Southampton Water

The Royal Victoria Hospital or Netley Hospital was a large military hospital in Netley, near Southampton, Hampshire, England. Construction started in 1856 at the suggestion of Queen Victoria but its design caused some controversy, chiefly from Florence Nightingale. Often visited by Queen Victoria, the hospital was extensively used during the First World War. It became the 28th US General Hospital during the invasion of mainland Europe in the Second World War. The main building – the world's longest building when it was completed – was entirely demolished in 1966, except for the chapel and former YMCA building, which still survive. The extensive outbuildings, which once occupied a vast acreage of land to the rear of the main building, finally succumbed in 1978. The site of the hospital can be seen and explored in Royal Victoria Country Park. The hospital was situated within the larger area of land bounded by the River Itchen and River Hamble, particularly around Sholing that had become known locally as Spike Island. That term was subsequently used by wounded soldiers and prisoners of war to describe the location of the hospital.

Hythe to Calshot Marshes is a 591.8-hectare (1,462-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest which stretches along the west bank of Southampton Water between Calshot and Marchwood in Hampshire. It is part of Solent and Southampton Water Ramsar site and Special Protection Area, and of Solent Maritime Special Area of Conservation. Calshot Marshes is a Local Nature Reserve and Hythe Spartina Marsh is a nature reserve managed by the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust.These areas of saltmarsh and mudflats have nationally important numbers of wintering waders and wildfowl, such as black-tailed godwit, grey plover and dunlin. The site is internationally important for dark-bellied brent geese as it has over 1% of the world population. The benthic zone has a dense concentration of invertebrates which provide the birds' main food.

The Royal Victoria Railway runs for around 0.6 miles (0.97 km) through Royal Victoria Country Park in Netley, Hampshire, England, with views of Southampton Water. It is run entirely by volunteers. The line is built to the popular gauge of 10+1⁄4 in (260 mm) and runs every weekend throughout the year and all school holidays.

Hound is a village and civil parish in the borough of Eastleigh in southern Hampshire, England. The parish encompasses the villages of Netley, Butlocks Heath and Old Netley, and includes such landmarks as Netley Castle and Netley Abbey. In the 2001 census, the parish had a headcount of 6,846 living in 2,928 households.

The Royal Victoria Country Park is a country park in Netley, Hampshire, England, by the shores of Southampton Water. It comprises 200 acres (81 ha) of mature woodland and grassy parkland, as well as a small shingle beach. From 1863 until 1966, the site was home to the Royal Victoria Hospital. The site was acquired by Hampshire County Council in 1969, who opened the park to the public in 1970.All that remains of the hospital is the chapel, which acts as a heritage centre providing history of the hospital. It also has a 150-foot (46 m) viewing tower, providing views over the park, and across Southampton Water to Hythe, and on a clear day, as far as Southampton itself. The site also has a park office and tearooms. The building housing this was built using 100 different timbers from around the UK and British Empire. It was originally built in 1940 by the YMCA for entertainment, recreation and relaxation for staff and patients at the hospital. There is also a miniature narrow-gauge railway the Royal Victoria Railway on the site which runs for around 1 mile (1.6 km). The park is home to a large variety of fauna and flora. The park can be reached on foot via a footpath from Netley Station, or there is ample car parking on site. The Netley Military Cemetery to the rear of the hospital site, primarily for patients, is accessible to the public by a private footpath and with a lockable security fence, a key to which can be obtained from the shop next to the tearooms. Among those buried here are 636 Commonwealth service personnel who died in the First World War and 35 in the Second World War whose graves are maintained and registered by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, who also care for the war graves of 69 Germans and 12 Belgians from the First and of one Polish soldier from the Second war.Southampton Water is an extremely busy shipping lane, with container ships and cruise liners, including the Queen Mary 2 using the port at Southampton as a base. In January 2014 it was announced that a Heritage Lottery Fund grant of £102,000 would be used for restoring the chapel and revealing more detail of the former hospital.

Netley, officially referred to as Netley Abbey, is a village on the south coast of Hampshire, England. It is situated to the south-east of the city of Southampton, and flanked on one side by the ruins of Netley Abbey and on the other by the Royal Victoria Country Park.

Folland Sports Football Club is a football club based in Hamble-le-Rice, near Southampton, in Hampshire, England. They are currently members of the Wessex League Division One and play at Folland Park.

Netley railway station is located near the village of Netley in Hampshire, England. The station is run by South Western Railway and is on the West Coastway Line. Near to the station is Royal Victoria Country Park. The line into the village from the west was built by the Southampton and Netley Railway, though by the time it was opened in March 1866 the aforementioned company had been taken over by the London and South Western Railway. The LSWR then extended the line east to Fareham in 1889. From 1900 a branch from the station conveyed patients to the nearby Netley Hospital. Heavy casualties during the First World War resulted in the station being for a time the third-busiest in Britain.

Hamble Club Football Club is a football club based in Hamble-le-Rice, Hampshire. They are currently members of the Wessex League Premier Division and play at the Abbey.

Fawley railway station was the terminus of the Totton, Hythe and Fawley Light Railway, which was built along the coast of Southampton Water to connect Totton and Fawley and to provide a freight link from the South West Main Line to Fawley Refinery.

Hamble railway station is an unstaffed station near the village of Hamble-le-Rice, England. It is served by a 2-track electrified line which joins the Southampton to London main line, in the direction of Southampton at St Denys in Southampton, and joins the line running east from Eastleigh at Fareham. Stopping services between Portsmouth and Southampton call at Hamble station approximately once per hour in each direction (including Sundays).The station is adjacent to a bridge carrying Hamble Lane and also in close proximity to The Hamble School, the local secondary school. Bus stops serving the station are just to the north on Hamble Lane. Shelters are provided. Just west of the station platforms is a disused but largely complete branch line running down into the Hamble-le-Rice oil terminal.

The Hamble Rail Trail is a 4.5-mile-long (7.2 km) circular footpath in Hampshire, southern England, comprising a path which runs alongside a disused railway track that connects Hamble-le-Rice to Royal Victoria Country Park and looping back via a section of the Solent Way footpath.The railway track in question was constructed during the First World War to transport aircraft from Manchester to Hamble-le-Rice. A siding was built as part of the railway to serve the flying boat factory in Hamble. The line was not actually used during the war as hostilities ceased before it could be utilised; it was, however, purchased for the storage and transportation of oil to the BP oil terminal in Hamble. BP maintain the option of reopening the line, but it has not been used since 1986 when it transported crude oil from Wytch Farm in Dorset, a route which has since been replaced by a 56-mile-long (90 km) pipeline.