Borough of Eastleigh

Charlotte Yonge gave Eastleigh its name.

The borough's origins begin with the formation of a parish covering the villages of Eastley and Barton in 1868.[2] Author[3] Charlotte Mary Yonge, a resident of Otterbourne, donated £500 (£50,000 in 2023)[4] towards the cost of building a parish church and in return was asked which of the two villages to name the parish after; she chose Eastley, but also chose to alter the spelling to Eastleigh as she considered this more modern.[2] The parish grew rapidly: it had a population of 515 in 1871, over 1,000 in 1881 and 3,613 in 1891.[2]

In order to facilitate the creation of pavements with kerbs, drains and sewers, and street lights, a local board was established in 1893.[2] Two years later, the local board was replaced by Eastleigh Urban District Council, which was merged with the neighbouring community of Bishopstoke in 1899, retaining the Eastleigh name.[2]

The first Eastleigh Borough was incorporated in 1936 under the Municipal Corporations Act 1882. This conversion from Eastleigh Urban District Council to Eastleigh Borough Council allowed the authority to create bylaws. Notice of the petition for incorporation was served on the 1 February 1936, and the matter being raised for consideration on 16 March, along with petitions for the creation of boroughs for Crosby and Sale in North West England, among others.[5]

The Local Government Act 1972 resulted in this borough of Eastleigh merging with seven parishes[1] from the Winchester Rural District to become the borough as it is today, with effect from 1 April 1974.

In 2006, the borough was ranked the ninth best place to live in the UK by a Channel 4 programme.[6]

Most of the borough has a three-tier local government system, consisting of a local parish council or town council (there are nine parishes and two towns in the borough),[7] Eastleigh Borough Council itself, and Hampshire County Council. There are 39 seats on the borough council across 14 wards.[7] At present, 35 of these 39 seats are held by Liberal Democrat councillors, with three Independent councillors, and one Conservative.[7] The council has a strong tradition of attending to environmental matters and in 2008 was named a beacon council under the theme "Tackling Climate Change".[8] The council is rated as "good" by the Audit Commission.[9]

Eastleigh is represented on Hampshire County Council by eight councillors (currently seven Liberal Democrats and one Conservative),[10] and in Parliament by two MPs. Most of the borough is covered by the Eastleigh constituency, represented by Paul Holmes of the Conservative Party. The remaining wards, which cover Chandler's Ford and Hiltingbury, belong to the Winchester constituency, represented by Steve Brine of the Conservative Party.

The various wards and parishes are grouped into five subdivisions of Eastleigh, each with a local area committee of borough councillors. These five subdivisions are as follows:

The view over Southampton Water from the Royal Victoria Country Park

The southern part of the borough is bounded on the east by the River Hamble (separating it from Fareham) and on the west by Southampton Water (separating it from the New Forest). The Hamble flows into Southampton Water at Hamble-le-Rice, thus accounting for the borough's southern boundary. Further north, the borough borders Southampton to the west and the City of Winchester district to the north. As well as Southampton Water and the River Hamble, a number of watercourses flow through Eastleigh, including the River Itchen, Monks Brook and the Itchen Navigation.

The largest settlement in the borough is the town of Eastleigh itself, with a continuous urban area which now includes Chandler's Ford, Bishopstoke and Boyatt Wood. The only other settlement in the borough with town status is Hedge End. Due to the urban nature of Southampton and the town of Eastleigh, the western side of the borough is generally more built up than the east. There are three country parks in the borough, Itchen Valley in West End and Lakeside, located just to the south of the town of Eastleigh, are managed by the borough council while Royal Victoria Country Park is managed by Hampshire County Council.

The borough is within the Hampshire Basin, with an underlying geology of mainly Cretaceous chalk.

Soil in the borough is principally of poor to moderate agricultural quality although high grade land is present in pockets. The south of the borough has acid soils and gravels, but poorly drained clays predominate in the north. Most of the borough is covered by a series of clays and marls, with sandy and lignitic beds, part of the Bracklesham Group of beds. As well as clay soils, the Bracklesham Beds result in some bands of sandy soil to the north of West End, and podzol soils around the M27 motorway west of Hedge End and on small areas of the gravels on top of the beds themselves. However most of the soil over the beds is more fertile brown earth.[13]

In the north of the borough, small pockets of valley gravels, London clay, Brickearth and Alluvium can be found, although these have mainly been built over with the exception of the Alluvium, which forms peaty soils around the floodplain of the River Itchen.[13]

In the 2021 census, Eastleigh had a population of 136,443 people consisting of 66,700 males (48.9%) and 69,743 females (51.1%).[10] The borough is much more densely populated than South East England and England as a whole, with a population density of 1,712.1 people per square km (South East England and England have population densities of 486.5 and 433.5 people per square km, respectively).[12] 45.7% of Eastleigh's population state their religion as Christian, which is a significant decrease from 61.9% in 2011.[14] 45.0% stated they had no religion (up from 28.5% in 2011) and 5.6% did not state a religion; the most popular non-Christian religions in the borough were Islam (1%), Hinduism (1%) and Sikhism (0.7%).[18] The census also indicates that the residents of Eastleigh are generally in better health than those in England as a whole.[19]

Hedge End Trade Park is part of a large retail development

Historically, the economy of the area has strong links with the transport industry. The proximity of substantial waterways made shipbuilding a major industry in the south of the borough, and today the pleasure boat industry still dominates the area around Hamble-le-Rice and Bursledon, made famous by the television drama series on the subject, Howards' Way, which was filmed in the area. The borough is also strongly linked with the Spitfire, the first test flights of which took place from Southampton Airport in Eastleigh.

The economy of the borough today is dominated by the retail sector, which accounts for around 33 per cent of the jobs in the borough, and this proportion is rising.[20] As well as the large Swan Centre, a shopping centre in the town of Eastleigh, there is a large out-of-town retail development near Hedge End which includes flagship stores for Marks & Spencer[21] and Sainsbury's[18] among others. Eastleigh also has proportionately more manufacturing and construction jobs than the nation, but the number of jobs in these sectors is declining in the borough.[20]

The B&Q head office is in the Portswood House in Eastleigh, Eastleigh borough.[19]

Netley Abbey is a scheduled monument.

There are eight scheduled ancient monuments in Eastleigh,[22] around 180 listed buildings (9 of which are Grade II* listed, the remainder are Grade II)[22] and over 800 tree preservation orders covering 20,000 trees across 5,000 properties.[23] The council also maintains a "local list" of buildings which are of local importance but do not meet English Heritage's listing criteria.[22]

The area around Netley is particularly rich in notable historic landmarks, with Netley Abbey, Netley Castle and Netley Hospital all nearby. The borough also boasts Hampshire's only functioning windmill, Bursledon Windmill, and eight conservation areas.[22]

A train approaches Southampton Airport Parkway railway station on its way to Bournemouth

The M3 motorway runs through the north-west of the borough, providing a direct road route to London, and the midlands and north of England via the A34 road which joins the M3 just north of Winchester. The M27 motorway also runs through much of the borough, linking Eastleigh to the rest of the south coast.

There are seven railway stations in the borough, served by the South West Main Line, the Eastleigh to Romsey Line, the Eastleigh to Fareham Line, the West Coastway Line and the Cross Country Route. Passenger train operators serving the Eastleigh stations are South Western Railway, CrossCountry and Southern.

Southampton Airport is located in the north west of the borough, just south of the town of Eastleigh itself. The airport is the 20th largest in the United Kingdom and flights operate from there to destinations throughout the British Isles (including the Channel Islands) and some destinations in western continental Europe.

Local bus services in Eastleigh are primarily operated by Blue Star, with other operators including First Hampshire & Dorset and Stagecoach Group. National coach operators such as National Express tend not to serve Eastleigh due to the close proximity of Southampton and Winchester to the borough.

Stoke Lock on the Itchen Navigation near Bishopstoke now with sluices and fish pass.

The disused Itchen Navigation runs through the north of the borough, and in the south, Hamble is served by the Hamble-Warsash Ferry.

The local education authority for Eastleigh is Hampshire County Council,[24] which lists 40 schools in the borough.[25] In addition, there are two further education colleges in the town of Eastleigh, and a number of private schools such as the Gregg School in Chartwell Green and King's School in Fair Oak.

The Borough of Eastleigh is twinned with:[26]

• Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, France[26][27]
• Kornwestheim, Germany[26]

has a friendship alliance with:

• Kimry, Russia[26]

and has one Sister City:

• Temple Terrace, Florida, United States[26]

Eastleigh was awarded the European Flag of Honour in 1983 to mark the twentieth anniversary of the Borough's twinning with Villeneuve-Saint-Georges. The flag, which is awarded to local authorities which promote pan-Europe relationships, was presented to the council by a European Commission representative on 18 June 1983.[26]

The following people and military units have received the Freedom of the Borough of Eastleigh.[28]

• List of places of worship in the Borough of Eastleigh