Page 28 • The HERALD • 9th October 2025 v BRINGING THE GOOD NEWS TO YOU SINCE 1994 v FLAT ROOFING SPECIALISTS All Roof Repairs Tel: 023 8184 5632 Mobile: 07880 508415 Email: steve@braithwaiteroo ng.co.uk THE FLAT ROOF SPECIALIST Past Routes – Bringing Historic Works And The Historic Landscape To Life by Richard Milwain, Past Routes Past Routes is a Dibden Purlieu-based mapping company, founded to help bring historic works and the historic landscape to life. ancient routes and plans illustrating the history and archaeology of local areas. Broader, smaller scale at maps o er overviews at a county scale in A2 paper size. All maps include modern features, both for reference and to illustrate the ever-evolving nature of our landscape. Maps in the Overview series - at a scale of 1:63,360 or one inch to a mile - illustrate a wide range of historic places in a more traditional leisure map style. ey can act as a planning tool for trips out or as springboard towards more detailed local studies. For more information visit: www.pastroutes.co.uk I make use of two decades spent studying and working in the world of archaeology to create maps with a focus on the past, whilst also showing how it ts into the present. Each map is clear, a ordable and created with a minimum amount of interpretation. Source information is also included, allowing you to investigate places and themes using trusted publications and datasets. My series of maps o ers companion guides to historically valuable old books, overviews of historical and archaeological themes, guides to walking or cycling TALES FROM THE SHIP INN by Robin Somes, Fawley and Blackfield Memories Many people know there was once a public house at Lepe, the Ship Inn, where Lepe House now is. e history of the pub itself isn’t clear – and would in any case make a very long story – but it was there in the mid-18th century, and lasted until the late 19th, when the Forster family bought Lepe estate and the building was extended to create the family’s home. e Ship was as important a part of the community then as pubs are (or should be) now, and among many other functions, catalogues for local house and farm sales were made available for viewing or collection at the Inn, and it was a stopping-o point for passing boats and their crews. ere has long been a launching slipway on the beach below Lepe House; one may guess there was once also a jetty, or at least moorings o shore, for visiting boats. One landlord, Joseph Rowe, was clearly a man of standing, as he was also appointed to the Parish Overseers – officials responsible for collecting and distributing poor relief. Sporting and other events took place there, or were organised by the Inn’s landlords, including a pigeon shoot in April 1852 in an adjacent eld; the top prize was a pig. In 1876, the Hampshire Independent reported: “PRIZE MANGOLD:- Mr. Newman, of Church Farm, Fawley, who was successful in a similar competition last year, has again been awarded the silver cup given annually by Mr. Rowe, of the Ship Inn, Lepe. The turnip competition is not yet decided”. Besides a long reputation for smuggling – which again would make a lengthy tale – the Ship Inn was inevitably home to the more roguish strata of society, including several of my relatives. Among these were James Spedding and his nephew George Spedding (alias Kitcher), who were prosecuted in 1875 for poaching, with a gun, and threatening a gamekeeper on Cadland estate. Whilst George was convicted, and given three weeks’ imprisonment with hard labour, James was acquitted, a er Joseph Rowe and his son both swore that he was working for them around the Ship Inn when the o ence was committed. A lucky escape, since it was not the rst time that either man tangled with the local magistrates. e Ship Inn lasted somewhere between 100 and 150 years; in 1884 the Hampshire Advertiser lamented the lack of refreshment stops for yachtsmen round the Solent: “… as it is reported that the public house at Lepe is to be closed and pulled down there will be no place for refreshment on the south shore between Eling and Beaulieu for Southampton travellers by water on a Sunday”. Next time, we will look closer at the life of Joseph Rowe. Lepe House in the 21st century (Robin Somes)
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