in Roman thinking meant that the friendly welcome previously afforded to visitors from overseas was replaced with a more cautious policy. Many of the ports along the South Coast were more heavily fortified and took on defensive roles. It was at this time that Carausius, having previously been a naval captain stationed in the North Sea and English Channel, evidently suffered from delusions of grandeur. In 286, he declared himself emperor of Britain and northern Gaul, seemingly with a mind to create his own breakaway empire using Britannia as its base. Carausius relocated his fleet from Boulogne to the Solent, and it is thought that he envisaged Clausentum as a main defensive stronghold in the area, in conjunction with the impressive fortifications at Portchester. For many years, speculation has abounded that Carausius founded a mint at Clausentum, but no firm evidence has been uncovered to settle the debate. In 293, Carausius was murdered by his treasurer Allectus, who in turn was overthrown three years later when the patience of the Roman Empire based in mainland Europe was finally exhausted. Julius Asclepiodotus and his forces set sail from Boulogne and under cover of fog landed in Hampshire to quash the separatist empire of Britannia.

Rule from Italy resumed, but in 367 Roman Britain found itself under attack again, with Saxons venturing across the North Sea and Picts making southerly incursions from central Scotland and beyond. Towns were ransacked, livestock stolen and men held captive by the invaders. The result in Clausentum was that in about 370 the town was further reinforced by a strong, stone wall that was built around its perimeter. Count Theodosius had become the civil governor of Britain in 368 and undertook a scheme to renovate much of the British defences, most probably in response to these raids. Archaeologists excavating in the early 1950s also agreed that during this period (and again in about 390) there was renewed building activity inside the walled town. The wall itself was approximately 9ft thick and gained a large amount of its rigidity from a bonding course of large, flat bricks running through it. It was built without foundations, however, and therefore required further strengthening in the form of a bank of earth packed against it on the inward side.

Sir Henry Englefield toured Southampton at the start of the nineteenth century and recorded that some Roman remains were still visible even at this late stage. He speculated that there might have been another inner wall of about 2ft in thickness, providing extra support to the earthen bank, although he found no conclusive proof. Englefield also wrote that traces of at least two Roman towers were uncovered, set into the town wall. These towers were approximately 18ft in diameter and there was evidence of a further semi-circular tower or buttress of slightly greater dimensions. But the extra fortifications were not to stand the test of time. In about 411, the Romans departed British shores, since Rome was under attack from the Goths, and the emperor, Honorius, relocated his centre of operations to Constantinople. From this more easterly base, Britain was more distant and thus proportionately also less important – so the Roman troops withdrew. In doing so they created what has been described as ‘one of the genuinely fateful moments in British history’.

With his country at the mercy of invaders once more, legend has it that British leader, Vortigern, decided to make a pact with the Saxons: in exchange for land on the Isle of Thanet they would repel the renewed advances of the Picts. When it became apparent that Vortigern saw this agreement as a one-off deal rather than an ongoing arrangement, the Saxons were considerably aggrieved and revolted in spectacular fashion, with southern and eastern England suffering most in the turmoil. Some towns were reduced significantly in size while others were completely deserted. Houses, roads and public buildings fell into disrepair. It is probable that the Saxons laid waste to Clausentum at this time, and towards the end of the fifth century, Cerdic and his son, Cynric, landed at a location in the vicinity. They established the kingdom of Wessex in 519, seeing Winchester as an important base because of its strategic positioning in the network of Roman roads. Cerdic ruled for fifteen years until he died, and was succeeded by his son, and for many years afterwards, kings of Wessex claimed him as one of their ancestors.

In 530, the Saxons embarked on the conquest of the Isle of Wight in collaboration with the Jutes, probably departing from a point near Clausentum. Most Romano-British people must have wanted reassurance that their leaders would offer them the best possible protection, while the leaders no doubt required a subservient and hard-working population. Eventually these two sets of demands intertwined and parity was restored.

For many years, the ruins of Clausentum were left to the remaining native Britons in the area and the elements. Meanwhile, the next centre of population took root on the peninsula created by the convergence of the rivers Itchen and Test. The land had been used by the Romans at least to a small extent, as evidenced by sparse archaeological finds among the plentiful Saxon material. But in the Roman era there were few inhabitants here, and they were most likely to have been engaged in farming and fishing. It was here that Birinus first landed in England in 634, embarking on his campaign to reintroduce Christianity in the country. It is said that during his visit the first incarnation of St Mary’s church was established.

In the closing years of the seventh century, trade routes between Britain and north-western Europe began to flourish, and towns such as London and Ipswich conducted business with their counterparts across the North Sea in France, Holland, Denmark and even Sweden. By this time, Wessex was ruled by Ine, who introduced a series of laws reflecting his adherence to Christianity. A stable social, economic and political climate during Ine’s reign contributed to an expansion in trade, but there is no documentary evidence of the port that would become Southampton until 720, when it was mentioned in the memoirs of St Willibald. A monk born in Wessex in about 700 and raised in Bishops Waltham, Willibald went on to travel throughout Europe and the Holy Land. He referred to the town as Hamwih, although it is more generally known now as Hamwic. The first part of the name, ‘ham’, meant home, while the second was derived from the Latin ‘vicus’, meaning a town or part of a town. This suffix also formed the names of other centres of trading, such as Harwich and Norwich. Hamwic stood on the shores of a harbour naturally formed at the south-eastern corner of the peninsula by a combination of winds and currents. These factors created a shingle spit that curved northwards into the Itchen Estuary and made a small sheltered bay in which vessels could land safely.

The town was thus bounded directly to the east by the River Itchen and to the south and the north-east by marshland. The westerly limitation of the settlement was defined by a ditch that was 10ft wide, meaning that the total area enclosed was more than 100 acres. A substantial network of roads was built in the town, roughly on a grid pattern. The main street, approximately on the route of today’s St Mary’s Road, was 50ft wide, and other narrower streets joined it on either side. All the roads were finished with a top layer of gravel and were well maintained, being resurfaced when needed. This degree of planning and upkeep perhaps implies that Hamwic was governed by some kind of authority or council.

The houses in the settlement were mostly timber framed with thatched roofs, although it is possible that a few remnants of Clausentum were appropriated and recycled. Archaeology shows that the houses were rectangular, one-storey buildings up to 40ft long and 16ft wide. They were well weatherproofed and would have lasted around thirty years before needing to be rebuilt. Since land in Hamwic was at a premium, houses were often rebuilt several times on the same plot. Occasionally, houses were divided into two rooms, possibly with one serving as a living area and the other for sleeping. Some directly fronted the gravelled streets, while others were reached by alleyways. Backyards contained rubbish pits, many hundreds of which have been excavated in recent years. The number and depth of these pits suggests that Hamwic was densely populated, and that the back streets and alleyways were quite congested. In some cases, the backyards also included wells, which supplied nearby houses with fresh water. They were kept an appropriate distance from the rubbish pits to avoid contamination, and were braced with planks and wattle for rigidity. Wells were several yards deep and water was extracted by the simple method of a bucket on a rope.

The port at Hamwic served Winchester and the surrounding areas in much the same way as Clausentum had previously, trading with northern and central Europe. Pottery and glass from these areas have been found; fragments of containers for wine and other luxury items. Further evidence of this trade has been uncovered in the form of many Saxon coins, mostly sceattas, which were widely used in eighth-century Europe. A mint was established in the town, but seemingly the coins it produced were only used in Hamwic itself, as very few of them have been found further afield. Even so, the localised trade was strong: it is thought that over 2 million sceattas were made at the mint. The majority of the coins were produced in the mid-eighth century, suggesting that this was when Hamwic’s economy was at its peak. Other coins found in the area originated in northern Europe, London and Kent.

As well as trading with other towns in Britain and overseas, Hamwic had its own small-scale industries. Many iron objects were made by the local blacksmiths, whose workshops were probably adjacent to their houses. The metalwork they produced included tools such as knives and axes, as well as more intricate items, such as locks and keys. Small objects like buckles and decorative pieces were fashioned from bronze, and there is evidence that small amounts of gold and mercury gilding were also in use.

Other craftsmen in Hamwic worked with bones and antlers, which were used to make combs, spindles and needles. These items in turn were used in the production of wool and cloth: sheep were reared in the town primarily to service the wool industry rather than for food. Once the wool was made into yarn, it was then woven on looms that could produce very fine cloth, some small sections of which have been uncovered by archaeologists. Ornate edgings were also made, designed to be attached to a larger piece of material to form a decorative border. The spinning and weaving were largely done by the women of Hamwic, who became very skilled in the manufacture of cloth.

The people of Hamwic generally ate a nutritious diet, with fruits, vegetables and herbs grown in the town, and fish and shellfish available from the rivers and estuary. Only small amounts of poultry and cattle meat were consumed, while grain was brought to the town from elsewhere rather than grown nearby. The food waste uncovered by archaeologists shows an even distribution of the same kinds of remains, implying that all the residents had a similar diet, regardless of wealth or social standing. The average lifespan of the townspeople was consistent with other Saxon settlements – around thirty-five for women and slightly more for men. As may be expected, deaths in infancy were far from rare, with around a quarter of the children not reaching their tenth birthday.

Christianity, which flourished under the rule of Ine, was reflected in the construction of at least one church in Hamwic. Like the other buildings, it was timber framed with a thatched roof. Close by was a graveyard in which bodies were buried in wooden coffins, positioned on an east-to-west alignment. This type of burial is consistent with, but not exclusive to, Christian practice, so the religion of those interred cannot be stated with absolute certainty. These graves showed no evidence of the burial paraphernalia associated with earlier pagan cemeteries, but at other burial sites in the settlement weapons have been found placed alongside their former owners. Such graves, however, could conceivably be those of travellers from overseas not immersed in Christianity.

The name Hamtunscire first appeared in a charter of 755, and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and several other documents of the eighth and ninth centuries make reference to Hamtun. This name amalgamated the ‘ham’ from Hamwic with ‘tun’, meaning enclosure. For some time it was thought that Hamtun and Hamwic were the same place, but it is now considered more likely that they were adjacent but distinct areas. One historic text suggests that the perimeter of Hamtun was in fact very small – just over 200yds – and, therefore, it may have been a fortified stronghold. Hamwic has revealed no evidence of such defensive areas, so the exact location of Hamtun may never be known. Although much of its precise history is unclear, the settlement was evidently significant enough that the county was named after it, rather than the perhaps more obvious choice of Winchester.

As the eighth century became the ninth, Britain found itself under attack from new aggressors – the Vikings of Scandinavia. One of their initial landing points was in Dorset, but there was then a hiatus of some thirty years before the next major invasion. The Vikings attacked again in 835, and over the next three decades, they targeted numerous points on the British coast, predominantly in the south and east. The raids differed greatly, however, in terms of severity and duration. In some areas, such as York, the Vikings settled to create a thriving community, establishing farming and trading. Hamwic, on the other hand, was violently sacked in 842, but the perpetrators soon moved on with their ill-gotten gains, to regroup for their next skirmish elsewhere. In 860, the Danes landed at the town again, but on this occasion, the object of their mission was Winchester, which they raided. Returning to the coast, however, the ‘Ealdormen of Hampshire and Berkshire’, Osric and Ethelwulf, were waiting for them and duly wrought their revenge.

During the Viking attacks, it is possible that some of the people of Hamwic took refuge within the old walls of Clausentum, thus leaving their settlement at the mercy of the invaders. The Vikings also raided some of the places that Hamwic traded with, which would clearly have had a detrimental effect on its economy. Other unknown factors may have contributed to the demise of Hamwic. Whatever they might have been, by the mid- to late ninth century the place was no longer really a town. A few inhabitants remained, but the streets and buildings rapidly fell into disrepair. Some of the population is likely to have relocated to Winchester, which was expanding at the same time as Hamwic’s decline. For around a century, the town saw very little significant activity.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXCAVATIONS AT CLAUSENTUM

The two lead pigs found in the waters of the Itchen in 1918 were by no means the only important discoveries made at the Roman site of Clausentum. Over thirty years later, in the spring of 1951, further excavations began at the behest of the Inspectorate of Ancient Monuments, part of the Ministry of Works. Work began in late March and lasted for fifteen weeks; overseeing the project was Dr Molly Aylwin Cotton. Some of the manpower and equipment was supplied by Southampton Corporation, and assistance was also given by the architect Herbert Collins, who owned part of the land on which the excavations took place. The dig centred on Bitterne Manor House and the Steuart Road vicinity, and produced many finds that served as invaluable evidence in piecing together the history of Clausentum. Success in the project was not easily achieved, however, since adverse weather conditions ‘made Bitterne peninsula an unenviable spot’, in the words of Dr Cotton. A little over three years later, in the summer of 1954, archaeologists led by P.W. Gathercole returned to the Clausentum site for more excavations at the junction of Bitterne Road and Steuart Road. This time the dig was on a much smaller scale, lasting only a fortnight. Good examples of pottery and coins were found, however, as well as animal remains, adding to the picture of Roman-era life in the area.

two

CANUTE, CONQUEST, CASTLE

As the settlement began to recover, it relocated to the southern part of the west of the peninsula. The precise way in which the settlement became known as Southampton is now unlikely to be proved definitively, but a number of theories have been expressed. A concept that the ‘South’ prefix was added to distinguish the town from Northampton is now disregarded: it may merely be that the newly occupied area was simply south of the previous Hamtun settlement. Confusingly, however, up until the sixteenth century the inhabitants still referred to the previous site of Hamwic as ‘Old Hampton’. The move could at least partially be attributed to shipping conditions: the River Itchen was silting up on the peninsula’s eastern shore, and furthermore the increasing size of seagoing vessels meant that the River Test to the west was more easily navigable.

A period of relative peace came to an end shortly after the accession of Ethelred in 978. Southampton was attacked in 980 and again the following year, with significant numbers of the townspeople killed or captured. In 994, the Danish king, Sweyn, chose Southampton as the location of a winter base for his troops, who arrived in almost 100 ships and forcefully entered and occupied the town. Sweyn’s men had originally targeted London with limited success, and had subsequently plundered the coasts of Kent and Sussex en route to Hampshire. Unable to sustain a worthwhile defence, Ethelred agreed to pay the Vikings rather than suffer any further at their hands, and the invaders retired to Southampton while they waited for their remuneration – menaces money on a grand scale.

Despite this pact, the Danes raided Southampton and the Isle of Wight again in 1001, and received a yet greater payment in exchange for their withdrawal. Evidently realising that there was good money to be made from periodic violent forays against Ethelred’s meagre defences, the Danes repeated the manoeuvre in 1006 and 1012, pocketing a larger windfall each time. By 1013, the king was a fugitive from Sweyn and barely more popular with his own people, and he escaped via Southampton and the Isle of Wight to northern France. In the aftermath of Sweyn’s victory, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle observed that ‘all the nation regarded him as full king’, but he died the following year and Ethelred returned. Sweyn’s son, Canute, withdrew to Denmark, but at the time of Ethelred’s death, in 1016, he was in Southampton, where he summoned the witan (a council of the wise men of Wessex) to him. The witan gave its blessing to Canute, but when Ethelred’s son, Edmund, reappeared the Council’s allegiance was tested; and eventually the kingdom was divided between the two contenders for the throne. However, before the end of 1016, Edmund too was dead and Canute became ruler of the entire country.

Wessex became the hub of Canute’s kingdom, with Winchester retaining the significance it had enjoyed since Roman times. Both Winchester and Southampton experienced newfound periods of prosperity under Canute, who went on to eschew violent conquest in favour of a more temperate policy. It was during Canute’s years in power that the relocation of the town’s core to the area later enclosed by the town walls was consolidated. The infamous anecdote that Canute attempted to repel the tide at a Southampton shore is now considered by most historians to be the stuff of myth and legend. Nevertheless, both this tale and Canute’s indisputable association with the town and surrounding area have seen his name given to roads and buildings for many years.

The town’s connection to the English monarch continued upon Canute’s death in 1035, when another of Ethelred’s sons, Edward, landed at the town on his return from France. He brought with him considerable forces, but did not become king until the death of Canute’s son, Harthacnut, in 1042; he was known as Edward the Confessor. Edward died in 1066, and the witan chose Harold as his successor. Before the end of the year, William of Normandy attacked England, landing at Pevensey in East Sussex. Harold was killed at the ensuing Battle of Hastings. When William’s invasion reached London it was met with submission rather than resistance, and he was formally made king at Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day, at the end of an especially eventful year.

In order to know what his newly acquired kingdom contained, William commissioned a huge inventory. The Domesday Book was completed and presented to him in 1086. It recorded that Southampton was populated by seventy-six ‘original’ householders, and that a further ninety-six had settled in the town since the Conquest. The new residents were divided into approximately two-thirds French and one-third English, and the area in which the former resided has been immortalised with the naming of French Street. Likewise there was also English Street, which was renamed High Street in the sixteenth century. In the post-Conquest period, the town was regarded as being split into two boroughs, each with its own church for the use of French or English worshippers. The French church, St Michael’s, was built not long after the Conquest, and was named in honour of the patron saint of Normandy. There have been extensive adaptations over the years, such as the spire that now sits on the Norman tower, but many original features remain, especially internally.

St Michael’s church, 2011.

The Domesday record of Southampton omitted other residents of the town, however – specifically the poor or labouring class, who were seen as statistically irrelevant as they contributed nothing in taxation. William’s grand itinerary, therefore, contains no absolute figure for Southampton’s population in the late eleventh century, but around 1,000 can be considered a reasonable estimate. The town was thus not a great metropolis – Bristol was over three times larger and Winchester up to seven times – but it continued to enjoy a comparatively prosperous period. This affluence was common to a number of ports on the South Coast of England, as the links with William’s homeland remained important. Southampton’s geographical position was also significant, being approximately the same distance from London and Bristol, and a key point on the route between Normandy and Winchester.

Henry, the great-grandson of William the Conqueror, married Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1152, and two years later became the King of England upon the death of King Stephen. The marriage with Eleanor meant that in addition to the existing trade with Normandy, new commerce sprang up between England and vineyards in the Gascony area of south-west France. Southampton quickly became a prominent wine port, and the wine trade remained an important factor in the town’s economy for several hundred years. Meanwhile, English beer on occasion travelled in the opposite direction. These business links with France, combined with Southampton’s French population, meant that some merchants in the town (and possibly Winchester as well) were likely to have been bilingual.

From about this time, Southampton’s defences were enhanced in accordance with its growing significance as a commercial port. As in a number of other towns, the Normans built a castle in Southampton after the Conquest, both as a signal of their power and as a base from which to maintain it. Since the monarchs of the time still oversaw kingdoms on both sides of the Channel, the town was a key embarkation point. The castle was located at the north end of Bull Street (today’s Bugle Street), and subsequently gave its name to nearby Castle Lane. It was first mentioned in a document in 1153, but it is likely that a fortification on the site was originally built in the reign of William the Conqueror. This is suggested by the fact that coins from the era have been found at the location, and that the motte (the man-made earthen mound on which the castle was built) was large, consistent with others constructed soon after the Conquest. Furthermore, one of William’s chief aides, William FitzOsbern, spent a good deal of time in Hampshire, and initiated the building of many castles throughout the country. His schemes sometimes made use of forced labour, and while FitzOsbern was successful in his endeavours, some of his methods have been brought into question.

The motte would have been surrounded by a ditch up to 65ft wide and a wooden fence, and originally the castle keep itself would also have been made of timber. Records show that between 1155 and 1162, over £50 was spent on building work at Southampton Castle, including the bridges of the castle and bailey, the chapel and the royal chamber, where the king and queen resided during their visits to the town. Henry II and Queen Eleanor were in Southampton in early 1157, as was the king on a number of occasions in this period while journeying to and from Normandy. In 1163, he was greeted upon his arrival in Southampton by Archbishop Thomas Becket, and eleven years later the king set out from the town on his pilgrimage to Canterbury to atone for Becket’s murder.

Adjacent to the castle keep was the bailey – an enclosed area in which animals were kept and where the people could seek refuge if the town was attacked. This area was bounded by a wall that reached down to the seashore to the west of the castle, where a dedicated quayside was built. By 1153, the Normans were building domestic houses in stone nearby; like the castle, some of them benefited from having their own quays for access to Southampton Water. Castle Quay was first documented in 1189, but the site has never been extensively excavated and now lies beneath Western Esplanade. It may have been made of both stone and wood, and adapted over the years. Southampton Water was quite shallow here, and it is likely that large, seagoing ships anchored some distance away and transferred their goods to the quay with smaller vessels.

A remaining section of the castle bailey wall, built in the thirteenth or fourteenth century.

Wine remained Southampton’s primary import, still largely coming from the west and south-west of France, although Henry Englefield’s assertion that the town enjoyed ‘almost a monopoly of the French wine trade’ was something of an overstatement. Wine was important to Henry II not only because of the taxes he levied on its arrival, but also because of his own need for large quantities of wine at his many banquets. One of the places in which the wine was stored when it was landed in Southampton was Castle Hall, the largest building relating to the castle that still stands, albeit badly ruined. The hall was originally built in the first half of the twelfth century and featured a timber floor between the two storeys, which were linked by a stone spiral staircase. The upper floor was a dwelling hall, while the ground floor served as storage for casks of wine. Early in the thirteenth century, the timber floor was replaced by a barrel vault made of stone, which has been partially restored and can be seen today. It may be that these alterations to the hall signified a change – or partial change – in its function, but this cannot be confirmed.

Just before the adaptations to Castle Hall were made, another building for storing wine was constructed: Castle Vault in Western Esplanade. The vault itself remains virtually intact – the only building relating to the castle to have done so – but originally it had a second storey, which has not survived. With just one door and one small window, the vault was extremely secure, and thus provided safe storage for the valuable wines.

The latter part of the twelfth century was evidently a time of intense construction in Southampton. As well as the ongoing development of the castle and its related satellite sites (nearly £150 was spent on the castle between 1191 and 1195, although it is not clear from surviving records exactly what work was carried out), the West Hall was constructed. Its owner was the prominent Gervaise le Riche, a man as wealthy as his name suggests, who was involved in overseeing some of the works on the castle. Le Riche used the hall as his main residence, and after his death, it was occupied by various other great men of the town, who in turn made their own extensions and adaptations to it. Also in the late twelfth century, a large two-storey house was built in Porter’s Lane at the southern end of the High Street. The house was of sufficient size and grandeur to be of considerable importance: Englefield described it as over 100ft in length and featuring a number of delicate carvings and impressive windows. Sadly, however, in the 200 years since Englefield’s tour of the town, the ravages of time and the Second World War have taken their toll, and the building has now greatly deteriorated.

Castle Vault, one of the few surviving buildings from the time of the castle, was used for storage and originally had an upper floor, which has long since gone.

Colloquially known as Canute’s Palace, this Norman building near Town Quay was probably used as a storage facility.

Southampton’s domestic and residential buildings of this era were of timber construction, as evidenced by archaeological discoveries in the twentieth century. Later, stone houses in the southern part of the town were found to have been erected on sites formerly occupied by wooden buildings. Fittings into which timber beams would have been placed were uncovered, as well as related finds that gave an indication of their age. The excavations also revealed the unavoidable dangers of timber construction: there was frequent evidence of fire, which diminished with the later increase in stone building.

By the start of the thirteenth century, Southampton’s port was ranked third in the country in terms of taxes levied there, trailing only Boston in Lincolnshire and London. This picture may not be completely accurate, however, since figures for Bristol and other ports in western England are unrecorded. But, within a couple of years a deterioration in trade with Normandy had a great impact on the town’s commerce, which was partially assuaged by the still developing Gascony wine trade.

At the same time, protection of the town was becoming more important. The kings of the era – Richard I, John and Henry III – recognised the value of the town’s trade and its strategic positioning. Additionally the king visited the town periodically and stayed at the castle, at which times security was paramount. The king travelled the country almost continually, residing at a castle for a time before moving on again. This policy kept the monarch prominent in the eyes of the people (and thus in control), and meant that no single town had the heavy burden of supporting him and his entourage on a permanent basis. Part of the expenditure on the castle that began in 1201 was used to ‘carry timber from many places to Southampton Castle for the construction there of the king’s houses’, presumably in preparation for his next visit. According to the Victorian historian Revd J.S. Davies, King John ‘was frequently at Southampton’.

Meanwhile the town’s protection was enhanced by a large fence that surrounded the most densely populated area; the castle was a stronghold within a stronghold. Entry to the town was achieved through a number of gates, the primary one being the north gate, or Bargate, which was reached by a bridge over a large moat. It is likely that the Bargate was first built in the latter part of the twelfth century, replacing a section of timber stockade and featuring a portcullis protecting the large entry arch. Passage through the gate was manned by a representative of the town, who levied tolls on goods going in and out. Nevertheless, the town’s finances were far from healthy: levies and other taxes paled in comparison with the cost of upgrading its defences. The situation became so acute that, in 1228, the men of Southampton had to ‘plead their poverty’ before the king.