St Denys

The far south has evidence of a Roman river crossing to Clausentum on the east of the river, and certain finds of other Roman archeology.

The area is named after the 12th-century St. Denys Priory, of minor wealth and size, of which little remains, aside from an archway of the original chapel spanning two back gardens,[1] and a counterpart moved to beside the rear wall of King John's Palace at Tudor House Museum in the city centre.[2][3]

St Denys consisted of a very small hamlet nucleus and scattered farms throughout the medieval period. Drains and dykes improved the land for habitation and crop agriculture over many centuries.

19th century and later

Extract from Ordnance Survey Map of 1941

The land here was extensive developed at low-rise level from the mid-19th century to the early 20th century; by 1895 it had a quite dense grid of streets which preceded most of the larger area west of the north-south railway line, namely Portswood, apart from its main road.[4]

A history of large laundries provided employment, servicing Southampton's ocean liners until the late 20th century. A number of homes of Titanic (sank 1912) victims and survivors are in St Denys. Considerable bombing in the Southampton Blitz due to proximity to the railway connecting London and docks.

The area is populated with a wide mix of younger working families, older residents and students.

A small community of houseboats is moored along the easterly border, the waterfront, conversions from World War II motor torpedo boats.

The area is bounded in part by a sewage treatment works built on former salt meadows, supplementing another for the west side of the city.

Church parishes and local government ward(s) history

St Denys is bounded by the estuary (east), a mainline railway (west), the far side of buildings on the north side of the start of Kent Road (north) and the A335 bypass, which when built in the late 20th century meant removing part of the original parish. Today the area is roughly equivalent to a third of the ward of Portswood;[7] it remains a whole ecclesiastical parish in the Church of England.[8] In the Catholic Church it is grouped with Portswood to the north into a parish.[9]

The area is connected by a minor passenger stop on the site of a junction with the coastal line to Portsmouth or Brighton of the South Western Main Line. The area is connected by a high-frequency timetable of buses to Southampton city centre, including its railway station, where the main line continues to Weymouth.

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  St Denys railway station platforms, canopies and homes and gardens in the hilly western part of Portswood and Bevois Mount beyond
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  Six large arches of Cobden Bridge across the sky-reflecting estuary of the chalkland-fed Itchen