Mansbridge is a suburb on the northern perimeter of

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. The area is named after the Mans Bridge which spans the River Itchen. For a considerable time, this was the southernmost crossing point of the river, before the construction of Woodmill in Swaythling. The bridge itself still stands and is a Grade II

listed structure In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

but is closed to road traffic (pedestrians and cyclists may still use it), having been replaced by a larger and more modern road bridge to carry the A27. The suburb contains a mixture of housing. The first developments, on the north side of the A27, were designed by architect

Herbert Collins Herbert Collins (1885–1975) was a British architect, born in Edmonton, London. He designed many of the suburban developments in the city of Southampton in the 1920s and 1930s. Life Collins designed houses in Southampton from 1922, became a ...

, whose houses are a feature of several other Southampton districts. A larger estate was later constructed on the south side, along with Mansbridge Primary School, the logo of which is the bridge itself. The residential area of Mansbridge is bordered to the west by the London to Weymouth railway line and to the east by the river. Beyond the river, Mansbridge takes on a much more rural air, with woodland to the south and water meadows to the north. The neighbouring areas are Swaythling to the west,

Townhill Park Townhill Park is a suburb of Southampton, England, bordering Swaythling, Bitterne Park and West End. It is built on land which once belonged to the house which carries the same name. History The Manor of Townhill was granted to Si ...

to the south, and Chartwell Green to the east. A strip of

green belt A green belt is a policy and land-use zone designation used in land-use planning to retain areas of largely undeveloped, wild, or agricultural land surrounding or neighboring urban areas. Similar concepts are greenways or green wedges, which h ...

land separates Mansbridge from Eastleigh to the north.

History

The bridges

There has been a bridge at Mansbridge since at least the year 932, when it was referred to as ''Mannysbrigge'' in

King Athelstan King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the ti ...

's charter to the

prior Prior (or prioress) is an ecclesiastical title for a superior in some religious orders. The word is derived from the Latin for "earlier" or "first". Its earlier generic usage referred to any monastic superior. In abbeys, a prior would be low ...

of St. Swithun's Priory in

Winchester Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...

. In the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

of 1086, the location was recorded as ''Manebrige'' or ''Manesbrige''

Hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to des ...

, within the county of '' Hantscire''. A wooden bridge by the name of Blak Bridge was described as being "a little above Woodmill" (i.e. upstream of Woodmill in Swaythling) by Leland in 1535–43, and this may be a reference to Mansbridge as there are no known crossing points of the river between Mansbridge and Woodmill. Saxton's map of 1575 shows the bridge at Mansbridge labelled as "mans bridge", while Speed's 1611 map refers to the hundred as ''Mansbridg''. Blaeu's 1645 map shows ''Mansbridge Hundred'' but Morden's map of 1695 labels the bridge "Mansbridg", and shows it within the Fawley or Waltham (possibly

Bishop's Waltham Bishop's Waltham (or Bishops Waltham) is a medieval market town situated at the source of the River Hamble in Hampshire, England. It has a foot in the South Downs National Park and is located at the midpoint of a long-established route betw ...

) Hundred. The bridges that stand at Mansbridge today are much more recent than those mentioned above; the older of the two was built in 1816 by the

county council A county council is the elected administrative body governing an area known as a county. This term has slightly different meanings in different countries. Ireland The county councils created under British rule in 1899 continue to exist in Irela ...

; this bridge was made of stone with a single segmental arch and decorated with a lambswool pattern. The 1816 bridge is a grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

, having first been listed on 14 July 1953. It is closed to motorised traffic and forms part of

National Cycle Route 23 The partially signed route passes through Basingstoke, Eastleigh and Southampton; once across the Solent, it continues through Cowes and Newport. Route Reading to Basingstoke Reading , Basingstokemap Basingstoke to Alton/Winchester Basings ...

. The current bridge carrying the

A27 road The A27 is a major road in England. It runs from its junction with the A36 at Whiteparish (near Salisbury) in the county of Wiltshire, follows the south coast of Hampshire and West Sussex, and terminates at Pevensey (near Eastbourne and Bexh ...

was constructed in 1975, and replaced a

bailey bridge A Bailey bridge is a type of portable, pre-fabricated, truss bridge. It was developed in 1940–1941 by the British for military use during the Second World War and saw extensive use by British, Canadian and American military engineering units ...

erected during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

The Grange

The suburb of Mansbridge had at its heart, for a century, a large house called "The Grange." The Grange had an extensive ornamental garden, containing a diverse collection of trees. After World War II the house fell into disrepair, and was eventually demolished around 1970. The grounds are now a part of the

Monks Brook Monks Brook is a river in the English county of Hampshire. It is a tributary of the River Itchen, which it joins at a medieval salmon pool in Swaythling. The brook is formed from seven streams that rise in the chalky South Downs, with the offi ...

Greenway, a nature trail, and many of the original trees can still be seen along the brook's bank.''A History of Mansbridge'' 1990, book, P. Wilson

Southampton water supply

Under the powers of the Southampton Waterworks Amendment Act 1850 a pumping station was set up at Mansbridge to take water from the River Itchen and transfer it to a pair of reservoirs on Southampton Common. The pumping station ceased being used in 1892.

Gallery

File:Mansbridge southampton.JPG, The bridge after which the suburb is named File:White Swan, Mansbridge.jpg, The White Swan public house in Mansbridge File:The Itchen navigation canal at Mansbridge - geograph.org.uk - 1670798.jpg, Lock conservation work in progress at Mansbridge Lock on the

Itchen Navigation The Itchen Navigation is a disused canal system in Hampshire, England, that provided an important trading route from Winchester to the sea at Southampton for about 150 years. Improvements to the River Itchen were authorised by Act of Parliame ...

References

{{Buildings in Southampton Areas of Southampton