ONCE it was a village, a separate community, a rural part of Hampshire on the edge of Southampton with a life and atmosphere all of its own.

Today all that has changed and Bitterne has been swallowed up by the city. Roads have changed, the heart of the one-time village now bypassed by an almost never-ending flow of traffic and local landmarks swept away in the name of development.

Unlike many other similar districts in the south the area is lucky in that it has the Bitterne Local History Society, a fierce watchdog to guard its heritage and safeguard memories and recollections.

According to the society, the River Itchen remained a natural barrier between the town of Southampton, as it was then, and Bitterne up the end of the 18th century when the first bridge was completed.

This wooden structure gave, for the first time, direct access to the Bitterne area and to the eastern part of the county. It also gave access to the large private estates and country houses owned by the landed gentry who had taken up residence in this desirable area.

In 1895 the Southampton Corporation proposed an extension of the borough boundaries to include, among other parishes, Bitterne.

The suggestion was greeted with great opposition and a petition was raised urging to keep Bitterne as a village which won the day. Over the years further attempts were made and successfully seen off until March 1920 when it was finally incorporated into the borough of Southampton, along with Sholing, Itchen and Woolston.

It was at this time that a rearguard action was fought by local people when Southamp-ton's municipal authorities made one move just too far.

As part of the changes the council tried to foist a new name on the community, switching the old High Street to Arcadian Way.

Some felt so strongly that they tarred and feathered the offending new name sign night after night until the council gave in and settled on the less controversial, Bitterne Road.

It was also about this time that the era of the motor bus arrived in Bitterne for the first time when the Hants and Dorset company started a service to Bishop's Waltham and Southampton Corporation launched a Bitterne and Woolston route.

Those who chose not to catch the bus but walk into Southampton had to pay a pedestrian toll of a halfpenny to cross Northam Bridge. The freeing of the tolls came in 1929 and was an occasion greatly welcomed by Bitterne people as it saw improved bus services, which for a time were boosted by trams from a terminus in Bullar Road to Portswood over Cobden Bridge.

Nostalgia is not just a modern day phenomenon, as back in the 1930's the writers of the long forgotten publication, the Bitterne Monthly Review took a fond look back over their shoulders and compared the most recent developments with previous years.

"Many of the old landmarks have been lost and the country lanes and roads, where one used to stop and pick blackberries, have become main roads on which shops and houses have been built,'' said the review of October, 1935.

"Bitterne Road, where an occasional car passed, now has countless cars and buses which speed by, Belisha beacons now bloom, and between 5pm and 5.30pm Bitterne Road now presents nothing but bustle and chaos of incoming and outgoing traffic, the recent completion of Bursledon Bridge having accentuated the problem, especially at the busy period.''