Monument MPM1902 - Site of East Cosham Farm

Farm situated on the north side of Havant Road roughly within the site of the present day Meridien Milano garage. The exact dates the farm was in existance are not known, but an East Cosham Farm is named in sources from at least 1823, although it is not marked on maps until 1870. The site appears to have stopped operating as a farm between 1910 and 1932. Only one of the farm buildings appears to have survived and is now in use as a service and parts centre to the garage.

The farm was situated on the north side of Havant Road, roughly within the site of the Dreton Lodge retirement development 111-115 Havant Road (opposite Carshalton Avenue). One of the farm buildings appeared to have survived and formed part of the former Meridien Milano garage site until it was demolished in c.2023 (see MPM1872). It is not possible to determine the exact date of the farm using sources held in the Portsmouth City Archive, as the parishes on mainland Portsmouth fell outside the borough until the mid-20th century. [HER Officer]

Hampshire Record Office hold a bundle of deeds relating to the farm, the description for which in their catalogue describes it as 'a messuage and various lands in Wymering and Cosham, called by 1825, East Cosham Farm' [1]. The covering dates for the deeds are given as 1675-1852. However, the catalogue records an unrelated bond regarding a will of 1675, and therefore the date of the earliest deed cannot be determined without consulting the documents themselves.

The Hampshire Chronicle reported that a fire had broken out at East Cosham Farm on the 20th November 1823. The paper reported that the fire was brought under control and the farm buildings 'preserved'. [2]

The earliest map in the City Archive collection which marks the farm is the 1870 Ordnance Survey map [3]. The homestead is not marked on the Wymering and Widley Enclosure Award of 1815 [4] or on the Wymering Tithe map of 1839 [5]. In 1839 two large plots of land within this area are recorded as belonging to John Burrill [5]. Two leases held by West Sussex Record Office dated 1843 and 1850 record Winchester College giving John Burrill permission to let the farm [6]. The farm buildings appear to have been on the same site as the 1870 map and were recorded as consisting of 'Messuage or Tenement and Garden containing by measurement 1 Rood and 19 perches. And all that Yard, Barn, cowshed, stables and outhouses measuring 38 perches. And also that Yard, cottage, barn and garden at the side of the said cottage , 1 rood and 10 perches' [6]. Further research needs to be carried out in order to determine whether the East Cosham Farm recorded in earlier sources was on the same site as that recorded from 1843 onwards.

The farm ceased to be named on Ordnance Survey maps by 1932, and by 1952 all but one of the farm buildings had been demolished [7, 8].

<1> Hampshire Record Office, 2018, Hampshire Record Office Catalogue (Index). SPM502.

<2> Hampshire Chronicle, 1823, Hampshire Chronicle (Bibliographic reference). SPM512.

<3> Ordnance Survey, 1870, Ordnance Survey Map 1870 (Map). SPM282.

<4> 1815, Wymering and Widley Enlosure Award (Cartographic materials). SPM504.

<5> Lewis, 1839, Wymering Tithe Map (Map). SPM426.

<6> Macey, Jennifer, 2018, East Cosham Farm (Unpublished document). SPM513.

<7> Ordnance Survey, 1932, Ordnance Survey Map 1932 (Map). SPM354.

<8> Ordnance Survey, 1952, Ordnance Survey Map 1952 (Map). SPM67.