Product Code Database
Waterlooville is a town in the Borough of Havant in Hampshire, England, approximately northeast of Portsmouth. It is the largest town in the borough. The town had a population of 64,350 in the 2011 Census. It is surrounded by Purbrook, Blendworth, Cowplain, Lovedean, Clanfield, Catherington, Crookhorn, Denmead, Hambledon, Horndean and Widley. It forms part of the South Hampshire conurbation. The town formed around the old A3 London to Portsmouth road.
In June 2015 Waterlooville town celebrated its first 200 years, its origins and history in a festival called Waterlooville 200.
The town centre was closed to traffic in 1985 when a bypass was constructed to take traffic away from the main shopping area. The bypass, initially anonymous, was named Maurepas Way sometime after the two towns were twinned in 1995. An underpass was constructed for pedestrians walking up along the Hambledon Road. In 1982 and 1983 the old road was fully converted to a pedestrian precinct. The precinct had a fountain and raised area at the northern end, near the Heroes pub; however, regular vandalism of the fountain soon resulted in its removal. In August 2012 the northern part of the precinct received a £700,000 renovation and repaving, increasing the area available to the weekly Friday market.
GEC Marconi built a site at Waterlooville for their Underwater Systems Division in the early 1980s, for the Stingray anti-submarine torpedo. A peace camp was set up near the construction site. After completion of the GEC building, a free music festival was held at Old Park Farm in Waterlooville called Torpedo Town. A second Torpedo Town festival was held in August 1987 at Bramdean Common near Winchester.
Near the town centre is St George's Church, rebuilt in 1968–70 around the core of the original (1830) church. Waterlooville Baptist Church was built in 1967 in a Modernist style to replace the original chapel of 1884–85 in the town centre. (2026). 9780300225037, Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300225037 During the 1950s and 1960s the surrounding area saw extensive growth in housing, when large suburban public and private housing estates were constructed. This resulted in the original Victorian church failing to cope with the population growth. Plans for a new church were started and in 1970 the new church was built on the site of the old church. Parts of the old church were retained. In July 2011 the town saw the consecration of its first Roman Catholic Church.
During winter, Waterlooville tends to have more frost than nearby Portsmouth as it has fewer influences from the sea and is more exposed to northerly winds. However, highs in the summer are slightly warmer than Portsmouth because there is less influence of cool breezes from the English Channel as the town is more inland. Sunshine averages are typical of that across the Portsmouth area, Isle of Wight and the south-west Sussex coast of around 1800 – 2100 hours of sunshine a year, where southwesterly winds keep the sunshine hours up between late March and mid September; the town is also protected by the South Downs.
The nearest railway station is located in Bedhampton and is on the main train route between London and Portsmouth. For a time, South Western Railway provided a direct bus link to Petersfield railway station via Horndean, enabling quick access to fast London-bound trains, but now the link to Petersfield is Stagecoach service 37 via Clanfield. Havant railway station is served by Stagecoach service 39, and stations in Portsmouth by First services 7 and 8. For westbound trains the station at Cosham, served by the local bus services, is on the line between Portsmouth and Fareham, with regular trains to Southampton and Cardiff.
Local radio stations are BBC Radio Solent on 96.1 FM, Heart South on 97.5 FM, Capital South on 103.2 FM, Easy Radio South Coast on 107.4 FM, Nation Radio South Coast on 106.0 FM, Radio Victory on 95.8 FM, and The Flash, a community based radio station which broadcast on DAB.
The town is served by the local newspaper, The News.
Waterlooville Cricket Club plays its home games at Jubilee Park. It runs three Saturday sides and has a youth set-up. The 1st XI currently competes in the Southern Premier Cricket League Division 2 with other sides spread across the Hampshire League spectrum.
There is a bowls club with a carpet green in Jubilee Park.
Havant & Waterlooville football club, which plays in Havant, was formed in 1998 after a merger between Havant Town and Waterlooville.
For representation to the House of Commons, Waterlooville falls within the Fareham and Waterlooville constituency.
Waterloo was formerly an extra-parochial chapelry. In 1858 Waterloo became a separate civil parish, and on 1 April 1932 the parish was abolished and merged with Havant, part also went to from Southwick and Widley. In 1931 the parish had a population of 1250.
Two new two form entry primary schools are to be built in the new housing development area situated off the Maurepas Roundabout. The first of these is scheduled to open in September 2014 with a possible Year R only intake depending on the number of children needing places.
It contains five secondary schools: Horndean Technology College, The Cowplain School, Oaklands Catholic School, Purbrook Park School and Crookhorn College.
There are two colleges, Oaklands Catholic Sixth Form College and South Downs College.
|
|
