Topic summary
Portsmouth Road
Extracted from the Wikipedia article A3 road.
History
By the 17th century, the historic Portsmouth Road bore great strategic significance as the road link between the capital city and what became the settled main port of the Royal Navy. In 1603, a petition was passed by The Queen for the expansion of the bench of justices of the town of Guildford along its route, in consideration of the importance of the Portsmouth Road. Many of the other towns and villages that the road passed through gained income and, in the case of towns, a market advantage as a result — principally in the history of Kingston upon Thames, Godalming and Petersfield.