Insulation Contractors Portsmouth

Portsmouth (/ˈpɔːrtsməθ/ ^ⓘ PORTS-məth) is a port city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in England not located primarily on the mainland. The city is located 22 miles (35 km) south-east of Southampton, 50 miles (80 km) west of Brighton and Hove and 74 miles (119 km) south-west of London. With a population last recorded at 208,100, it is the most densely populated city in the United Kingdom. Portsmouth forms part of the South Hampshire urban area with Gosport, Fareham, Havant, Eastleigh and Southampton.

Portsmouth’s history can be traced to Roman times and it has contained a significant Royal Navy dockyard and base for centuries. Portsmouth was founded c. 1180 by Anglo-Norman merchant Jean de Gisors in the south-west area of Portsea Island, a location now known as Old Portsmouth. Around this time, de Gisors ordered the construction of a chapel dedicated to St Thomas Becket. This became a parish church by the 14th century. Portsmouth was established as a town with a royal charter on 2 May 1194. The city is home to the first drydock ever built. It was constructed by Henry VII in 1496.

Portsmouth has the world’s oldest dry dock, “The Great Stone Dock”; originally built in 1698, rebuilt in 1769 and presently known as “No.5 Dock”. The world’s first mass production line was established at the naval base’s Block Mills which produced pulley blocks for the Royal Navy fleet. By the early-19th century, Portsmouth was the most heavily fortified city in the world, and was considered “the world’s greatest naval port” at the height of the British Empire throughout Pax Britannica. By 1859, a ring of defensive land and sea forts, known as the Palmerston Forts, had been built around Portsmouth in anticipation of an invasion from continental Europe.

In the 20th century, Portsmouth achieved city status on 21 April 1926. During the Second World War, the city was bombed extensively in the Portsmouth Blitz, which resulted in the deaths of 930 people, and it was a pivotal embarkation point for the D-Day landings. In 1982, a large Royal Navy task force departed from Portsmouth for the Falklands War. Her Majesty’s Yacht Britannia was formerly based in Portsmouth and oversaw the transfer of Hong Kong in 1997, after which Britannia was retired from royal service, decommissioned and relocated to Leith as a museum ship.