See Southampton Heritage Guides – Sightseeing tours and tour guides
William Cantelo A real Victorian mystery! William Cantelo (born 1839) was from a family of Isle of Wight gunsmiths. He had a Northam engineering yard of 40 people. He also had a French Street shop, the Old Tower Inn pub by Arundel Tower and was a good musician, holding band practices in the Tower. The …
Southampton Castle Only very little remains visible of the once splendid Southampton Castle today. It was first constructed in the late 11th century after the Norman conquest of England on rising ground in the north-west corner of the town, overlooking the mouth of the River Test. It was constructed as a Norman style motte and …
RMS Carpathia The RMS Carpathia was a steamship built in Newcastle upon Tyne by Swan Hunter and Wigham Richardson. She made her maiden voyage from Liverpool in 1903 and ran the Cunard service from New York to a number of the Mediterranean ports. The Carpathia was sailing from New York on the night of 14 …
Quaker Cemetery The Society of Friends was formed by George Fox circa 1647. At meetings participants were often said to quake with emotion before the Lord. They came to Southampton by 1655 and in 1662 Fox visited the town to support 22 imprisoned Quakers. He came again in 1668 and 1680 when a Quaker was …
Cannibalism (Richard Parker) In 1884 the ship Mignonette was fitted out in Southampton for a journey to Australia. There were 4 crew members including 17 year old orphan Richard Parker from Peartree. On July 4th the Mignonette was hit by a terrible storm south east of Trinidad. The four crew members took to a lifeboat …
Old Cemetery In 1843 an Act of Parliament was passed enabling a cemetery to be opened on Southampton Common. It was consecrated in 1846. Amongst its graves is that of Lt. Col. Hewwitt, the last surviving officer to have fought at the battle of Waterloo in 1815. He died in 1891 aged 96. Many Belgians …
Clock Tower This originally stood at the junction of Above Bar and New Road, having been bequeathed to the town by Henrietta Sayers. It also acted as a drinking fountain for humans and horses. In 1934 it was moved to Bitterne Triangle where it remains to this day.
Christopher Cockerell Sir Christopher Cockerell (1910-1999), the inventor of the Hovercraft, lived in East Cowes and then in Hythe for many years. His house in Prospect Place looking out over the water is still owned by the Cockerell family today. Close by used to be the marine institute, where hovercraft models where tested in a …
Cross House Before the Itchen Bridge opened in June 1977 passengers used the Floating Bridge (a cable ferry that crossed the river Itchen between Woolston and Southampton). The Floating Bridge came into service in November 1836. Before then there was a ferry boat service. The Cross House, to give passengers shelter whilst waiting to be …
Herbert Collins Herbert Collins (1885-1975) designed houses in Southampton from 1922, and co-founded the Swaythling Housing Society in 1925. Collins, along with his co-founders, accountant and civic leader Fred Woolley (the society’s first chairman) and Bursledon brickworks director Claude Ashby, put up £200 worth of shares. Collins lived at 38 Brookvale Road, Highfield from 1930 …
Castle Vault Southampton owns the largest number of purpose built vaults in the whole of Britain. Most of these vaults started out as wine cellars. Some date back as far as the 12th Century. Castle Vault is the biggest vault in Southampton. It was built during the second half of the 12th century as the …
