Fareham
Fareham ( ) is a market town at the north-west tip of Portsmouth Harbour, between the cities of Portsmouth and Southampton in south east Hampshire, England. It gives its name to the Borough of Fareham. It was historically an important manufacturer of bricks, used to build the Royal Albert Hall, and grower of strawberries and other seasonal fruits. Current employers include Fareham Shopping Centre, small-scale manufacturers, and the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory. History. Archaeological excavations around the old High Street area and the church of St Peter & Paul on high ground over the Wallington Estuary have yielded evidence  of settlement on the site contemporary with the Roman occupation. No extensive programme of investigation has been possible owing to the historic nature of the buildings in this area. The town has a documented history dating back to the Norman era, when a part of William's army marched up from Fareham Creek before continuing to the Saxon capital of England, Winchester. Originally known as "Ferneham" (hence the name of the entertainment venue Ferneham Hall), it was listed in the Domesday Book as having 90 households. The ford of Fareham Creek (at the top of Portsmouth Harbour) was the location  of the Bishop of Winchester's mills; the foundations were subsumed in the A27 near the railway viaduct. Commercial activity continued at the port until the 1970s and continues on a smaller scale. By the beginning of the 20th century Fareham had developed into a major market town. In the 1960s Fareham experienced major residential development. By the 1970s the town had expanded to almost encompass the surrounding villages of Funtley, Titchfield, Catisfield and Portchester. In the late 1990s a settlement called Whiteley, straddling the boundaries of Fareham Borough and the City of Winchester, was developed to the north of  Junction 9 of the M27 motorway. It is predominantly residential but includes the extensive Solent Business Park. In 1995 Cams Hall, a derelict Palladian mansion, was restored for office use, and the surrounding Cams Estate was developed as a golf course and modern technology park. Since 1997 Fareham has been the home of the United Kingdom's Aeronautical Rescue Coordination Centre (ARCC), at the National Maritime Operations Centre (NMOC), and responsible for coordinating all Maritime & Coastguard Agency Search and Rescue (SAR) helicopters. An urban renewal initiative began in 1999, renovating the town centre and historic buildings to include a new  entertainment and shopping complex. It featured a major iron sculpture park installed in 2001 to celebrate the work of influential Lancastrian iron pioneer, Henry Cort, who lived in neighbouring Gosport but who had an iron rolling mill in Funtley (or Fontley), on the outskirts of Fareham. A sculpture park and a school are named after him, Henry Cort Community College. Arts and culture. Fareham was home to Ferneham Hall, a multi purpose venue with a capacity of over 700. The hall opened in 1982 and closed in 2020. The Ashcroft Arts Centre, on Osborn Road, has a 150-seat theatre , a gallery, a dance/music studio and a fully licensed bar. It offers a varied programme of events including films, theatre, comedy and workshops. The pedestrianised area of West Street, in the town centre, is home to a permanent exhibition of the work of 12 blacksmith artists celebrating the achievements of Henry Cort, the 18th century 'man of iron' who pioneered the iron refining process at Funtley near Fareham. The puddled wrought iron sculptures are themed on Fareham's market town history and the exhibition is the largest of its type in Britain. Education. In 2017 Fareham College was rated  by OFSTED as "Outstanding". Sport and Leisure. Fareham has a Non-League football club, Fareham Town F.C., and a Rugby Union club, Fareham Heathens, which both play at Cams Alders. It also has a hockey club, which play at Henry Cort Community College and are currently in the Men's Conference West Division, and a cricket club, Fareham and Crofton, which plays at Bath Lane. There is a competitive swimming club, Fareham Nomads Swimming Club (FNSC), that is affiliated to the Amateur Swimming Association (ASA), ASA South East Region and Hampshire County ASA (HCASA). The Club was formed in 1974  before there was a public swimming pool in Fareham. Due to the lack of a home pool the club took its name because in the early days it used various pools throughout the area for training until 1980 when Fareham Leisure Centre was opened. Since then, the Club has grown considerably and today has a membership of around 250 children, young adults and masters swimmers. Fareham Sailing and Motor Boat Club located at Lower Town Quay is the home of the Fareham Lugger, a one class design raced biweekly all year round. The club hosts the annual Fareham Regatta featuring  gig racing, fun events and sail races. Transport. Fareham is well served by road and rail networks. The M27 motorway passes around the northern edge, and is the main traffic artery into and out of the area. It provides easy access to both Portsmouth and Southampton, and from there to London via the M3 and A3(M). The A27 was the original route along the south coast before the building of the M27, and runs from Brighton to Southampton, passing through the centre of Fareham. The A32 passes through Fareham at the Quay Street roundabout, a notorious bottleneck, on its way  from Gosport to Wickham and through the Meon Valley to Alton. Fareham was named the most car-dependent town in the UK by the Office for National Statistics in July 2014 with 538.7 cars registered to addresses in the town for every 1,000 residents. Fareham railway station is on the West Coastway Line, with regular services to Portsmouth, Southampton, Brighton, Cardiff and London. Passenger services also ran south to Gosport until 1953, and north along the Meon Valley to Alton until 1955. Bus transport in the town is provided by First Hampshire & Dorset, which runs nearly all bus routes. Services  run as far as Winchester. The bus station is adjacent to the Market Quay development, and replaced an older station that was demolished in the late 1980s. Local media. Fareham is home to the local ITV franchise, covering the South and South-East of England, called ITV Meridian, based at Whiteley, with the BBC region being BBC South, based in Southampton. All BBC and ITV Services are available in Fareham, with transmissions from the Rowridge Transmitter on the Isle of Wight, although signals from the Hannington and Midhurst transmitting stations can be picked up from certain areas of the town . Also, the town is served by a local television station, named That's Solent, it was launched as part of a UK wide roll out of local Freeview channels, being broadcast from the Rowridge Transmitter. The local commercial radio station is Wave 105 on 105.2FM, also Heart South is based in the town, on 97.5FM, plus Capital South Coast on 103.2FM, other radio stations based elsewhere serve Fareham, with The Breeze on 107.4FM, BBC Radio Solent on 96.1FM and Greatest Hits Radio (formerly SAM FM) on 106.0FM, and Portsmouth based non-profit community radio station Express FM on 93.7FM. The  town has two daily local newspapers, the "Southern Daily Echo" and "Portsmouth News", together with a free weekly newspaper, from the same publisher, Johnston Press, called "Fareham View". Welborne. Welborne is a proposed new town to the north of the M27 at Fareham, intended to include 6,000 houses with businesses and community facilities.