For several hundred years, Milton sat quite happily towards the south easter extremity of Portsea Island, a tiny, sleepy hamlet, whose inhabitants, few in number, went about their daily life in much the same way as country villagers all over the country did.

Of course, it wasn't going to last; at first, with the Portsmouth to Arundel Canal running into Langstone Harbour at Milton, it must have seemed as if Milton was only a few years from being sucked into the expanding town of Portsmouth; when the canal venture finally failed, Milton was granted a reprieve of sorts, but it wasn't going to last for long.

The old canal way was abandoned, its true, and in the pictures (left and below) we can see how the lock gates at the end of what is now Locksway Road had largely rotted away and how the canal bed became a glorified refuse tip.

Eventually, much of the canal route would be taken over by the railway, after 1847, but even then, the tracks were routed so they just missed Milton - and the village had another escape ...

However, space on Portsea Island was due to become more and more scarce and time was running out for Milton ...

With St James Hospital being opened in 1874, more people had a reason to visit Milton and the peaceful setting must have been appealing.

Soon, new houses were being built, together with shops and new pubs, and the pubs in Locksway Road are still among the most popular in Portsmouth.

On the left here we see the Old

House At Home, with Ye Olde Oyster House below it, whilst on the right is the Thatched House, at the very end of Locksway Road.

On the right, we see the first tram to run to Milton, on 20 July, 1909 - the once isolated little hamlet was now truly a part of the growing town - and eventually city - of Portsmouth.