Farlington, Portsmouth

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Farlington is a district of Portsmouth. It is located in the north east of the city and is not actually on Portsea Island. Farlington was incorporated into the city in 1932 and now forms a continuous development with Cosham and Drayton.

Farlington was a small rural community for the majority of its existence. In 1891 a racecourse, called 'Portsmouth Park', was built in Farlington, between the Havant road and the shoreline. This new course was built with all of the modern facilities available at the time, including its own railway station, with the intention of tirning it into premier tracks. However race meetings were suspended during World War One and the War Office turned the course into one of the country's biggest ammunition dumps. After hostilities ceased, the War Office held control of the site and it was not released 1929 when it was bought by Portsmouth City Council. The council then sold on the land for private housing development, eventually leading to the end of Farlington as a distinct community.