Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for PORCHESTER, or Portchester

PORCHESTER, or Portchester, a village and a parish in Fareham district, Hants. The village stands on a small peninsula of the N W of Portsmouth harbour, under Portsdown hill, near the Portsmouth and Southampton railway, 5 miles N W by N of Portsmouth; was known to the ancient Britons as Caer Peris, to the Romans as Portus Magnus, to the Saxons as Port-ceastre; was connected, by Roman roads, with Regnumor Chichester, with Venta Belgarum or Winchester, and with Clausentum or Bittern, near Southampton; is believed to have been, for a time, the principal station of the Roman navy in Britain; was practically the cradle of Portsmouth, and of all the other seats of populationaround Portsmouth harbour; has one of the most interesting ancient castles in England; gives the title of Baron to the Earl of Carnarvon; and has a post-office under Fareham, and a railway station. The castle is supposed to have been preceded by an ancient Britishfort; occupies an area of nearly 5 acres; shows characters of Roman, Saxon, and Norman architecture; is of quad-rangular outline, 620 feet by 610; has exterior Romanwalls, from 8 to 12 feet thick, and in parts 18 feet high; includes 17 small round towers, Norman gateways, akeep 115 feet by 65, a great tower 58 feet by 57, and avariety of other parts, with some interior features so lateas the time of Elizabeth; was held, in the time of Edward I., by Queen Margaret; was often visited by King John and Edward II.; made no figure in the wars orchanges of the middle ages; was used for the confinement of from 3,000 to 5,000 prisoners of war, during the warwith Buonaparte; belonged once to the Nortons; and belongs now to T. Thistlethwayte, Esq. The parish comprises 1, 374 acres of land, and 1, 575 of water. Real property, £3, 852. Pop., 771. Houses, 171. The property is divided among a few. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Winchester. Value, £223. Patron, T. Thistlethwayte, Esq. The church stands in the outercourt of the castle; is supposed to occupy the site of thesacellum of the Roman prætorium; was the church ofan Angustinian priory, founded about 1133 by Henry I., and removed to Southwick by Henry II.; was originallycruciform, with a low central tower; lost one of its transepts, and was partly rebuilt; retains very interestingportions of its original Norman architecture; and was restored, to a considerable extent, in 1865. There are Wesleyan and Primitive Methodist chapels.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a village and a parish"   (ADL Feature Type: "populated places")
Administrative units: Portchester CP/AP       Fareham RegD/PLU       Hampshire AncC
Place names: CAER PERIS     |     PORCHESTER     |     PORCHESTER OR PORTCHESTER     |     PORT CEASTRE     |     PORTCHESTER     |     PORTUS MAGNUS
Place: Portchester

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