Midanbury is a small suburb 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 b ...

, bordering

Bitterne Bitterne is an eastern suburb and ward of Southampton, England. Bitterne derives its name not from the similarly named bird, the bittern, but probably from the bend in the River Itchen; the Old English words ''byht'' and ''ærn'' together mean ...

Bitterne Park Bitterne Park is a suburb and Electoral Ward of Southampton, England, on the Eastern bank of the River Itchen, built on sloping parkland which once formed part of Bitterne Manor. Bitterne Park Ward includes the suburbs of Bitterne Park, Bitt ...

and Townhill Park.

History

In 1790 Southampton was a

spa town A spa town is a resort town based on a mineral spa (a developed mineral spring). Patrons visit spas to "take the waters" for their purported health benefits. Thomas Guidott set up a medical practice in the English town of Bath in 1668. He ...

whose popularity led to the construction of several country houses in the surrounding area, one of which was at Midanbury, situated on the summit of a hill to the east of the town. Known by a variety of names (Midanbury House, Midanbury Heights and Midanbury Lodge among them), the house was built by Mr T Leversuch. A writer in 1878 praised the beauty of the countryside, and the "exceedingly fine" views from the Midanbury Heights. The opening of the toll-free

Cobden Bridge Cobden Bridge is a major road bridge in Southampton, UK. It crosses the River Itchen joining the suburbs of St Denys and Bitterne Park. It forms part of the A3035. The present bridge dates from 1928, but there has been a bridge on this site s ...

in 1883 enabled the townsfolk to travel across the river where Midanbury House, with its castellated lodge and crenellated gateway, particularly captured the imagination. As a result the estate's grounds became a popular venue for Sunday School outings from the town's churches, featuring picnic tables and a variety of games, including

Cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

matches played by the adults. The house's lodge was built circa 1800 as a direct copy of that at Blaise Castle near

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

which was designed by John Nash. It had battlements and turrets, arrow slits, window panes in the gothic style, and was topped with a crest. The building came to be known as Midanbury Castle, and served as accommodation for servants of the main house. Among the last to live there were the coachman-gardener Herbert Grosvenor and his wife, the housekeeper, Alice. Michael Hoy, a merchant of Bishopsgate,

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

and later Walthamstow (then in

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

) who specialised in trading with

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

, purchased several properties in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, including Midanbury House. He served the office of

Sheriff of London Two sheriffs are elected annually for the City of London by the Liverymen of the City livery companies. Today's sheriffs have only nominal duties, but the historical officeholders had important judicial responsibilities. They have attended the ju ...

in 1812, having been elected to the

Worshipful Company of Ironmongers The Worshipful Company of Ironmongers is one of the Great Twelve Livery Company, livery companies of the City of London, incorporated under a Royal Charter in 1463. History The Ironmongers, who were originally known as the Ferroners, were in ...

on 22 April 1808. Hoy married Elizabeth, the second daughter of Andrew Hawes Bradley of

Gore Court The Grove, Gore Court is a sports ground in Sittingbourne in Kent. It is used for cricket and hockey by Gore Court. The ground is to the west of the centre of Sittingbourne, along the main A2 London road. History The first recorded cricket mat ...

near

Sittingbourne Sittingbourne is an industrial town in Kent, south-east England, from Canterbury and from London, beside the Roman Watling Street, an ancient British trackway used by the Romans and the Anglo-Saxons and next to the Swale, a strip of sea separa ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, on 24 May 1825 in South Stoneham Church (although the register lists his name as Michael Hay). Hoy died just three years later, on 26 June 1828, and left his estate to a distant cousin, the

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

-born James Barlow, a military surgeon. Barlow took on the name Hoy as a mark of respect, becoming James Barlow Hoy by royal licence on 26 January 1829. James Barlow Hoy announced his candidacy to be a

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

for the Southampton constituency in 1829 and gave his first speech from Midanbury. Hoy was subsequently elected to Parliament on 13 January 1830, and re-elected in a general election later that year. He trailed in the polls for the 1831 election and pulled out, but was elected again in 1832 and once more in 1835. He subsequently moved to Thornhill Park, also in Southampton, but as of 1833 was still at Midanbury and also serving as Sheriff of Southampton. Hoy died in 1843 of tetanus resulting from a shooting accident in the

Pyrenees The Pyrenees (; es, Pirineos ; french: Pyrénées ; ca, Pirineu ; eu, Pirinioak ; oc, Pirenèus ; an, Pirineus) is a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. It extends nearly from its union with the Cantabrian Mountains to ...

. In the mid-19th century the estate was held by Charles John Middleton as a Copyhold tenure. Middleton also owned a share of a freehold property in

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

and subsequently purchased two houses in

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

(then known as Calcutta) in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. He mortgaged Midanbury in January 1843 and died in the same month of the next year with debts larger than the value of his estate. The lodge fell into disuse in 1913; the house being purchased by a builder, T Clark & Son, in 1927 for development. In the 1930s the main house and lodge were demolished to make way for housing.

Coopers Brewery Coopers Brewery Limited, the largest Australian-owned brewery, is based in the Adelaide suburb of Regency Park. Coopers is known for making a variety of beers, the most famous of which are its Pale Ale and Sparkling Ale. In the twelve month ...

built a pub, The Castle, on the site of the house in 1935, which was converted into a

Tesco Express Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in th ...

convenience store in 2013. The naturalist

Chris Packham Christopher Gary Packham CBE (born 4 May 1961) is an English naturalist, nature photographer, television presenter and author, best known for his television work including the CBBC children's nature series '' The Really Wild Show'' from 1986 ...

grew up in the suburb.

Government

Midanbury is located within the

ward of Southampton, which is a

unitary authority A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governmen ...

. Bitterne Park returns three councillors onto Southampton City Council. As at August 2015, all three represent the Conservative Party. The area forms part of the

Southampton Itchen Southampton, Itchen is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2015 by Royston Smith, a Conservative member of parliament. Discounting the Speaker (of the House of Commons) returned in the early 1970s in two ...

parliamentary constituency, whose member of parliament is

Royston Smith Royston Matthew Smith (born 13 May 1964) is a British Conservative Party politician and has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Southampton Itchen since the 2015 general election. Smith was previously a councillor on the Southampton Ci ...

, another Conservative, as at May 2019.

Geography

In common with many city suburbs the boundaries of Midanbury are not well defined since the housing built on the Midanbury estate was constructed around the same time as surrounding areas and the old boundaries were not marked. The focal point of Midanbury today is small parade of shops at the top of Witts Hill, adjacent to the site of Midanbury Castle.

References

{{Districts of Southampton Areas of Southampton