Talk:History of Southampton

Sections
The sections in this wiki entry aren't big enough to warrant being sections - The headings are often longer than the actual information, and the list of contents in stupidly long as a result. This needs a LOT of work. 207.138.98.253 (talk) 10:49, 7 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Yup, needs a lot of work. I've added a few bits recently, still more to do which will flesh out the sections which I agree are a bit short at the moment. But it takes time to build up Wiki pages. The book I'm referring to at the moment is 200 pages long. Southampton has a LOT of History. It would help if people would stop criticising and start writing.......Hethurs (talk) 20:12, 7 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Congratulations on the hard work you are putting in. One quibble - rather than countless (80+?) references to the Rance book under one reference, would it not be better to give the separate pages for each reference. I have the book myself, and it would be great to be able to see where your references are in the book. Cheers. --Daemonic Kangaroo (talk) 05:21, 8 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Now that's a fair point. I've not been entirely happy with the citations myself and have wondered if there's a better way of doing them. I'll endeavour to start putting the page numbers in and see how that works. Thanks for your commentHethurs (talk) 10:42, 8 June 2008 (UTC).

Current state of development
Well the book I've been referring to is about to go back to the library for a while, so probably not too many more major additions from me at this time. There's still a quite a lot more that could be added to this page on Southamptons History, but I need to put it to one side for a while, giving the page a chance to settle and be assessed if anybody wants to initiate that. I've been concentrating on the structure of this page, using "see also" where I know that the history is documented in other articles: there's no need to repeat it all here. Generally, I've been trying to cover the whole history of Southampton in an Encyclopedia-like way, not just the well-known bits that everybody knows from the Tourist guides. I've no idea what the consensus is on how successful this exercise has been, but I think that this page is now sufficiently different from the History section in the main page on Southampton for it to be a lot more obvious where to put any new information - eliminating the problem that first got me started on this series of revisions. I suggest that the fullest detail should go in this separate History page, whilst we actively restrict any new material in the main page on Southampton to a fairly brief overview, if it is of sufficient importance; it might not need to go in the main article at all. I'll obviously keep an eye on these pages via my watchlist. Do message me if any questions, I might not be contributing so much for a while, but that doesn't mean I don't care or that I'm not interested.Hethurs (talk) 08:16, 13 June 2008 (UTC).

Book references
In the article, there are several references cited to books without page numbers, especially the books by Brown, Robertson & Oppitz and Petch, and still a few from the Rance book. -- Daemonic Kangaroo (talk) 07:32, 29 April 2013 (UTC)


 * Does anyone else think there are too many references to a small number of books? --Northernhenge (talk) 17:37, 29 April 2013 (UTC)
 * I agree: paragraphs such as "The Polygon" are sourced entirely from one page in the Rance book, so one reference would cover the entire paragraph/section. --  Daemonic Kangaroo (talk) 19:06, 29 April 2013 (UTC)

External links modified
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20091202023423/http://www.southernlife.org.uk/sotonch1.htm to http://www.southernlife.org.uk/sotonch1.htm
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20120712182921/http://www.southampton.gov.uk/s-leisure/artsheritage/museums-galleries/ghtower-museumofarchaeology/ to http://www.southampton.gov.uk/s-leisure/artsheritage/museums-galleries/ghtower-museumofarchaeology/

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External links modified
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I have just modified 4 external links on History of Southampton. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20080929033954/http://southamptonuk.ags.myareaguide.com/?cityguide=tours to http://southamptonuk.ags.myareaguide.com/?cityguide=tours
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20120223124133/http://www.southampton.gov.uk/s-leisure/artsheritage/museums-galleries/tudorhouse.aspx to http://www.southampton.gov.uk/s-leisure/artsheritage/museums-galleries/tudorhouse.aspx
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20070402021224/http://millais.solent.ac.uk/ to http://millais.solent.ac.uk/
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20090114021310/http://www.southampton.gov.uk/leisure/localhistoryandheritage/museums-galleries/ghtower-museumofarchaeology/ to http://www.southampton.gov.uk/leisure/localhistoryandheritage/museums-galleries/ghtower-museumofarchaeology

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Pre-Clausentium
It is not made clear when this location was first recognised as a potential major port. Valetude (talk) 22:48, 1 July 2018 (UTC)

Air raids
I've put a citation needed template up for the claim that German bomber pilots were ordered to avoid St Michel's church spire as they used it as a navigational aid. Two reasons, firstly it wouldn't have been that visible at night when most of the raids were carried out, and secondly, bomb aiming was a very imprecise science even with the radio aids carried by Luftwaffe aircraft later in the war (Knickebein). A lot of the damage done to Southampton was a result of mis-aimed bombs meant for the docks.

One version I have heard is that the German pilots used the White House at St Mary's School in Bitterne as a navigational point so anti-aircraft guns were sited around the building. The latter is confirmed by archeological digs. Can't find a published reference to it though. Murgatroyd49 (talk) 09:39, 18 October 2019 (UTC)