By Martin Brisland.
I am a qualified tour guide and writer of six published local history books and around 150 articles for In Common and elsewhere.
Over the years I have accumulated lots of unusual facts about the Southampton area.
As a guide I soon realised that most people do not remember lots of historical facts, but they do relate to quirky stories. So, I thought it may be of interest to list some of them.
There were a pair of monkey trees on Northam Road but only one original survives. Many can recall as children not talking as they passed by on a bus or in a car. Otherwise, according to their parents they would grow a monkey’s tail.
Victorian celebrity Lily Langtree once lived in Southampton from 1874-1876 after her marriage. From 1877 to 1880, she was a royal mistress to Queen Victoria’s eldest son who succeeded her as Edward VI. Famous Pre Raphaelite John Everett Millais, also born in Southampton at Portland Street, painted her portrait called The Jersey Lily.
In June 1990, a left windscreen panel on British Airways Flight 5390 from Birmingham to Malaga fell out at 17,000 feet. Captain Tim Lancaster was partially sucked out of the plane and the crew held onto his legs for around twenty minutes. First Officer Atchison landed the plane safely at Southampton Airport. Captain Lancaster survived despite frostbite and fractures and eventually returned to flying.
Today a Gordon Keeble hand made sports car would cost you around £100,000. Only one hundred of the lightweight fibre glass cars were made at Eastleigh and Sholing originally costing £3,000. It was Britain’s fastest four seat car when released in 1964, with a top speed of 160 mph.
The notorious gangland Kray twins, Ronnie and Reggie, had links to our area. In the 1960s, they stayed at Hamble Manor Lodge and went to the Bugle pub in Hamble. Their brother Charlie owned the Old Mill at Holbury and restaurants in Bedford Place. Several older relatives, including great grandfather James had stays in the Royal Victoria Military Hospital at Netley.
In 2019 Dame Judi Dench starred in the spy film Red Joan. It was based on the true life story of Melitta Norwood (1912 – 2005) who passed nuclear secrets to Russia for forty years. Melitta went to West End junior school and Itchen Grammar school. She was at Southampton University for a year before moving to London.
The statue of George III (1738-1820), which has been on the south side of the Bargate since 1809, was made by Georgian businesswoman Eleanor Coade. His head is on the body of the Roman Emperor Hadrian, a common practice at the time. Eleanor succeeded in a male dominated world and had her own London factory. Her high quality coadestone is particularly long lasting and the Bargate statue is still in excellent condition over two hundred years later.
In the 1950s, Birdseye tested cod sticks on shoppers in Southampton and herring sticks in Cardiff. The cod sticks proved popular and became fish fingers. Today, around a billion are sold a year.
Southampton has some local words though they are less often heard nowadays. An example is mush meaning mate. You may also hear words such as nip or nipper meaning a young lad and dinlo meaning someone who is a bit stupid or silly.
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