Daily Echo | Heritage | Nostalgia and memories of years gone by in Southampton and Hampshire

The Falaise was the 'biggest, most luxurious and newest' ship for Southern Railway

5:44pm Monday 20th May 2013

THE old Southampton cross- Channel ferry, Falaise, was able to boast of a long and honourable career stretching back more than a quarter of a century when she was finally scrapped in 1974.

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Night the lights went out on spectacular cathedral concert

11:37am Monday 20th May 2013

IT was all going so well as more than 300 musicians and singers enthralled the packed audience at Winchester Cathedral – then the lights went out!

Adventurers were Southampton's answer to Indiana Jones

8:10am Sunday 19th May 2013

They were an unlikely pair to set out from Southampton on such a hazardous enterprise. Keith Hamilton tells the story of these most British of adventurers who travelled by biplane and elephant

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Southampton Corporation found not guilty of negligence

6:03pm Thursday 16th May 2013

SOMEONE rang the bell, the tram shuddered to a halt and a passenger was found lying sprawled on the pavement.

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Looking back at Southampton's car sales boom of 1963

11:54am Wednesday 15th May 2013

Exactly half a century ago to the day Southampton was enjoying something of a boom period in car sales with local showrooms having trouble keeping up with demand.

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Echo reporter remembers when he met with Ray Harryhausen

11:43am Wednesday 15th May 2013

Visual effects genius Ray Harryhausen, who died this week, was one of the greats of Hollywood. Keith Hamilton remembers the stopmotion pioneer – and the surprising contents of his jacket pocket...

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Southampton was vital in preparing for World War II

11:33am Wednesday 15th May 2013

The start of the Second World was still more than two years in the future, but Southampton was set to play a key role in preparing the nation for conflict.

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World's biggest flying-boat launched in Calshot

11:07am Wednesday 15th May 2013

IT was December, 1951 when the Daily Echo scooped every other newspaper by being the first to publish a photograph of the world’s biggest flying-boat.

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Girl Guides welcome Lady Baden-Powell to Alrresford

10:56am Wednesday 15th May 2013

It was October 1932 and more than 100 Girl Guides of all ranks and drawn from across Hampshire cheered the Chief “Guider”, Lady Baden-Powell, who was visiting Alresford.

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Shoemaker’s love of prison

4:46pm Thursday 9th May 2013

FRANK Bryan enjoyed prison so much he kept on committing crimes in order to return there.

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Rownhams House - a 'little oasis'

11:00am Saturday 27th April 2013

Sally Churchward takes a tour of one of Southampton’s remaining country mansions

• Hampshire Heritage

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Southampton's dark and dangerous back street

5:01pm Monday 8th April 2013

THESE days it is a quiet byway, tucked away from the busy streets of 21st century Southampton, but there was a time when Simnel Street was packed with desperate families, and an area where few wandered on their own.

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Southampton's first ever roundabout

4:22pm Friday 5th April 2013

THE newfangled road system had Southampton drivers going around and around in circles.

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Living in the pub with no beer

3:57pm Wednesday 3rd April 2013

IN downtown Southampton the paint was peeling and flaking on the old Electric Arms beer-house, the wallpaper was stained by damp and upstairs the plaster had fallen from the walls and ceiling.

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Simple fruit brings a smile during war

1:29pm Thursday 28th March 2013

HAMPSHIRE’S 21st century shoppers find it difficult to appreciate just how hard it was at the time of rationing in the Second World War and during the years which followed the return of peace.

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Press gangs made people vanish from the streets of Southampton

12:17pm Thursday 28th March 2013

EVERY community has its tales about local people who in earlier, less sensitive times, would be referred to as “not all there” and Southampton was no exception.

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Alfred the Great timeline

5:03pm Tuesday 26th March 2013

Alfred: timeline

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The day a meteor lit up the Hampshire sky

11:55am Wednesday 20th March 2013

STREAKING across the sky like a ball of pale green fire, a meteor caused quite a stir in Hampshire in the spring of 1891.

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Downton Abbey: what really happened in Hampshire country houses

8:50am Sunday 3rd March 2013

LIFE above and below stairs at Downton Abbey has gripped television audiences in their millions but is the drama a true reflection of the English country house in the 19th and early 20th centuries?

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Don’t mess with the sergeant major

4:08pm Monday 25th February 2013

IT would have been a most unwise character to cause a disturbance in Southampton’s old Glasgow pub, as the landlord was an ex- Army sergeant major and champion swordsman.

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Enjoy the trip on the Floating Bridge – but don’t feed the birds

4:29pm Thursday 7th February 2013

THEY were loved and loathed in equal measure and were wonderfully quirky and were a unique feature of Southampton life for decades.

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City landmark racks up 50 years

6:03pm Wednesday 23rd January 2013

EXACTLY half a century ago hundreds of Southampton people reached for the sky and found a new home for themselves in the city.

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Celebration of new Guildhall

3:45pm Tuesday 15th January 2013

SOUTHAMPTON’S Guildhall has long been a steadfast city landmark which, when it was built, had an eye to future generations.

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Fifty years since first visit of the Rolling Stones to Southampton

4:47pm Monday 14th January 2013

IT was 50 years ago that the Rolling Stones, the bad boys of rock, first wowed fans in Southampton.

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Magical memories of Mansbridge

12:18pm Wednesday 9th January 2013

FOR many decades the riverside walks in and around Mansbridge have been some of the most popular spots for local Southampton people to enjoy a country stroll, while still being close to the city.

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History of Midanbury Lodge - The Castle - in Southampton

5:32pm Friday 28th December 2012

AN unknown Southampton writer, reporting in 1878 on the construction of a new road east of the River Itchen, praised the beauty of the nearby countryside, claiming “the views from Midanbury Heights are exceedingly fine’’.

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Looking to the past for the Bargate's future

12:18pm Monday 17th December 2012

Last week, the Daily Echo revealed a bold vision to reinstate Southampton’s iconic Bargate. As KEITH HAMILTON reports, a new chapter in the colourful history of the city’s most important landmarks could be about to unfold

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Day fascist Mosley hid in a tram to escape the angry mob

3:31pm Thursday 13th December 2012

EXTRAORDINARILY, his appearance in Southampton warranted neither front page consideration nor the presence of a staff photographer.

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Daily Echo images from the past make unique Christmas gifts

2:32pm Tuesday 27th November 2012

Buy classic images from the Daily Echo archive

• Click to view our selection of archive images

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Streamline cabbies set a high standard

1:37pm Wednesday 5th December 2012

THE first meeting was held in a room at the Bank Inn, Everton Street, Southampton, in 1938 – almost threequarters of a century ago.

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Help find the Steam Queens

5:51pm Wednesday 3rd October 2012

CALLING Southampton’s ‘steam queens’!

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The battle for Twyford Down - was it worth it?

9:50am Monday 1st October 2012

Twenty years ago, Chris Gillam was among the environmental campaigners who took part in the protests over the controversial M3 extension. Sally Churchward looks back with him

Medieval Southampton's rich links to Venice - through pepper

4:15pm Wednesday 26th September 2012

THE stunning beauty of Venice with its canals, palaces, and gondolas, may seem far removed from 21st century Southampton but there is a connection, one which stretches back over the centuries and continues to this day.

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Suffragettes in the city were determined to get the vote.

11:15am Tuesday 18th September 2012

IT sounds bizarre but 100 years ago no Southampton post box, nor the mail inside it, was safe from the activities of a gang of determined arsonists.

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‘A very comfortable means of locomotion’

4:02pm Friday 14th September 2012

Southampton ’s modern-day, crowded roads are a far cry from those far off times when most of the passing traffic was either horse and carts or bicycles.

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The £43 guide for Victorian visitors to Hampshire

5:13pm Monday 10th September 2012

BACK in 1888, for the sum of ten shillings (50p), equivalent to more than £43 today, a handsome book, bound in red leather, could be bought in London by travellers heading for Hampshire and the south coast.

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Mystery of the disappearing machine-gun inventor

3:01pm Monday 20th August 2012

A LINGERING mystery from Victorian Southampton is the strange case of William Cantelo, inventor of a quickfiring gun, who mastered another skill, that of vanishing without trace and then re-appearing as someone else.

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Marathon fist fight is declared a draw

4:44pm Friday 17th August 2012

BEHIND a pub in the north of Hampshire flows the river Blackwater, borderline between the county and its next door neighbour, Surrey.

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Port brings wealth – but not for everyone

11:38am Tuesday 14th August 2012

LIFE in Southampton in early Victorian times had its ups as well as its downs, and it seems everyone was affected, whether a leading businessman or an ordinary seafarer.

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The highwayman of 'gentle spirit'

11:29am Tuesday 31st July 2012

THOMAS Sympson was born in Romsey and grew up to become one of the most remarkable figures in Hampshire’s history.

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University celebrates its own diamond anniversary

5:22pm Friday 29th June 2012

IT was one of the first acts of her long and historic reign.

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Last bastion of aristocracy in city

3:09pm Wednesday 27th June 2012

A CENTURY ago, Southampton had many grand houses on its outskirts, but times have changed from the grand days of the aristocracy and many of these houses and the elegant lifestyles that lived within them have long since disappeared.

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The queue for The Who

2:32pm Tuesday 26th June 2012

POLITENESS and courtesy might not be synonymous with the wild excesses of rock music.

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Rower, colonel and Thornhill Park owner

4:04pm Wednesday 30th May 2012

THESE days the name of Frank Willan has slipped from prominence but there was a time when this remarkable Southampton athlete was the toast of the nation.

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Bee Gees’ stardom began in Northam!

3:00pm Tuesday 22nd May 2012

THE music world is in mourning with the news of Bee Gees member Robin Gibb’s death from cancer at the age of 62.

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Crushing finale for super Savoy cinema

2:41pm Monday 14th May 2012

IT WAS 53 years ago that the curtain came down on Southampton’s “newest cinema”.

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Veteran killed himself after murdering his wife

2:22pm Thursday 23rd February 2012

SHE was puzzled but not unduly alarmed at getting no reply at her parents’ home where she lived. So without a front door key, Millie Hitchcock returned to work but by chance encountered family friend, PC William McShane, cycling along the road.

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Post-war push for Riverside Park

10:22am Tuesday 21st February 2012

Southampton was growing, the population rising, and there was an urgent need for wide open spaces for local people to relax and enjoy the fresh air.

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Elegant town for teenager Jane Austen

10:47am Friday 17th February 2012

“Southampton is an elegant, well-built town. It stands on the confluence of two large waters; and when the tide is full, is seated on a peninsula.

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Film-makers set off on the history trail

10:32am Tuesday 31st January 2012

Footage from over 100 years ago showing the Bargate in Southampton has been uncovered.

• Southampton
• Hampshire Heritage

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