Event/Activity EPM168 - Trial excavation in drain pond near former Hawker Sidderely Factory, Airport Services Road

An amateur trail dig reportedly took place in a drain pond near the former Hawker Siddeley factory on Airport Road. The work was carried out by a Mr G.R Marchant (newspaper report for the Evening News) and a friend. The dig was described in an article written by Mr Marchant and published in the Portsmouth Evening News on the 28th May 1964, which records that a trial dig by the reporter and a friend took place near Norway Road in Hilsea after tracing a 1600 map of Gatcombe Haven against golf course drain lines on a modern OS map. Digging in a drain pond near the old Hawker Siddeley factory on Airport Road they found pottery, tile and ironwork fragments, that were probably 14th or 15th century in date. No further information is available. The location of the site has been estimated using the 1952 Ordnance Survey map, which shows a pond near engineering works thought to belong to the former Airspeed/Hawker Siddeley factory site No. 2, and Portsmouth Golf Course.