A Protest Meeting at Bishopstoke

At 8 p.m. on Thursday, 28th November 1985, members of the Eastleigh and District Local History Society were able to re-enact the proceedings of a Protest Meeting which had taken place exactly 80 years previously. A copy of the original report of the meeting had been found and the speeches made at the time came to life again.The meeting, called to protest against the destruction of the old Parish Church at Bishopstoke and the levelling of the graves in the churchyard, brought to a head unrest and ill feeling that had been
simmering in the district for many years, particularly among the gentry who lived in houses scattered along the banks of the River Itchen and whose serenity was being disturbed by land development and the construction of low cost houses, as a result of the London and South Western Railway Company's decision to set up its Carriage Works nearby.