BOROUGH OF SOUTHAMPTON 



Pleasantly situated on the banks of the Southampton 

 Water, on a tongue of land with the mouth of the 

 River Itchen to the east, and on the west a fine bay 

 formed by the outflow of the 

 River Test, Southampton has 

 grown, especially within recent 

 years, far beyond its ancient 

 proportions. 



Leland ' heard on his visit 

 to Southampton before 1546 

 that the town did not origin- 

 ally stand where it now does, 

 but in the immediate neigh- 

 bourhood of St. Mary's Church, 

 some quarter of a mile or 

 more to the north-east of 

 the walled town, whence it 

 stretched away to the river 

 side. Camden, 1 some thirty years after, heard the 

 same account, and excavations of the last century 

 go some way to confirm the tradition which these 

 writers have handed down.* The growth of the 

 town on its present stronger and better site prob- 

 ably belongs to the earlier part of the eleventh 



SOUTHAMPTON. Party 

 fesseiuise argent and gules 

 with three roses counter- 

 coloured. 



century in the settled time before the death of Canute 

 in 1035. By the end of that century there is evi- 

 dence that the town stood where it does now ; while 

 the tokens of the population would seem to indicate 

 an occupation of the old site till about the period 

 suggested. The movement was but within the same 

 civil and ecclesiastical district, and it seems likely that 

 there is evidence of the relationship between Old and 

 New Hampton in the traditionary ecclesiastical con- 

 nexion between the churches of the borough. 4 



The mediaeval plan of the town is a parallelogram 

 stretching north and south, following the line of the 

 western shore. Its fortifications are still to be traced 

 on every side, and partly on the north and almost 

 entirely on the west they exist to this day in good 

 preservation, affording a unique and striking example 

 of ancient defences. The parallelogram was divided 

 by several principal streets. English Street, the 

 modern High Street, runs due north and south from 

 the Bargate on the north : French Street, which 

 still retains its old name, runs parallel to it on the 

 west, and farther to the west is the ancient Bugle or 

 Bull Street. The last two run no farther northwards 

 than St. Michael's Square, the north-western quarter 



INDEX MAP 



to the 



TOWN AND COUNTY 



of 



SOUTHAMPTON 



Fictor/a History of H&mpshireVo/.3. 



1 Itin. (ed. Hearne), iii, 90, 91. 

 ''Brit. (ed. 1590), 190. 



' V.C.H. Hants, i, 395-6. 

 490 



4 See below under St. Mary'i, 



