Funtley
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  Map sources for Funtley at grid reference SU562082
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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.
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[edit] Fontley Iron Mills
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.
[edit] 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 privilege 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.
[edit] Funtley Church
The Little Church of St Francis The Little Church of St. Francis possesses its own pleasing characteristics. Simplicity is the dominating feature. The building was originally built as a school for the village children in 1836 and also acted as a Mission Church named Trinity Fontley Church. A painted window above the altar meets the eye. The design is reputed to have been made or designed by John Ruskin, it was originally in the Church of Duntisbourne Abbots, Nr Cirencester. The window depicts the Nativity and the Ascension of Christ. [1]
[edit] Knowle Hospital
In 1852, Hampshire's first County Lunatic Asylum was built on Knowle Hill just north of the village. Originally built for 500 patients, the building was expanded many times and by the 1930s could care for around 1,500 patients. Several houses for hospital staff and other service buildings for the hospital were built in Funtley, including a halt platform on the railway line that ran between the village and the hospital — this closed in 1963. The hospital itself was re-named Knowle Hospital in 1948 and after gradual running down from the 1980s closed in 1996. From 2000 the buildings and site were converted into a housing development called Knowle village.
[edit] References
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- ^ Malcolm Low with Julie Graham, "The stained glass window of The Little Church of St. Francis, Funtley, Hampshire." private publication can be viewed in the Fareham Library Reference section and the Westbury Museum, Reference section, Fareham, Hampshire.
