Gosport in Cort’s day
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One
of the first in the county, containing near 1200 houses, and a greater number
of inhabitants than Winchester or Southampton. It consists of several parallel streets, intersected by many
others at right angles, and although it appears in some places rather crowded
yet is the whole well built and paved, and some of the streets spacious; it
is inhabited by a few merchants, a number of respectable tradesmen, officers
of the navy, and some artificers who work in Portsmouth Yard; exclusive of
the church, it has a large chapel, the dissenters are likewise a considerable
party. The town was fortified some
years ago, and has many heavy cannon on the ramparts.
From Daniel Waller’s description of Gosport in Annals of
Agriculture 1789 (Vol 8 p217) |
This map of the eastern end
of the town is taken from one of the 1870s, in Gosport museum. There had been few changes since Cort’s day.
Many of the features can
still be seen today. Most of North
Street has disappeared, and Middle Street has been renamed High Street. But South Street is still there.
A map of
the area around the Green around 1800 can be seen on the Henry Cort page of the
Gosport local website.
Although Gosport in Cort’s
day is reckoned to have been the second largest town in Hampshire, its official
status was part of the parish of Alverstoke.
Holy Trinity Church had been
built as a chapel-of-ease in 1696, but St Marys Alverstoke was still
extensively used, especially for burials.
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This page is part of a website based on
the life and achievements of eighteenth-century inventor Henry Cort.
Please email site controller Eric
Alexander with any comments or queries. |
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Related files |
henrycort.net
Gosport