Langstone

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the English village of Langstone. For other places with the same name, please see Langstone (disambiguation).

The converted windmill in Langstone appears, from this direction, in many postcards sold in the area.

Langstone is a small village on the south coast on England, forming a conurbation with Havant to its North. It is home to a sailing club, several architecturally unusual buildings, and several historically significant buildings, including a converted (water) millhouse and a converted 18th century windmill, the latter of which is a tourist attraction for the surrounding area. The mill pond that used to supply the millhouse is now a bird sanctuary.

Houses in the terrace on Langstone High Street date back to the 1700 and a number are thatched. The other significant building, commonly featured in local postcards, is Langstone Towers, characterised by a large lightning conductor.

The village used to have rail links with Hayling Island and Havant in the form of the Hayling Billy railway, however the lines have since been torn up and the route replaced with a cycle and bridlepath. The remains of the Hayling Billy rail bridge over to Hayling Island can still be seen.

The village High Street is designated as a Conservation Area (denoted by a blue plaque at the sea-end of the High Street), while the coastal path leading eastwards from the village is both part of Hampshire County Council's Solent Way and the same Councils' Wayfarers Walk.

It is connected by Langstone Bridge, a single-carriageway road, and footbridge to Hayling Island to the South; as this road, the A3023, is the only road connection from the island to the mainland, rush-hour traffic is usually a major problem, with queues a kilometer long not uncommon. A low-tide footpath to the island used to exist, however it is no longer usable as the waters were deepened to allow the passage of larger vessels. Langstone Harbour lies to the west of the bridge; Chichester Harbour to the east.

The flood defences on one building in Langstone.

Flooding can be a problem in the village, on occasion with water right up to the main Langstone Road, and many buildings on Langstone High Street have slots for wooden barriers on their door frames, and stack up sandbangs.

Thorney Island and Portsea Island are also both clearly visible from the village coast.