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Description: | Lower Quay is historically an important area for Fareham and today there are many reminders of its past. The Fareham Steam Mills (Flour Mills Company), now converted to flats, was in use until 1960. A long narrow building nearby, Rope Walk Cottages, now converted to housing, was used to accommodate the sick and wounded prisoners. Conditions and medical care were poor and many of those who died were buried in a field nearby. By the waterfront, the large building was built as a grain store in 1912. Beyond it, to the south, also on the waters edge are two 18th century store houses, both included in the Hospital Yard area.
The area around Lower Quay, Fareham dates back to the 16th century when ship building began in the area. In the 17th century, the Lower Quay was linked more directly to the town centre when a bridge was built over the Gilly Creek. In 1630 Fareham Creek was highly thought of as a harbour and in the later part of the century the buildings and stores on the quayside were used as hospitals for the sick and wounded sailors involved in the Dutch wars.
Troops embarked from Fareham for the Peninsular War in Spain in locally built ships and during the Napoleonic Wars there were a number of large grain stores around the quayside that were converted into sick bays for the wounded. It is thought that a primitive hospital was set up in Lower Quay for very ill prisoners from the hulks and Portchester Castle and those who died were buried in what became known as Hospital Field. Many of the prisoners were kept in hulks on Fareham Lake. By the end of the war, there were over 9,000 prisoners kept on the hulks, Portchester Castle and Forton prison in Gosport. Many locals viewed the prisoners with a mixture of horror and fascination, fear of disease and seeing the only foreigners they would ever see in their lives.
The lower quay area was important for boat building. Important families involved in this were the Burrells, Fitchetts, Sees and the Hampers of Mill Road and Upper Wharf. Sees built fast sailing boats, cabin cruisers, naval rescue boats and speedboats. Percy See (1881-1944) spent most of his life at the cutting edge of boat design. He realised the potential of the internal combustion engine at an early date and was a major producer of record breaking racing hydroplanes. He was also the first man to put compasses in speedboats.
The Gillies is the area surrounding the Gilly Creek or Black Brook that flows into the River Wallington at Lower Quay. There are still allotments and footpaths going through the area.
References:
1. Brown, Ron. 1983. Fareham of yesteryear, p. 43-44.
2. Burton, Lesley and Musselwhite, Brian. 1991. An illustrated history of Fareham, p. 80-81.
3. James, Alice. 1989. Fareham between the wars, p. 66.
4. Palmer, Oonagh. 1998. Around Fareham, p. 76.
5. Fareham Society. 1995. Fareham Town Walks, p. 12-15. | Format: | image/jpeg | License: | http://www.sopse.org.uk/ixbin/hixclient.exe?a=query&p=gateway&f=generic_sitetext%2ehtm&_IXFIRST_=1&_IXMAXHITS_=1&cms_con_core_subtype%3acms_con_text_what=copyright&%3acms_sys_group=%22sopse%22 | Subjects: | stream building Gillies Hampers street harbour quay yacht harbour business aerial photograph Percy See Lower Quay Portsmouth Marine Engineering Ltd boatyard Fareham Flour Mills Co Fitchetts Sees Gosport Road Mill Road hospital | Temporal: | start=1990-03-01; end=1990-03-31; | Source: | Sense of place SE | Creator: | Portsmouth Publishing and Printing Ltd. | Identifier: | http://www.sopse.org.uk/ixbin/hixclient.... | Language: | en-GB | Format: | image/jpeg | Go to resource |
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