Funtley

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Map sources for Funtley at grid reference SU562082

Funtley – formerly known as Fontley – is a village that has been eaten up by the suburban sprawl of Fareham, Hampshire, England. Originally it grew due to the development of a quarry there, used to extract the clay that was then turned into bricks—the famous Fareham Red. These were used all over the world, the most famous usage being the Royal Albert Hall in London.

Fontley House, Iron Mill Lane was the residence of Samuel Jellicoe from about 1784 until his death in 1812. Samuel Jellicoe was the partner of Henry Cort of Fontley Iron Mills. Henry Cort was the inventor of the rolling mill and the puddling furnace which were of importance for the production of iron during the Napoleonic Wars. Some of Cort's inventions were tried out at these mills.

Sometimes still called Fontley by locals, the village has now developed into a sleepy residential area. The quarry has been turned into a fishing lake, and the local pub is The Miners Arms.

The Miners Arms is so called because the first landlord George Feast was also the contractor for the railway tunnel. He imported a gang of Welsh miners to dig it and one of the Welsh miners had the privelage of naming it. When the railway came it cut Funtley in half and the narrow humpy bridge is another George Feast construction. The pub was soon to become the hub of the village and was originally used as both a pub and a bottle shop for first the miners and then the local brickmakers. The pub was run by at least another three or four generations of the Feasts throughout the height of the brickmaking industry. After the decline of the brickmaking industry, many locals moved to Portsmouth in search of work.