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Did you know?
June 20th 2008
Now read the storyThe History of the 13th Millennium Plaque of the Portchester Society A sub-committee chaired by Mr. John Towse consulted the owners of the chosen buildings and their approval of the design and permission for the plaque to be erected was obtained. On 22nd. January 2007 Mr. Towse met Mr Colin Stiles who was then the head leaseholder of the apartment block, which now stands on the site of the former Portchester Parish Hall, in the public house known as The Cormorant in Castle Street, Portchester. On that occasion Mr. Towse asked Mr. Stiles for his consent to erect a plaque on the Castle Street frontage of the apartment block. Mr. Stiles confirmed that so long as he approved the design and text of the commemorative plaque he would consent. According to the procedure, which Mr. Towse had followed for the erection of every other ‘blue’ commemorative plaque in the village the sub-committee now decided upon an appropriate text and this together with an illustration of the design, was communicated to Mr. Stiles on 6th. March 2007. At no time in this unhappy story, did Mr. Stiles indicate that he was unhappy with the design and wording on the plaque and so on a date in the latter part of May 2007 this plaque was affixed to the external wall of number 5 Boxtree Court (the building now standing on the site of the former Parish Hall). On 15th. June 2007, Councillor Walker was observed inspecting the plaque and a little while afterward Mr. Colin Stiles was seen attempting to remove the plaque from the wall. On Friday 24th. August 2007, witnesses (including the Neighbourhood Watch Co-ordinator) saw two men remove the plaque with a crowbar and carry it round the corner into White Hart Lane where a vehicle belonging to Havencrest Properties Ltd. was waiting. The two men with the plaque got into the vehicle. The Neighbourhood Watch Co-ordinator reported the incident to the local police assuming, quite reasonably, that a theft had occurred Many people living in Portchester telephoned the police to enquire about the missing plaque and they announced that they would only receive and give information regarding the plaque to, and from, Mr. Ken Howkins, then vice chairman of The Portchester Society. At a date between 10th. and 14th. September 2007 Sergeant Samantha Dunlop, at Fareham Police Station, advised Mr. Howkins that the plaque was in their custody and on 20th. September 2007 she stated that the plaque would be returned to Mr. Howkins on Saturday 22nd. September 2007. On Saturday 22nd. September 2007 a police officer telephoned Mr. Howkins and announced that the plaque had been given back to Mr. Stiles. No explanation was given for this change of plan. Sergeant Dunlop in a telephone conversation with Mr. Howkins said that although the police regarded the incident as closed (and that technically no crime had been committed) she had recommended that Mr. Stiles should give the plaque back to The Society. The Portchester Society wrote to Mr. Stiles to request the return of the plaque on 24th. September 2007. On 26th. September 2007 The Portchester Society lodged a complaint with the Chief Constable of Hampshire about the manner in which the local police had dealt with this case. There followed an exchange of correspondence between The Portchester Society and Havencrest Properties Ltd. the outcome of which was that Mr. Colin Stiles refused to return the plaque unless The Portchester Society agreed to fill the holes in the wall of number 5 Boxtree Court where the plaque had been fixed. The Society's view was that Mr. Stiles’s employees, by forcibly wrenching the plaque from the wall had the responsibility for the repair of the holes. They further contended that the return of the plaque was unconditional. Mr. Stiles threatened to charge The Society £358.38 for filling two holes in the wall of number 5 Boxtree Court. The outcome of this abortive correspondence was that The Portchester Society were left with little alternative than to claim in the County Court compensation for the cost of the stolen plaque, from Havencrest Properties Ltd. Upon receiving notification of The Society's claim in the County Court, Mr. Colin Stiles physically assaulted Ken Howkins on 20th. December 2007 and issued threats of further violence toward him. This assault was reported to the police and Mr. Stiles was arrested but because there were no independent witnesses to the assault, Mr. Stiles was released without charge. The Court set 6th. June 2008 for the hearing of the Portchester Society's claim against Havencrest properties but on 22nd. May 2008 Havencrest Properties Ltd., appointed Receivers to wind-up the Company. The Portchester Society has registered as creditors of Havencrest Properties Ltd (in liquidation) with the Registrars. In the meantime Sergeant Dunlop refuses to give a statement confirming the advice that she alleged that she gave to Mr. Colin Stiles recommending the return of the plaque and The Portchester Society wrote to the Force Solicitor requesting that he advise Sergeant Dunlop to comply with their request. After four months The Portchester Society received a reply to their complaint to The Chief Constable, which unfortunately failed to address the questions put to him in their letter. The Portchester Society wrote to The Professional Standards Department of The Hampshire Constabulary and after ten weeks they received a reply which again failed to answer the questions put to it. The Portchester Society have now written to The Police Authority registering complaints against the initial police investigation, the trivial reply from the Chief Constable, the defensive attitude by all departments of The Hampshire Constabulary. With the exception of Inspector Dave Hunter at Fareham Police Station the constant fall back argument of the police in all departments is that "since The Portchester Society did not have the consent of the owner of the property (Mr. Colin Stiles) that the police had no alternative than to reach the conclusion that technically no crime had been committed and therefore they had to hand the plaque back to Mr. Stiles". From all the correspondence that The Society has had with the police it is clear that they feel that the more times they repeat this statement the nearer to the truth it will become. They are only too pleased to overlook the fact that The Portchester Society did gain the consent of the owner and that the contrary claim (the one on which they rely) is based on the uncorroborated statement on one person - the man who stole the plaque. To be continued. June 27th 2008 John Towse (one of our members) and Alexander McKee did the first dive on the site of the Mary Rose on 14th May 1966. An item about this is on our 'Links' page. click on www.maryrose.org/news/towse.htm January 31st 2008 The UNESCO World Heritage site for Portsmouth. On Monday January 28th 2008 the Portsmouth’s bid for UNESCO’s World Heritage Status was launched. This is the beginning of a long-winded process which firstly has to get approval by the Department of Culture and Media and Sport get by accepted onto a tentative list of applicants. It then may be selected to be considered by UNESCO as a nominated World Heritage Site. At present there are 27 sites in the U.K. that have won this nomination. There are many claims put forward to suggest the advantages of World Heritage Status that may accrue to the area and the population of that area, from gaining this recognition, such as improved inward investment, increased tourism, heightened economic activity, etc.. The focus of the bid for World Heritage Status is A Cultural Seascape associated with the theme Defence of the Realm. The area to be included is described as Portsmouth Harbour, Spithead and Isle of Wight. Local residents will know of the history of Portsmouth and its environs and will also have a good understanding of the current limitations that accompany life in this district. The Portchester Society will support the bid if the promise can be held out of success in this endeavour bringing relief to some of these shortcomings. At the present time we are ill served (1) by central government, (2) by Hampshire County Council, (3) by our local authority and (4) some sections of the local population. Consider (a) How, collectively
we appear to experience difficulty in finding financial resources to repair or renew the Gosport Ferry terminal. (d) The local road network is insufficient to provide for the existing populations and an increase in tourism will not go any way toward improving this. (e) South east planners (SEERA) promise that investment in infrastructure will accompany and be proportional to housing and commercial development, but there is little evidence to suggest that this promise will be kept. (f) The future of the Haslar Hospital site is uncertain. What will it become? Developers are watching. (g) We assume that the development now taking place at Queen Alexandra Hospital will be sufficient to cope with the medical needs of the whole area, but have planners taken into consideration the extended time for travelling from Gosport to Cosham? (h) In Portchester, where stands the ancient monument of Portchester Castle and the church of St. Mary, what many would claim is the jewel in the crown of this area, the streets are constantly littered with rubbish and the local authority will not provide the resources to maintain adequate street cleaning services Jan 2008
Jan 2008 29th November 2007 The following article has been written for the Society by Andrew Brookes. A short history of Horsea Island Horsea was originally two islands, Great and Little Horsea, until the advent of the 1880s wonder weapon, the torpedo, inspired the Royal Navy to join them and create a testing lake in the middle. Convict labour was used to excavate chalk and marl from Paulsgrove Pit, the army even obliging by building a light railway to transport the material about the site. The original lake, opened1889, was 800 yards long. Although extended to over a 1000 yards in 1905, it soon became obsolete as improvements in torpedo design radically increased the weapon's range to far beyond the limitations of Horsea. In 1909, the island began an additional role as the site of one of the Navy's three high-power shore wireless stations, a role it kept until the 1960s. The masts dismantled, the island then became home to the Navy's firefighting school instead. Steel buildings would be drenched in kerosene, ignited, and hapless matelots ordered in to extinguish the flames. This activity too was not to last long, and the school removed to a new, environmentally-friendly gas-fired establishment on Whale Island at the beginning of the new millennium. Today, Horsea's role is reduced to diver training, and even that is now under review. For all its artificial and warmongering origins, Horsea has become an important sanctuary for wildlife. The chalk lands to the south of the lake form, with Pewit Island, the only terrestrial parts of the Portsmouth Harbour Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). The island's meadows are home to an increasingly rare butterfly, the humble Small Heath (now extinct on Ports Down), whilst moth trapping with actinic lamps has discovered no fewer than 115 species. The jungle at the eastern extremity, near the motorway, hosts numerous birds, including roosting Herons and Little Egrets. Here also is one of Butterfly Conservation's elm trials sites, where new disease-resistant hybrids are evaluated as replacements for the giant English Elms that once studded the island, Portchester, and indeed almost the whole of England until the 1970s. Defence minister Des Browne has promised that the island's conservation status will be respected in any future developments, but what exactly will happen if and when the Royal Navy finally says goodbye is anybody's guess.
26th October 2007
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