Havant

Market town at the head of Langstone Harbour with Roman-era springs and strong transport links

Havant is a town in south-east Hampshire, situated on the coastal plain between Portsmouth and Chichester. It lies at the northern edge of Langstone Harbour, one of three large natural harbours on this stretch of coast, and the town has been a crossing point and meeting place since Roman times. The springs that rise at Havant, where chalk meets clay, were the original reason for settlement and gave the town its water supply for centuries. The town centre has an older core around East Street, West Street, and the parish church of St Faith, with buildings dating from the sixteenth century onwards. Havant developed as a market town serving the surrounding agricultural land, and the weekly market tradition continued into the twentieth century. The arrival of the railway in the 1840s connected Havant to both London and the south coast, and the town grew steadily as a commuter settlement. Today it has a mix of older character in the centre and extensive post-war residential areas to the north and east. Langstone Harbour, to the south of the town, is a large tidal inlet designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a Special Protection Area for its internationally important populations of wading birds and wildfowl. The harbour drains almost completely at low tide, revealing vast mudflats that attract huge flocks of dunlin, curlew, and brent geese in winter. The old village of Langstone, at the harbour's western edge, has a waterfront pub and the ruins of a medieval mill. Havant is well connected by road and rail. The A27 passes to the south, and the railway station is on the main Portsmouth-to-Brighton line with connections to London via the Portsmouth Direct line. The town serves as a gateway to the harbours and the coastal path running east towards Emsworth and Chichester.