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GOSPORT- A town on the south coast of Hampshire. From the stony beach at Stokes Bay, there is a great view to the Isle of Wight, with some wonderful sunsets over The Solent, OK sometimes.
It sits on the peninsular, bounded by Portsmouth Harbour to the East, The Solent to the South and the entrance to Southampton Water, though much of the West side comes under the Borough of Fareham.
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Around a quarter to a third of the land in Gosport’s boundries is under the control of the Armed Forces, though in recent years this has reduced, partly due to land at Priddys Hard, Royal
Clarence Yard, St George’s Barracks North and South being given over to housing. This has reduced still further, where the former Forces property has been taken over by civilian agencies, such as RNH Haslar, by the
Health Authority.
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There are parks, woodland walks, grassland walks and a walk along the edge of Portsmouth Harbour with views to Portsmouth, Portsdown Hill, the Forts in The Solent and the Isle of Wight.
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Gosport started as a village/ small town at the eastern side, towards the harbour mouth on the peninsular opposite, where Portsmouth is today, in the Parish of Alverstoke. If you accept
that it was created by Godfrey de Lucy in his charter of 25th August 1204, its 800th anniversary will be in 2004.
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Much of the old sites an buildings are being lost to housing developments, though in the past as MoD property the sites were restricted, as a lot of people who lived in Gosport, worked in these sites they were
available to some of the population. My Dad talks of when in the mid 50’s he worked in an MoD base seeing rare Orchids and underground tunnels. With the new houses on the site, though the old buildings do get
protected, the developers seem to take advantage of the fences to create mini (USA visitors please excuse me if what I have seen on the TV is not correct) what they call in the USA ‘Gated Communities’ so only the
residents and allowed visitors can go in, so you wonder who will benefit from the protected status.
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What has happened recently: well you now have to pay to park in Goport, though this happens in a lot of places, Gosport not being ‘on your way somewhere’ does need an advantage to make
people visit. Of the £850,000 made, £300,000 was profit so myself as a non-driver saved about £15 on my Council Tax, but out of the £550,000 cost how much of that went from the pockets of Gosport residents out of
the Town.
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I understand there are plans to close and demolish more of the public toilets, I did wonder as a number of times I have found them closed. They will put in a couple of ‘Super Loos’ Ok 10p is not too bad if you have
the cash on you. I used to hate having a 3 hour O Level exam 30 years ago, as I would not drink before the exam depending if it was AM or PM. Yes you could put up your hand to ‘ask the teacher to be taken to the
toilet’ no one ever did (16), though when I should have been thinking about my work, I was waiting for the time to go. Perhaps I will just spend more time in Pubs, well you have to have a pint if you use their
facilities, then you need another pub and so on.
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I will move this article during later updates and add new items.
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I understand that there is a Gosport near Ampfield,Romsey, Hampshire, UK as well as 4 in the USA, Alabama, Indiana, Iowa and New Hampshire, if you have a site about your Gosport please let me know and I will add a
link to your web site, it may be interesting to see what other Gosports are like.
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Walks Around Gosport
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Donation
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If you do not have anything to advertise, but wish to sponsor the work to add extra history, memories, or photos to the site you can make a donation, I have now added the possibility to
make it by PayPal. If this makes you unhappy about the site please let me know, also if you do, or do not make a donation, let me know the section of the site that you find most interesting.
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