Memories related by his wife George was employed by the Southern Railway from 6th January 1940 and retired from British Rail 31st December 1989. We often have a laugh about this story which is just one of quite a few memories. My husband is now nearly 89 and the majority of his mates have passed on. My husband, [...]
Social History
In July 1860 the Hayling Railway Company was formed, in order to build a branch line from Havant to South Hayling. It was estimated that it would take seven years to raise the money, acquire the necessary land and build the line. The civil engineer contracted to build the line was Frederick Furniss, who was [...]
Francis Fuller was a land Surveyor and Estate Agent with a long association with railways being surveyor to the London Brighton & South Coast Railway for 25 years for some time also surveyor to the Metropolitan District Railway. He was one of three promoters of the Great Exhibition of 1851. Held in London, at the [...]
In 1825, William Padwick purchased the Manor House from the Duke of Norfolk and with it the title ‘Lord of the Manor’. This would lead to a chain of events that would change the character of the island.
The Duke of Norfolk is the premier duke in the peerage of England, and also, as Earl of Arundel, the premier earl. The Dukes had a manor house on Hayling Island and had the additional title of Lord of the Manor. The island was rural with a few homesteads and farms. The island was largely [...]
The confidence in our ability to trade freely around the world following the 1815 British victory at Waterloo was badly shaken in the late 1850s. France once more posed a threat under Napoleon III with her renewed territorial ambitions. Shipping through the English Channel, to reach the Port of London, was once more considered to [...]
