Until 1810, the area we now know as Waterlooville was open forest owned by the Crown. When the Forest of Bere was enclosed, the land became available to purchase. The Portsea brewer Charles Matthews was one of the first to purchase a plot. Matthews chose a prime location at the halfway point on the Portsmouth to Petersfield turnpike road (Jones S., 2015). In 1815, he built a coaching inn to provide a resting point for travellers and horses.
Local legend has it that having disembarked at Portsmouth (June 1815), soldiers returning from the Battle of Waterloo were marching home along the turnpike road when they came upon the inn and stopped to rest. Here they were celebrated as heroes and hence the inn was named ‘The Heroes of Waterloo.’ Legend says that some of the soldiers settled here. Certainly a few houses were soon built and with sixteen horse-drawn coaches arriving daily, a small settlement grew around the crossroads of London Road and Hambledon Road. The name ‘Heroes of Waterloo Inn’ is recorded on an auction document dated 1816 (Jones S., 2015). A baptism record names this settlement as Waterloo in January 1832, and in the same year, Waterloo Vill is used on a letting advert for a house in London Road (Jones, 2015 Vol 1).
The 1870 map shows The Waterloo Inn. The battle influence is also seen in the naming of Wellington Cottage and Barrack Row. The Civil parish of Waterloo-Ville was created in 1858. ‘Ville’ was added to the name to distinguish it from London Waterloo, where the bridge (1817) and train station (1848) were also named after the famous battle.
Every year on the 18th of June, the anniversary of the victory at Waterloo, a gala dinner was held at The Heroes. George Gale acquired the inn in the 1860’s and in 1890, Gale demolished the original building and replaced it with the new ‘Heroes of Waterloo Hotel’. In 1966 it was rebuilt again by Gales, 300 yards further north of London Road (Jones S. , 2015). The name ‘The Heroes’ is still used today, more than 200 years after the Battle of Waterloo.
Under the command of the Duke of Wellington, the coalition forces (The Kingdom of Prussia, Netherlands, and Hanover) defeated Napoleon Bonaparte’s French army. The battle was a triumphant moment, ending the rule of Napoleon Bonaparte and the Napoleonic wars that had raged on for 23 years (National Army Museum, n.d.).
Bibliography
Jones. (2015 Vol 1). The Early Years of Waterlooville 180-1910 and A History of the Forest of Bere. Retrieved from https://archive.org/details/TheEarlyYearsOfWaterlooville1810-1910AndAHistoryOfTheForestOfBere/page/n7/mode/2up
Jones. (2015 Vol. 3). A History of Waterlooville Vol 3. Retrieved from https://archive.org/details/AHistoryOfWaterloovilleVol.3/page/n5/mode/2up
Jones, S. (2015). The Public Houses and Inns of Waterlooville, Cowplain, Lovedean, Purbrook and Widley. Retrieved from Havant Borough History No.30: https://archive.org/details/ThePublicHousesAndInnsOfWaterloovilleCowplainLovedeanPurbrookAnd
Jones, S. (2015 Vol 2). Retrieved from A History of Waterlooville Vol.2: https://archive.org/details/AHistoryOfWaterloovilleVol.21911-1951/page/n51/mode/2up
National Army Museum. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/battle-waterloo
Ordnance Survey. (1870). National Library of Scotland. Retrieved from https://maps.nls.uk/view/102343152
Wikimedia. (2024, 12 30). Retrieved from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Scotland_Forever!.jpg
