30 Islands: Island #3 Portsea Island & Island #4 Hayling Island

Portsea Island and Hayling Island

Silly, silly me. In my first island visit report, I rashly claimed that by taking the train to Sheppey I was making probably the only rail connection to an island in Britain. Nobody wrote in to correct me, so either no one is reading, or they too were unaware of Portsea Island.

I must admit, I thought Portsea Island was a peninsula, being land connected at the north end, but there is a channel of water, albeit very narrow and tough to distinguish on an OS map, that makes Portsmouth an island city.

The misapprehension was maintained even as I arrived, by train, from Havant. It was only when I was on Hayling Island and I checked the population on Wikipedia that Portsea came into being as an island in my mind. Portsea is the most populous island in Britain.

Dominated by Portsmouth and adjacent Southsea, this is clearly a maritime area, as most would appreciate even from afar. Portsmouth has a rich naval heritage.

It also has a football team, which was the main reason for my visit, not as an island, so this was an unexpected bonus to add to the tally. We won’t talk about the football, but we will talk about the sea, there is that unmistakable sea breeze present throughout Portsmouth which reminds you there is water nearby. The problem being that as you head north, i.e. towards the mainland, you really get the feeling you are heading inland, rather than just north on an island, such is the proximity of the mainland and the narrowness of the straight separating the two. The near constant urban sprawl, consisting predominantly or tightly packed terraces or metallic light industrial units, hardly breaks until you reach the M27 and the Hampshire mainland. And at this point, the sense is more of leaving a city than leaving an island. Uniquely, I believe (!) the road signs in Portsmouth direct you ‘Out of City’, rather than say, London or Southampton. Quite strange as if you took the car ferry to the Isle of Wight that would be ‘Out of City’ technically but that isn’t what they mean. To be fair, the endless mass of residential streets in parallel could leave a lost motorist in limbo for quite a while.

Or indeed, a lost cyclist. But I didn’t get lost, as I followed my nose, and a general bearing, through Southsea (where Portsmouth ended and Southsea began I have no idea) onto the promenade. Having spotted the promenade on the map, I thought I would cycle it’s southern facing length to the Hayling ferry. An experience user of promenades, I imagined this would be the best way to see the English Channel also. I was wrong. Inexpicably, cyclists are banned from cycling on the promenade. Like most promenades, it is wide, indeed I would say this one is wider than most. More than enough room for a cycle lane. Instead cyclists are directed to a green (waste of paint, always) cycle lane on the adjacent, BUT LOWER, road. This meant that I could not see the sea for the most part. Even more bizarrely, the main cycle lane was on the right hand side of the road, for both directions, meaning cyclists heading east had cars going west passing head on. To cap it off, at various intervals, on the correct, landwards side of the road, a cycle lane appeared intermittently to tease and confuse anyone in the green lane. I myself kept to the correct side of the road, cycle lane or no cycle lane, hidden from the sea and buffeted by a channel of wind.

To be fair, it would have been a pleasant walk, there were plenty of gardens and grassed areas, tennis courts, bowling greens and the like, but it was a frustrating cycle, particularly as it was a pleasant spring evening and hardly busy on the promenade.

I did have the temptation of the Hayling ferry to aim for, so I pressed on passed newer developments of standard apartment blocks at the eastern tip of the island, flanked by various boating and yachting clubs. These covered the end of the island so a detour inland was required to reach the ferry departure point, though this was well signposted into the district of Eastney, named for obvious reasons, being at the Eastern edge of things.

The road opened onto a wide concrete jetty pointing into the large, natural Langstone harbour. Hayling Island was barely 200m away eastwards as the harbour funnels through a narrow straight into the English Channel.

The ferry had a small landing stage reached over a narrow corrugated metal bridge. It is for foot passengers only, or bike passengers in my case.

Having discovered that the boat existed to cross to the island, it was quite difficult to find information on the timetable and fares etc., - it appears that despite being a key link for people who don’t own a car it isn’t a council service and is operated on a private, commercial basis. Hayling Island is otherwise only accessible at the Northern end over the Langstone Bridge, which is a significant detour that certainly could not be walked. I was on the 6 o’clock sailing to Hayling, which was the penultimate one of the day at this time of year. I believe the sailing hours are extended in summer but you can see that the island is quite cut off in the evenings otherwise. Having said that, not many people don’t own cars. The timetable only appears to be accessible via Facebook which doesn’t seem ideal to me.

Anyway, onto the boat, which wasn’t very big at all, with about half exposed and half undercover. I had a bit of trouble getting inside thanks to the bizarre sliding door. Clearly the other four or five people on board were regulars as they looked at me as if I was dumb. I then handed the Captain the £2.60 fare for the single crossing, and spot on 6pm, off we went. There was quite a swell across the narrow channel, and we certainly bobbed our way across, I imagine on a smooth day this sailing is quick and painless but we took our time today and coasted over the waves. Although it was by now, a very pleasant evening we were certainly exposed to the wind.

On board, I picked up a very handy ‘cycling map of Hayling Island’ which was just what the doctor ordered, good work from the cycling Hayling group indeed!

A similar landing stage and bridge greeted us on the other side, and off we went. I stopped for a couple of photos, and then remounted the bike to head eastwards.

Hayling Island is shaped a bit like a top hat, with the aforementioned road access at the very north end, and I had arrived at the end of the Western spit. It is 4 miles wide and 4 miles long at its longest points. Most of the population lives along the southern coast, in South Hayling. Roman artefacts have been found at North end, and like most places, the oldest building is the church of St Peter, where it is claimed one of the oldest peals in England still remains.

The road eastwards kept in touch with the harbour on the left and a golf course took up the land to the right. After almost a mile, residential buildings appeared on the left, but the golf course remained on the right. Gradually things got more built up and some flats appeared on the right, but then they gave way, and the golf course gave away to some public open land, beyond which, beach huts could be seen along the seafront. I then reached a roundabout where a fairground stood the right, with the occasional scream bellowing out. I turned towards the beach, which was shingle, but there was not a soul in sight, very surprising given it was a bank holiday and the weather was about as fine as it had been all year. An information board gave out facts about the beach and water quality, which showed that one week in 2012 E-Coli had been detected. Fear not, it wasn’t there the following week.

Back on the bike, and back eastwards, and like on Cumbrae it was pleasing to note the number of independent businesses, though like everywhere it seems, a sizeable proportion were takeaway outlets. How do they all survive? I then noticed that I was parallel with a miniature railway which appears to start in the fairground but was a least a mile long. Cars were warned to exercise caution when crossing the line to access the beach, like in Southsea it was disappointing the road did not afford sea views. At the end of the line there was a skate park and basketball area, with a mural of London 2012 athletes, most of whom won a medal (or was it done post games?) The road now turned inland and so I made it my aim to reach the eastern tip of the island, which I did by following the lines for the lifeboat station. This took me through some bog standard residential areas, again, it was very quiet, which leads me to believe this may well be a retirement destination. Reaching the eastern edge a wonderful vista opened up into Chichester harbour with the West Sussex hills beyond. The next land east which takes you down to Selsey Bill, was not as close as the entrance to Langstone Harbour but was certainly a lot narrower than the expanse of water it protected. The lifeboat station stood guard here and at the northern end was a yacht club. It was a peaceful calm scene, ideal for a spot of reflection as the sun’s increasingly golden glow shone down off the water, but this also meant daylight was ending, time to start heading for the main.

On the way out I had spotted signs for the Station Theatre, which had gained my attention so I decided to cycle past to see if it was the old station building. Hayling Island was served by a branch line from Havant, colloquially known as the ‘Hayling Billy’ due to the puffing Billy engine that hauled the carriages. It closed in 1963, as the bridge linking it to the mainline over the northern edge of Langstone Harbour was deemed too expensive to repair despite the fact the line actually returned a profit. As I later saw, the bridge wasn’t massive so this appears to be a classically short-sighted decision of the Beeching era. The length of the line on the island is now the Hayling Billy leisure trail and cycle way, indeed a family cycled on by as I read the information board providing some of the information on the former railway. However the surface was rough and stony, so not suitable for my trusty steed. Looking at the theatre, I guessed it was a new building on the site of the station, but Wikipedia corrects me, it was the former goods shed apparently. Some extensive restoration of the brick work must have taken place as it seemed new and clean.

Onwards, and through the area of south Hayling called West Town, I passed some shops with old style awnings and massive window displays, one was a tailors I think, which added to the retiring atmosphere, to complete the image, the phone number was ‘Hayling xxxx’ which I don’t think would get me very far these days. I entered another part of South Hayling which was called Mengham, but I’ll gloss over this part as it contained a Sainsbury’s local, Natwest and other such ubiquitous names, but there was a pub called Hayling Billy, though this looked the date from after the existence of Billy himself.

I turned onto West Lane and the buildings ended, I was now on the road north, parallel with the railway. This was the secondary road north and was quite exposed, with farmland either side, but few hedges or trees. After a couple of sharp bends we inevitably joined the main (only) road off the island for the last mile or so to Langstone bridge. Shortly before we reached the bridge, there was a lay by which gave fantastic views left into Langstone harbour, with the setting sun silhouetted against the Portsmouth skyline and the Spinaker tower. In the immediate foreground but beyond the rocky shallows at the waters edge, was a grassy embankment. This was where the railway travelled before joining the bridge over the narrow straight separating the Hampshire mainland and the island. Remarkably, a lone but derelict signal post stood sentry as a reminder of former glories. With the concrete road bridge dating from 1956 to the right it was clear how short the rail bridge would have been, and some of the pillars still stand still in the water having resisted demolition. I wonder how bad the traffic can get over the road bridge when it gets busy.

Another memorable location in the bank, it was over the road bridge and back to Portsea island on the train from Havant.

Once back in Portsmouth I had a couple of pints in the late evening passing through the shopping centre of Portsmouth and through the Guildhall and adjacent square, where despite being a massive, and I mean massive pedestrianised area, cycling was again prohibited. The building themselves were nice though, as was the beer from the Irving brewery with associated naval names like dreadnought.

Hayling Island is certainly a very pleasant place to spend a few hours, and does give you that island feel thanks to the open views of the sea available, but arriving by boat is far more worthy than by road and certainly added to the experience. If Cumbrae was sleepy it seemed Hayling was dozing as I don’t think it would sustain the attention for quite as long.

As for Portsea, well it is an island, that cannot be denied, and Southsea seemed pleasant enough with some nice open spaces and things to do such as the Pier and Fair. But such is the mass of Portsmouth that the urban sprawl dominates and it really is an island in name only. And don’t try and cycle anywhere, they won’t let you.

VITAL STATISTICS – Portsea Island

Mode of Transport – Train/Bike

Distance Travelled on Island– 8m

High Point – Not much above sea level

Population – 147,088 (2001)

Area – 24sq km

Largest City – Portsmouth

Highest Point – 21ft, Kingston Cross

LINKS

Wikipedia

City of Portsmouth

Portsmouth Info