IN about 1846, Station Road was constructed by extending Latimer Street thereby giving access from the town to the new railway station. Alma Road followed it a few years later, it is said to provide a route to Broadlands that avoided the town centre. The sloping land from the junction of these roads to the station is railway property.

After that, nothing much happened for a while although the Fleming Arms in was built in1869 and the new boys’ school followed in 1872. Most of the houses that line these two streets were built in the 20th century.

At some stage Duttons Road was built across the large field known as Hog Gaston. It is said that it was constructed to provide Sir Ralph Dutton, who lived at Timsbury with a short cut from the railway station to his home.

In the 20th century, Romsey Borough Council acquired Hog Gaston and built some council houses along its southern side. When the first houses were built, councillors debated whether to make electricity available to the tenants. A public electricity supply only became available in the town in 1928. Before that gas had provided lighting and heating for most households.

Much of the land near Station Road was sold to Romsey and Stockbridge Rural District Council who built their offices there, and the land between that site and Station Road was sold to private individuals with the stipulation that they had to build biggish houses.

There were plans for a northern by-pass of Romsey for which purpose Malmesbury Road and Mountbatten Avenue were created, both of them pleasantly tree-lined as was currently the vogue for by-passes in pre-war England. This by-pass, which would have come out onto the A31 by the Plaza was never established.

At some stage Princes Road was cut through from Station Road to the junction of Malmesbury Road and Duttons Road. It was named after the coal merchant Alderman W. G. Prince who had served on the council for over 50 years and been the town’s county councillor for a long time. In 1935 Jubilee Road was created behind the council offices which joined Princes Road and Malmesbury Road.

After the war many more council houses were built along these streets, with the generous gardens and ‘new town’ feel that was current in the 1940s, and since then other community housing has been constructed in the area.