Island 90 - Hayling, Hampshire

Hayling Island is located 2 miles south of the town of Havant.  It is joined to the mainland by Langstone Bridge.  The island is 3.5 miles long by 4.5 miles wide at the south end but at its narrowest point it is only half a mile wide.  I was surprised to find farmland on the island, as I was expecting it to be more built up.  

 Langstone Bridge and salt marsh in the mist from the road to the east near the Langstone Hotel

Hayling has been occupied since the Stone Age.  The Romans built a temple there and it was farmed by the Anglo-Saxons.  After 1066 William the Conqueror granted South Hayling Manor, which covered most of the island, to the French Benedictine Abbey of Jumieges.   They owned it until 1415.  The production of salt from seawater is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086. Hundreds of acres of land were lost to the sea in a great flood in the first half of the 14^th century.  In 1579 South Hayling Manor became the property of the Dukes of Norfok.  They owned it until 1825 when they sold it to a William Padwick.

In 1824 a toll bridge opened.  There were plans to develop Hayling Island into a resort but only the Grand Crescent and Royal Hotel were built at this stage.  In 1865 a railway branch line from Havant was built to Langstone and this was extended in 1867 to South Hayling.  

Before the construction of the toll bridge, Hayling was only accessible by boat or at low tide from Langstone via a footpath known as the Wadeway.  Some of the wooden posts, which marked the route can still be seen at low tide.

St Peter's Church at Northney

Princess Catherine Yurievskaya/Yourievsky is buried in St Peter's churchyard.  She was the daughter of Tsar Alexander II of Russia.  She was born in St Petersburg in 1878 but fled to France with her mother after her father was assassinated in 1881.  She lived on Hayling Island from 1932 until her death in 1959.

There is a large ancient yew tree in the churchyard of St Mary's Church, which is 1,000-2,000 years old and has a girth of 9 metres.


Norfolk Crescent, South Hayling 

This should be Hayling's best architectural feature but all the houses are divided into flats or bedsits and it all looks very dilapidated and sorry for itself, which is a great shame.



Former Royal Hotel at South Hayling

It has been restored to its former glory and is now luxury apartments. 

From the 1930s the island was developed as a resort.  Houses, a cinema, funfair and holiday camp were built.  

 Hayling Seaside Railway and Funfair at South Hayling
The light railway runs along the seafront for about a mile between Beachlands and Eastoke

Beach huts at South Hayling
There are 3 miles of shingle beach along the south coast of the island

After the Second World War more houses and schools were built.  The wooden bridge was replaced in 1965 by the current concrete one and the railway line closed in 1963, as the cost of replacing the wooden railway bridge was prohibitively high.  The line is now the Hayling Billy Trail for walkers and cyclists and the former goods shed is a theatre.

 Old Station Theatre

During the Second World War Sinah Common was used as a decoy or Starfish (the name came from the original term Special Fire) site to lure bombers away from Portsmouth.  In 1943 some of the Mulberry Harbours used for the D-Day Landings were built around the island.

 Ammunition Store at Sinah Common

 Anti-aircraft gun implacement at Sinah Common

Houseboats at Sinah Common looking east

 Golf Club on the far side of Sinah Lake

The end of the old railway line and the current Langstone Bridge


Hayling Lifeboat Station at Sandy Point

Sandy Point is a nature reserve and SSSI in the south east corner of the island.   It is an area of rare maritime heathland, grassland and sand dunes.  It is an important site for migrating birds and the Dartford warbler breeds there.  It was formerly part of the grounds of Lord Mayor Treloar Hospital, which opened on Hayling Island in 1919 and which treated TB patients and later children with mental health problems.  The hospital was demolished in 1988 and the site was taken over by Hampshire County Council.

Windsurfing was invented on Hayling Island in 1958 by Peter Chilvers.