Portsdown Hill is a long chalk ridge in Hampshire, England. The highest point of the hill lies within

Fort Southwick Fort Southwick is one of the forts found on Portsdown Hill, which overlooks the naval base of Portsmouth in the county of Hampshire, England. History Fort Southwick was built to defend the landward approaches to the naval base on the recommenda ...

at 131m above sea level. The ridge offers good views to the south over Portsmouth, the Solent, Hayling Island and

Gosport Gosport ( ) is a town and non-metropolitan borough on the south coast of Hampshire, South East England. At the 2011 Census, its population was 82,662. Gosport is situated on a peninsula on the western side of Portsmouth Harbour, opposite t ...

, with the Isle of Wight beyond. The hill is on the mainland, just to the north of Ports Creek, which separates the mainland from Portsea Island, on which lies the main part of the city of Portsmouth, one of the United Kingdom's main naval bases. To the north lies the

Forest of Bere The Forest of Bere is a mixed-use partially forested area in Hampshire immediately north of Fareham, Portsmouth and Roman Road, Havant and including a small part of the South Downs National Park.South Downs visible in the distance.

Butser Hill Butser Hill is a hill and nature reserve in Hampshire, England. South-west of Petersfield, it is a biological and geological Site of Special Scientific Interest. It is a national nature reserve and a Special Area of Conservation. Part of it i ...

can be seen on a clear day. The hill is formed from an

inlier An inlier is an area of older rock (geology), rocks surrounded by younger rocks. Inliers are typically formed by the erosion of overlying younger rocks to reveal a limited outcrop, exposure of the older underlying rocks. Fault (geology), Faulting o ...

of chalk which has been brought to the surface by an east–west upfold of the local

strata In geology and related fields, a stratum ( : strata) is a layer of rock or sediment characterized by certain lithologic properties or attributes that distinguish it from adjacent layers from which it is separated by visible surfaces known as ei ...

known as the Portsdown Anticline. Southwick House is close by the north side of the hill, the HQ for U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower during the

D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D ...

invasions; the generals prayed together before D-Day at Christ Church Portsdown, on the hill, which has a memorial window. The

A3(M) The A3, known as the Portsmouth Road or London Road in sections, is a major road connecting the City of London and Portsmouth passing close to Kingston upon Thames, Guildford, Haslemere and Petersfield. For much of its length, it is classified ...

motorway cuts through the east side of the hill while the original A3 climbs over the centre by the George Inn pub and Christ Church. The nearest railway stations (from west to east) are Portchester, Cosham and Bedhampton. There are many stories about real and imagined tunnels in the hill. The area contains active military research establishments, including one of the core sites of Dstl (known as Dstl Portsdown West) and sites run by QinetiQ. Part of the hill has been designated a

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of ...

. Most of the southern flank of the ridge is designated as access land under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 and thereby freely available for the public to enjoy on foot. During the early part of the English Civil War Royalist forces from Portsmouth were involved in a number of skirmishes with Parliamentarians on the hill In the Victorian era the hill was home to a fair on Easter Mondays.

Portsdown Forts

The forts on Portsdown Hill were built as a result of the 1859 Royal Commission, as part of a series of fortifications built to defend Portsmouth and its dockyard (which is 8 kilometres away) from a possible attack from ''inland'', as the development of rifled gun barrels made it possible for an invading army to land elsewhere, circle around to the top of the hill and bombard the city from there, rendering the existing Hilsea Lines at the bottom of the ridge useless. A series of 6 forts were planned along the of the ridge. From west to east they are forts Fareham, Wallington, Nelson, Southwick, Widley and Purbrook. The line was finished off at the eastern end with Crookhorn Redoubt and Farlington Redoubt. The main threat was perceived to be from Napoleon III of France, but this receded soon after the forts' completion. Due to this they became known as "Palmerston's Folly" but, though never needed for their original purpose, were useful

anti-aircraft Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based, ...

gun emplacements during World War II.

Fort Fareham Fort Fareham is one of the Palmerston Forts, in Fareham, England. After the Gosport Advanced Line of Fort Brockhurst, Fort Elson, Fort Rowner, Fort Grange and Fort Gomer had been approved by the Royal Commission on the Defence of the United Kin ...

is now a small industrial estate. The remains of the Fort are Grade II listed.

Fort Wallington Wallington is a village in Hampshire, part of the borough of Fareham. It is situated between Portsmouth and Southampton near where the River Wallington enters Portsmouth Harbour. The name Wallington probably means 'settlement of the Welsh' (or B ...

has been largely demolished to make way for an industrial estate. What remains is now a Grade II Listed Building.

Fort Nelson Fort Nelson may refer to: Canada *Fort Nelson, British Columbia, a town *Fort Nelson River, British Columbia * Fort Nelson (Manitoba) (1670–1713), an early fur trading post at the mouth of the Nelson River and the first headquarters of the Hudson ...

has been extensively restored as an artillery museum run by the Royal Armouries. It is a Grade I Listed Building, the highest level of designation.

was for many years an

Admiralty Research Establishment The Admiralty Research Establishment (commonly known as ARE) was formed on 1 April 1984 from various Admiralty establishments. It became part of the Defence Research Agency on 1 April 1991. Constituent parts on formation * Admiralty Surface We ...

, sold in 2003 for housing. It is also now a Grade I Listed Building.

Fort Widley Fort Widley is one of the forts built on top of Portsdown Hill between 1860 and 1868 on the recommendation of the Royal Commission on the Defence of the United Kingdom. It was designed, along with the other Palmerston Forts atop Portsdown, to pro ...

is owned by Portsmouth council, hosting a stable and various community rooms. Tours run on summer weekends. It is Grade II* Listed. Fort Purbrook is open occasionally for craft fairs. It is also home to an activity centre which offers (but is not limited to) archery, rifle shooting and indoor rock-climbing. It is also Grade II* Listed. In October 2021, the fort was one of 142 sites across England to receive part of a £35-million injection into the government's Culture Recovery Fund. Guarding Fort Purbrook, the Crookhorn redoubt suffered from subsidence, and was demolished by 1876. The Farlington redoubt had only the ditches and gun positions dug, and was finally demolished in the 1970s. The tunnel between Crookhorn and Purbrook has been rediscovered. Portsdown also gave its name to an army estate in Singapore. Long after the British army moved out (1967) the Portsdown estate continues to thrive, with Portsdown Road the main road running through the middle. Fort Wildley, Portsdown Hill, Portsmouth North

Fort Wildley, Portsdown Hill, Portsmouth North

Fort Purbrook, Portsdown Hill, Porstmouth, 4-7-2018

Fort Purbrook Fort Nelson, Portsdown Hill, look from south, 5-7-2018

Portsdown SSSI

Over fifty hectares of the south face of the hill are a Site of Special Scientific Interest owing to its chalk grassland habitat. Grazing ceased in the early 1950s, and consequently the site was gradually invaded by scrub, mostly

hawthorn Hawthorn or Hawthorns may refer to: Plants * '' Crataegus'' (hawthorn), a large genus of shrubs and trees in the family Rosaceae * ''Rhaphiolepis'' (hawthorn), a genus of about 15 species of evergreen shrubs and small trees in the family Rosace ...

, dogwood, and

wild privet ''Ligustrum vulgare'' (wild privet, also sometimes known as common privet or European privet) is a species of ''Ligustrum'' native to central and southern Europe, north Africa and southwestern Asia, from Ireland and southwestern Sweden south to M ...

. An intensive restoration programme funded by the Countryside Commission and Portsmouth City Council was initiated in 1995; large areas of scrub have now been cleared by machine, and flowers and grasses allowed to regenerate naturally. Scrub re-encroachment is controlled by cattle and horses which graze overwinter. Several species of butterfly became extinct owing to the loss of habitat to scrub, notably the

Adonis blue The Adonis blue (''Lysandra bellargus'', also known as ''Polyommatus bellargus'') is a butterfly in the family Lycaenidae. It inhabits the Palearctic realm (Western Europe, Central Europe, Southern Europe, Southern Russia, Iraq, Iran, Caucasus, T ...

silver-studded blue The silver-studded blue (''Plebejus argus'') is a butterfly in the family Lycaenidae. It has bright blue wings rimmed in black with white edges and silver spots on its hindwings, lending it the name of the silver-studded blue. ''P. argus'' can be ...

dingy skipper The Dingy Skipper (''Erynnis tages'') is a butterfly of the family Hesperiidae. Description ''Erynnis tages'' is different from other skippers because of the predominantly monochrome, gray-brown wing coloration and the marbling, which is only ...

, and dark green fritillary. Others such as the chalkhill blue and small blue were at the brink of extinction, but are now flourishing again. Indeed, the hill has now probably the largest

metapopulation A metapopulation consists of a group of spatially separated populations of the same species which interact at some level. The term metapopulation was coined by Richard Levins in 1969 to describe a model of population dynamics of insect pests in ...

of the small blue in the UK.

References

External links

Palmerston Forts Society

Victorian Forts data sheet on Fort Purbrook

Victorian Forts data sheet on Fort Widley

Victorian Forts data sheet on Fort Southwick

Victorian Forts data sheet on Fort Wallington

Victorian Forts data sheet on Crookhorn Redoubt

Portsdown Tunnels

Christ Church Portsdown

Fort Southwick

Fort Widley

The Royal Armouries at Fort Nelson - Official Site

The Royal Armouries at Fort Nelson - Guide

Conservation Management and Volunteering on Portsdown Hill - the SSSI bit
{{DEFAULTSORT:Portsdown History of Hampshire Hills of Hampshire Palmerston Forts Napoleonic beacons in England