Hampshire firsts: 5 things that started here
A boy's sailboard on Hayling Island, a shoemaker's free school, Conan Doyle's first detective, a vineyard and a battleship built at speed.
Hampshire 'firsts' include Peter Chilvers' early sailboard on Hayling Island in 1958, John Pounds' free school in Portsmouth from 1818, Conan Doyle's first Sherlock Holmes story written in Southsea, the First Fleet's departure from Portsmouth in 1787 and HMS Dreadnought. Several are 'credited with' claims.
Hampshire has an unusual number of "firsts" attached to its name, but almost every one needs an asterisk. This page keeps to what the sources actually say. The headline story is a 12-year-old on Hayling Island who, in 1958, put a sail on a board.
The boy with a sail on a board
According to Wikipedia, Peter Chilvers, aged 12, assembled a board with a sail on Hayling Island in 1958, and is credited with an early version of a sail-powered surfboard, ten years before the Windsurfer patent. His board was presented as prior art in the 1985 case Windsurfing International v Tabur Marine, which the court found for Tabur. We are not calling it the first sailboard, because that claim is disputed.
The shoemaker who taught for free
John Pounds, a Portsmouth shoemaker, began teaching poor children for free in 1818, according to Wikipedia. His article calls him the man most responsible for creating the concept of ragged schools. He inspired them rather than founded them, as Thomas Guthrie is also credited.
Sherlock Holmes started in Southsea
Arthur Conan Doyle ran a practice at 1 Bush Villas, Elm Grove, Southsea, from 1882. The Conan Doyle Collection says A Study in Scarlet, the first Sherlock Holmes story, was written in Portsmouth and that he wrote his first two Holmes stories while living there. The copyright assignment of 20 November 1886 was sent from Bush Villa, Southsea.
A vineyard that is "often called" the first
Hambledon vineyard was founded by Sir Guy Salisbury-Jones. Wikipedia calls it the first commercial vineyard in the UK for about twenty years, and Square Mile calls it the first commercial vineyard in the UK. We say it is often called the first, and we haven't given a planting year because the sources split between 1951 and 1952. Some of these sources are promotional, so treat the claim lightly.
The First Fleet sailed from Portsmouth
The First Fleet left Portsmouth on 13 May 1787 with 11 ships to found the first European colony in Australia, according to Wikipedia. The Portsmouth monument plaque says it sailed from Spithead.
A battleship in a year and a day
HMS Dreadnought was built at Portsmouth Dockyard. Her keel was laid on 2 October 1905 and she was launched on 10 February 1906. She went to sea for trials on 3 October 1906, which Wikipedia) describes as only a year and a day after construction started. That means trials, not completion, and some sources give 366 days or 14 months. The ships she made obsolete became known as pre-dreadnoughts.
What to take from this
Hampshire's firsts are real stories, but several are better described as "credited with" or "often called". If you are going to say them in the pub, say them with the asterisk.
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