Georgian Alverstoke, looking towards Gosport, c.1810

We have recently discovered this wonderful 210 year old watercolour depicting an extensive view looking east across what is now Anglesey Road and Stoke Lake towards the distant Haslar Hospital.

Such has been the interest in this fascinating watercolour, that we have published a limited edition fine art print for sale from the gallery.

Stoke House, a mansion built around 1725 and demolished in the late 1820s, can be seen just left of centre. It stood largely on the site of where Rectory Close is today. Part of Alverstoke Rectory is shown to the left, peeping out from below the branches of the tree in the foreground. On the right we can look along Clayhall Lane (now Clayhall Road) and see the back of the Kickergill - an imposing stone and brick seamark erected during the reign of William and Mary in 1694. It stood on a position almost opposite the entrance to Somervell Close today and on the edge of a parcel of land described in a contemporary description as 'Kicker Field'. This wonderful old structure was shamefully demolished in 1965 to widen the road!

An old triple-arched causeway is shown spanning the lake which today is probably buried beneath the footpath connecting Little Anglesey Road to Clayhall Road, adjacent to Brodrick Hall. A watercourse passes through the meadow in the foreground, today known as Stokesmead, and runs through a culvert beneath the road. A that time water flowed right through Alverstoke village.

A military officer and his wife turn their horse and trap from Clayhall Lane into Anglesey Road and a lone fisherman is shown on the banks of the lake. Cattle are grazing in their fenced enclosure while others are being driven southward, probably to Danner's Farm on which The Crescent was built by Robert Cruickshank over 20 years later.

The print is mounted, framed and glazed, using conservation materials, in our own studio and measures 65 cm x 53.5 cm overall

The edition is strictly limited to 495 numbered copies