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PREVIOUS PAGE -In the year 1811, the National Society for Promoting Religious Education was founded. The inspiration of the founders was that, ‘education is of itself a proper expression of Christian faith and practice”.  The National Society raised large sums of money to finance the building of thousands of schools - long before the State accepted responsibility for providing education.

Early in the nineteenth century there were people in Gosport who suffered extreme poverty and the inability to do anything about it. The Napoleonic Wars were the cause of other problems. French prisoners of war were housed in Forton Prison and in several hulks moored in Forton Creek. The press gang was active in the narrow streets of Gosport so that fathers were taken from their families by force, leaving wives to fend for themselves as best as they could. The families of soldiers were not much better cared for as the arrangements for pay were not regular at that time.

 - It seems incredible to us now that before 1830, not only was there insecurity in families because of low wages or absolute lack or money, but also there was dimness or darkness in houses or streets and such necessities as water, power and communications were only acquired in a fairly primitive way. In private houses and at the corners of streets oil lamps were still in use. Gas lamps replaced oil lamps in the streets and alleys in 1834.

Between 1830 and 1840 water carts (or “tuns”) drew supplies of water from a large number of wells in the district and water was sold by the bucket at a farthing a bucket. In 1850 there were 36 water carts, each capable of carrying a ton of water. The new Water Company was not established until 1858, but as early as 1698 an enterprising Londoner, Thomas Lewis, obtained an act of parliament for the erection or a waterworks at Forton. He worked hard to give the houses in the town a water supply. Water was supplied to 240 houses through the hollowed out elm tree pipes that were then used. However, the company was faced with financial difficulties and had to close down. Evidence of this supply has been found when wooden pipes have been dug up from time to time in the High Street which was then Middle Street.

In he records of the Portsmouth Company there is a letter dated November l811 referring to a pump ‘exactly the same as made for the Gosport Waterworks’. The company, it inferred, had a short life from about 1809 to 1816. The works were a well and a pumping station at Forton, which were purchased by the Government in l816 for the supply of the nearby Marine Barracks.                                                                 

The Forton waterworks was situated on the triangular piece of land between Lees Lane and Lees Lane North, fronting Forton Road, where the Criterion Cinema was later built. There was an open reservoir and two building. The waterworks were surrounded by a high wall. Windmills were still in use at this time and there is evidence of their existence in Forton by the street names-Mill Lane, Millpond Rd & Mill Rd.

A better link between Portsmouth and Gosport was made when a ferry was constructed in 1834, which was capable of carrying horses and light carriages thus avoiding the longer journey by road. Six years later a floating bridge was ready for use so that heavier vehicles could be carried across the harbour. The first crossing was on 11th May, l840. The floating bridge became even more important when the railway came to Gosport. The Railway Station in Spring Garden Lane was officially opened on 7th February 1842. So communication between Gosport and Portsmouth and between Gosport and London was now faster, cheaper and better. Later a new line connected with Stokes Bay Pier and joined  the ferry steamer route to the Isle of Wight in l863. Safer faster travel was a great advantage to traders and others, but it was not much help to the poor who could not afford the shortest journey although they probably benefited indirectly.

There was a growing feeling amongst educated people that an important way to help the poor would he to teach them so that they might be able to help themselves. According to Dr. L.F.W. White in ‘The Story of Gosport’ the first school in Gosport opened in 183l at the West side of Holy Trinity Church. Another school commenced at Forton, St. John's shortly afterwards, -the one school in Gosport reputed to have been visited by Queen Victoria.                                                    NEXT PAGE