E.J.Wilkins

Just a people picture - some of those who were waiting at Calshot for Queen Mary 2 and Queen Victoria to pass by on their way to the Solent.

In the background is the keep of Calshot Castle, built during the reign of Henry VIII (1540) it's in a prime position to protect the entrance to Southampton Water, and thus the port of Southampton, and the eastern approach to the Solent.

The area behind the castle has been quite important more recently.

The Naval Air Station opened in 1913 and it's from here that Winston Churchill took his first seaplane flight when he was Lord of the Admiralty.

Calshot is where Aircraftsman Shaw (T. E. Lawrence - "Lawrence of Arabia") was assigned to help organise the Schneider Trophy event in 1929 and 1931.
During WWII hangars here housed the Sunderland Flying Boat.
RAF Calshot was closed in 1961.

The ex-military and aircraft site is now run as an - Activity Centre -, there is an indoor ski slope and climbing walls as well as facilities for watersports in the protected inshore area. It bustles with activity, somewhat different from its original purpose.

Calshot is also the home of the local inshore - RNLI Lifeboat -

- Here's - what the area looks like from above.
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