Emsworth

Emsworth
Emsworth
	Emsworth town centre
Population	Expression error: "9,737 (2001)" must be numeric
OS grid reference	SU748060
Civil parish	Emsworth;
District	Havant;
Shire county	Hampshire;
Region	South East;
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Postcode district	PO10 7
Dialling code	01243
Police	Hampshire and Isle of Wight
Fire	Hampshire and Isle of Wight
Ambulance	South Central
UK Parliament	Havant;
	List of places UK England Hampshire

Emsworth is a small town in England, situated on the south coast on the Hampshire side of the border between Hampshire and West Sussex. The town lies at the north end of an arm of Chichester Harbour, a large but shallow inlet of the English Channel.

Emsworth's name came from Anglo Saxon Æmeles worþ = "a man called Æmele's enclosure".

Emsworth has a population of approximately 10,000 people. In the 19th century Emsworth had as many as 30 pubs and beer houses, probably to do with the fact that Emsworth was a fishing village. Today, only nine remain, and this number may have decreased due to the Emsworth fishing and oyster trade dying down, or to the consolidation of the pub trade in the 1990s and 2000s. Emsworth's once famous oyster industry went into decline in the early years of the 20th century. Recently, Emsworth's last remaining oyster boat The Terror was restored and is now sailing again. The Harbour is now used almost exclusively for recreational sailing, but in the past was the setting for Emsworth's oyster farming industry. In some places the old oyster-beds can still be seen at low tide. The town has a basin for small yachts and a few fishing boats opposite the millpond, an artificial lake which fills at high tide can be emptied through a sluice at low tide. The River Ems, which is named after the town (not, as often believed, the town named after the river) also flows into the Slipper millpond, and although the mill is no longer in use it now houses a number of offices and an art gallery.

The town is part of the Havant constituency, which has for many years been a safe Conservative seat. The current Member of Parliament is David Willetts MP.

Since 2001, Emsworth has held an annual Emsworth Food Festival in September. Run entirely by unpaid volunteers this is now the largest event of its type in the UK with 55,000 visitors in 2007. The Emsworth Food Festival is a community event involving local schools, businesses and community organisations. It is usually held in the town centre.

Emsworth railway station is on the West Coastway Line.

Adjacent to Emsworth is Thorney Island in West Sussex. The Island is first mentioned in the Domesday Book (1086) when it was called Thornei and came under the church at Bosham. Up until 1870 the Island could only be reached by boat by a causeway called the wadeway. In 1870, the foundations of the road were laid and the Island permanently linked to the mainland.

The Island became an airfield by accident in 1933 when a Fury aircraft from No 1 squadron crashed on the Island, and the investigation team suggested that this would be a good site for an airfield. The site of the crash is marked by a plaque behind the commanding officer’s house.

Construction work began in 1935 and the station opened in 1938, later being visited by the king. The RAF used the station until 1976 when it was closed. The Vietnamese Boat people were the next inhabitants in 1980-1. At the end of 1981 the Army board directed the redeployment of an FH70 Regiment from BAOR to the UK to be effected in August 1984. The station was refurbished at a cost of some £14 million and was finally completed in November 1984 and from 1989 has been home to 47th Regiment Royal Artillery.