Much of the length of the River Wallington carried a shoreline with the road along it appropriately enough named Wallington Shore Road. The concept of a shoreline seems somewhat ridiculous now most of it is marshland, diverted or home to a flyover, but the river was once much wider and deeper than it is known for today. 'Shore Road' ran along the edge of the mill pond, with the river being diverted in 1971.
While Wallington is now surrounded by industry and other development on most sides, it retains its own identity, thanks in part to the river and the hill; also thanks to the heritage and preservation work that has taken place around the cottages.
The road is designated U495. The start of the road has also been consumed by modern road changes, and can now only be seen as a slight kink in the road and a conspicuous change of name to Cams Hill, which is the start of a forgotten stub. This junction was the Delme Arms crossroads - named after the pub which still stands on the corner - with the road opposite leading to Cams Hall.
This is the start of the shoreline - although it is all reclaimed land now. Around the back of the pub was a gravel pit which became Charlemont, and a 19th century property. Additional properties were added in the 1980s, including one with windows opening out on to the railway viaduct.
After the viaduct, Pinks Hill was added in the 19th century to provide access to Fort Wallington. It was originally called 'Wallington Military Road' and was accessed directly from Wallington Shore Road, and in peacetime it was used as a shortcut to Cosham as well as a walking route over the hill. This junction was the subject of major debate after the army closed Wallington Military Road on 16 December 1957. It was forced open by members of the Society for the Suppression of Bureaucracy in May 1958. Fareham Urban District Council agreed to purchase the road from the War Office for £100 in December 1958 and open it up to the public, but by May 1959 this still hadn't happened.
Once the road had reopened, from 1971 it was plaugged into the new roundabout that broke Wallington Shore Road into two. At the time, the eastern end of Wallington Shore Road was still accessed from the roundabout, and separated from Cams Hill.
Things changed again in 1976 when Wallington Military Road (soon renamed 'Pinks Hill') was hidden away on the new J11 slip road, and the eastern end of Wallington Shore Road lost its connection to the roundabout and became the overlooked little end of Cams Hill. Despite the new road taking all this space, there was still a large patch of grass in the middle, as space was left for the Delme Flyover which wasn't built until 1986.
The Roundabout Hotel itself was was built in 1907 (replacing a building from 1867) as St Edith's House For Girls, where young women (ages 14-16) were trained in domestic duties. This became the Church of England's Childrens Home, before being purchased for use as a hotel. Some of the car park was taken away for the new road.
The Wallington Pottery was situated part-way up the hill, it closed at the end of the 19th century and its site is now home to a business park, now accessed from Waterside Gardens which was part of a 1960s expansion on to the hill. It was an obvious place to develop, given the new roads that were being built around here, and as a result all of these estates have a large amount of car parking and direct access to the main roads.
The next section of road is characterised by the long brick wall holding back the gardens of the houses on the hill. This marks the boundary of Wallington House, one of the many grand houses which originally made up Fareham. It stood there until the 1960s.
East Hill Close is built on a trackway to the East Hill Farm, one of a few facilities on Military Road which took their name from Wallington's hill in the wider context of Fareham compared to, for instance North Hill. The hill was once home to the East Hill Nursery. At the bottom were two lodges.
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These estates were all built at roughly the same time, although note that each house is either accessed through Waterside Gardens or East Hill Close, never either nor both, a symptom of 1970s 'corridor' planning.
In the case of East Hill Close, the road split into two halfway up the hill, with the left arm being East Hill Close (1960s houses on the old East Hill Nurseries), and the other arm being Greenbank Gardens. In the middle was the driveway to the old house, which was eventually turned into Pallant Gardens.
After this the road bends sharply inline (though it's smoother than it used to be) as we reach the end of the creek, difficult to see now the majority of it was changed for the embankments to Wallington Way. The white house on the bend, from 1832 and known as Wallington Cottage, was deliberately built half way up the hill to keep it away from the regular floods, and is now known as Lowlands. The new road hump now acts as a flood defence for the more built-up section that follows.
Delme Drive was the driveway to Wallington Lodge, the large house which is still at the top of the road, also accessible from Wallington Drift Road. There was a lodge at the bottom, number 35. Radclyffe Road was added in the 1950s, as was Whitehaven, which was joined by further properties. 2 Delme Drive was older than the two properties either side of it.
Along the south side of Wallington Road was marshy land marked "prone to flooding". In the 1920s, six properties were added, named River Side, River View, Rusbly, Park View, Lyndhurst and Slimdon. Four terraces followed in the 1940s. These were all built on steps.
To the east of the footpath up to Drift Road was a nest of cottages, numbers 18 to 32. These were all demolished in the 1950s, but a similar set on the opposite side survives to this day.
Numbers 63 to 70 filled the land on the south side of the road in the 1950s. Around the same time, numbers 3, 4 and 5 were demolished to become the pub car park.
The final building is the Cob & Pen pub. Formerly the Fort Wallington Tavern (Brickwoods) with its rear riding stables, this pub was renamed in 1984 and stands at the corner of the junction at the end of the road.
Outside the Fort Wallington Tavern, the road used to bend sharply left onto Wallington Hill. This became a popular route out of town in the 1960s, with Wallington Bridge becoming a notorious narrow bottleneck until the dual carriageways were built. The vintage Wallington Bridge fingerpost sign was moved onto the new grass area from its old position on the opposite side of the road. North Wallington, which today continues the route, was the more minor of the three roads, as it headed away from any main roads.
Some things never change - flooding in Wallington Shore Road in 2014
