Traction engine pops into '˜country' pub on edge of Portsmouth

These were the days when you could drive south on both sides of the Coach and Horses pub at Hilsea, Portsmouth.

As the sign says: it was left for Southsea and right to continue down the A3 for Portsmouth – none of the gyratory madness we have to negotiate today.

DIVIDE Theres a country pub feel to the Coach and Horses, Hilsea, in this picture, showing how the road divided at this pointplaceholder image
DIVIDE Theres a country pub feel to the Coach and Horses, Hilsea, in this picture, showing how the road divided at this point

And when was the last time you saw a steam traction engine parked on the pub’s forecourt?

Today’s pictures were all among the latest submissions on Facebook’s Memories of Bygone Portsmouth pages and were posted by Patrick Boyle.

OLD AND NEW A steamboat in Portsmouth Harbour with HMS Victory, right, and HMS Wellington, left, both first rate ships of the line with 100 or more gunsplaceholder image
OLD AND NEW A steamboat in Portsmouth Harbour with HMS Victory, right, and HMS Wellington, left, both first rate ships of the line with 100 or more guns

Tim Purkis has responded to the Coach and Horses picture saying: ‘My great-great-grandparents owned the original Coach and Horses back in the 1830 to 1860 period.

‘The current buiding is the third one,the first one having burnt down.’

His other photos range from a magnificent shot of HMS Victory afloat in a picture believed to date from the 1890s to the children in the sea at The Hard in 1934.

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