Alverstoke

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Alverstoke
Alverstoke shown within Hampshire
District	Gosport
Shire county	Hampshire
Region	South East
Constituent country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	GOSPORT
Postcode district	PO12
Dialling code	023
Police	Hampshire
Fire	Hampshire
Ambulance	South Central
European Parliament	South East England
UK Parliament	Gosport
List of places: UK • England • Hampshire

Coordinates: 50°47′N 1°09′W / 50.78, -1.15

Alverstoke is a village, now within the boundaries of Gosport, Hampshire, England, that encompasses land stretching from Haslar to Stokes Bay. The village lies within half a mile of the shore of Stokes Bay and near the head of a creek which extends a mile westward from Portsmouth Harbour. Fort Gilkicker, a nineteenth century coastal battery fort, is located just to the south of Alverstoke, on the west end of Stokes Bay.^[1]

'Alverstoke' is a corruption of the name Alwara, a former Lady of the Manor, and Stoke, a settlement on the area of Alverstoke known as the Marsh Ground.^[2] Alverstoke is mentioned in the Domesday Book as Alwarestock.^[3]

The Institute of Naval Medicine (INM), one of the sites of the MoD Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, is located here.

Residents of Alverstoke are sometimes called "The Alverstocracy" by Gosportonians in a tongue-in-cheek fashion, due to the perceived higher social status of the area.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] History

Up to the early 19th Century the parish of Alverstoke was about 4.5 miles from north to south, and 2.5 miles from east to west. It was bounded on the east by Portsmouth Harbour, on the south by the Solent and on the west mainly by the parish of Rowner. On the north it adjoined Fareham and Titchfield parishes.

Large parts of the north and east of the parish were formed into separate parishes between 1840 and 1913. In the late 19th century Alverstoke became completely built up and the fields separating it from Gosport disappeared. Thus the parish, which was once a large agricultural one containing the villages of Alverstoke and Gosport now comprises a smaller and mainly residential area within the Borough of Gosport.

The timeline of the transformation of the village name is:^[4]

Alwarestoch/Halwarestoke, XI to XIII century

Alvardestoke, XIV century

Aillewardstoke, XV century

Alverstoke, XVI century