by Ray George
Map about 1810
Map about 1850
Two hundred years ago, coming down Bassett Green Road to the traffic lights at Stoneham Lane you would have found there was neither a road ahead nor to the right. The road took a sharp left turn and then ran along Channels Farm Road to join the north end of Wessex Lane. Wessex Lane did not go to Woodmill Lane but turned west near the footbridge. It then passed some thatched cottages across the entrance to the modern bypass (still there in the 1920s) and went along the western boundary of the grounds of South Stoneham House. It continued as Portswood Road to Southampton. After the railway arrived in 1839, the road network took much the form that we see today (except for Portswood Bypass and the road from the motorway). The railway line cut straight through the grounds of South Stoneham House. The west side later became shops and housing.