Portsmouth - Ships, Dockyard and Town

For a long time Portsmouth has been known as a Dockyard town, and indeed until the 1980s, when the last great contraction of the yard took place, this was certainly the case. Portsmouth's original function was not so much that of a dockyard, since these did not exist, so much as a landing place for the convenience of dignitaries travelling between France and England, following the Norman conquest. Portsmouth's fortunes were closely linked to war and peace rather than to the market considerations, which governed most towns growth