The days when inquests were held in your local
A set of pictures today posted recently on the Memories of Bygone Portsmouth Facebook page.
On the right is Copnor Road looking rather grand in a picture taken about 1911.
Arthur Hooper’s grocery store and the post office stood on the corner of New Road East, next door to Ernest Smith’s butcher’s shop.
Out of shot in this picture was The Swan pub which dated from the 1890s though a pub called Duncan’s Head is believed to have served pints on that site from the 1850s.
In keeping with the custom of the time, inquests were often held in the local pub and those at the Duncan’s Head included Copnor’s railway signalman who had been killed in an accident on the nearby track in 1869.