Five amazing facts about Southampton and Hampshire

From marvellous mother nature to cunning plans - did you know about these occurrences?

1. A Quarter-Master-General donned women's clothing to fool the enemy

Sir William Gomm, who once lived at Bramdean, near Alresford, once had a painting of himself in dapper Victorian garb published in Vanity Fair - but it was far from being the best or most important outfit the British Army officer ever wore.

The watercolour picture was published on August 30, 1873, and was part of the ’Men of the Day’ series of cartoons. He was pictured dressed in a dark stock, white shirt, grey waistcoat, black frock coat, grey trousers, and black shoes with black bows.

But, years earlier, in 1815, the quartermaster general wore an entirely different outfit as part of a cunning plan he had devised. 

Disguised as a female match seller, he managed to walk through the French enemy lines and was able to warn the Duke of Wellington of a pending attack.

Gomm eventually made field marshall.

Read more:  More AMAZING facts about the local area >>>

2. Part of New York was once part of Southampton

Those who have been to New York may be familiar with East River Drive in Manhattan - but it has more connections to Southampton on our side of the Atlantic than you may know.

When the Second World War came to an end, many ships left the docks for New York with rubble from Southampton’s bombed houses and streets used as ballast for the Atlantic crossing.

Once in America, the rubble was unloaded and used as hardcore for the new road.

3. Video game Frogger could have been based on a local occurrence (but likely not!)

Back in the 1930s traffic on the Fareham to London road at Exton came to a halt to make way for some unusual pedestrians. 

According to a local history book: “Motorists drew up to allow a great company of frogs to make their way safely from their winter quarters in the meadows to their spawning place in the pond opposite. 

“Every spring, frogs in the Meon Valley make the trip, but the villagers said they had never seen so many thousands taking part.’’ 

Read more: Five things about Hampshire you may not know >>>

4. Stagecoaches to London took soooooo long

When the Star Hotel in Southampton’s High Street was being repainted in May 1943 workers uncovered a number of old coaching notices from the previous century.

One announced that a horse-drawn coach would run from the hotel to London daily, except Sundays, via Alresford and Farnham. Guaranteed time of ten hours.

Although this seems like a long time, this was a stark improvement on the three-day journey travellers were taking way back in 1648.

In order to bring down the travel time, better roads were needed. The first turnpike road was opened in 1663 and many more followed, including on The Avenue in 1758.

This cut the Southampton-to-London journey time down to ten hours.

This time was again greatly decreased after the construction of coaching inns.

Coaching Inns were vital as horses needed to be changed every seven miles. This required a vast network of Inns and hundreds of thousands of horses.

The last public stage-coach to leave Southampton was in 1892 when the route took the carriage from the South Western Hotel to the New Forest.

Travelling by stagecoach wasn't always a smooth ride – there were many hazards faced by drivers and passengers.

In one incident a passenger returning on the Southampton coach was accidentally shot in the back by a guard and, on another occasion, a coachman lost his life in Stony Cross when his coach overturned.

There was reportedly a scam being operated by some in which passengers would pay for food and drink at an inn before quickly being ushered back on to the coach by the coachmen. The refreshments were never prepared and the innkeepers and coachmen would split the cash.

5. A mass jail break occurred in Southampton

BACK in the early 17th century, when Southampton’s Bargate was used as a jail,   many prisoners, including Andrew Stooke and John Webb, managed to make good their escape. 

The pair were shackled along with other men, but managed to file down the links with knives before knocking the irons off with hammers.

Stooke filed off the lock of the inner prison door and knocked out two of the bars in the loft of the inner prison.

The men, then finding themselves in what was the Guildhall, simply walked down the stairs to freedom.

Many of the prisoners left through the Bargate Arch while others, including Stooke and Webb, left via the Eastgate.

Once free, Stooke even made money by selling one of the iron bars which he had removed during their escape.

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