Despite its importance to the brickmaking industry, the northern edge of Fareham doesn't hold a lot of detailed history. Kiln Road is a good example of this - everything was built and stayed as it was.
Its name wasn't really documented in the early days, but its purpose appears to have been to link the industrial sites of the brickworks and potteries, as well as the various clay pits, and then providing access to Knowle and the hospital via Funtley.
Starting at the crossroads by the tollgate, where Park Lane and Old Turnpike and North Hill join in the fun, there is Uplands Lodge at the gate to Uplands House. This and Rose Cottage are the oldest buildings at this end.
Houses on the former Fareham Pottery site started to appear in the 1920s, and in the 1950s houses were built on the south side, around the pond.
Park Cottages would have been used by potters. Potters Avenue first appeared as a short road in the middle of the century, which was soon extended.
Burnham Wood completed the job in the 1980s, occupying the site of the shrinking Uplands House and the large gardens these houses had. The entrance was through a gap in the houses, and it took over an old tennis court.
A property called Maylings appeared in the 1920s, with a long driveway from Kiln Road, and had become Saville Gardens by the 1970s.
Kiln Road's defining feature is being ridiculously straight, running along the top of a ridge and offering unrivalled views over the motorway. Fareham Common is now green belt land having withstood development at each end, with Kiln Road effectively marking the northern end of the town for over 50 years, until Welborne opens. Two narrow lanes met Kiln Road and provided access to Maylings Cottage and Kneller Court, which can still be seen today. Kneller Court had a Lodge at the end of the drive.
You could be forgiven today for thinking Kiln Road's main purpose is to give Highlands Road something to meet. Today's road has a sharp bend taking it to Funtley Hill. Of course this isn't natural, and the 19th Century alignment had it continuing straight on to what is now Red Barn Lane. Here was the Fareham Common Brickworks. In the 1930s this became the Holly Grove Estate, and the first few houses on Red Barn Lane were added, down the side of the embankment on which the road appears to be built. The railway tunnel (Fareham Tunnel) under the hill on which this area is built made it a lot easier to develop many years on, including one building called Tunnel Farm.
Like the eastern end, Kiln Road itself became slowly more developed between the 1930s and the 1960s. The rest of Red Barn Lane was developed in the 1980s, leading on to the Hill Park Estate, over what was once Red Barn Farm. Cattle from the farm would have been taken down to West Street for selling.
Orchard Lea School was previously called Kennedy Avenue Infants, and before that Highlands. The housing here was built on Skelly Woods, which had been popular with local children, not least for its sand tunnels.
In to Funtley
For now this will be our only foray in to Funtley. Funtley Hill (or Fontley - the former was pushed for by a headmaster and became the modern spelling) is now the main route. It then curves sharply again at what was the Hope Farm, next to the Fontley Brick Works. School House was used by children up to the age of 6 - an additional primary school was later built further up the hill (1880s), now Funtley Court.
The village thrived after the construction of the railway opened up new clay mining opportunities, which went on to be used at places such as Knowle Hospital and the original West Street bus station. This is evidenced in one of the pubs here, The Miner's Arms. Even so, the majority of the housing was added in the 1980s, after the lake (a former clay pit) was shrank following the opening of the motorway.
The whole route is now designated C368.