The Shepherd's Crook Story

The origins of the Shepherds Crook can be traced back to at least 1841 when a shepherds cottage was listed in the first census of the area, the date of the cottage was unknown, but its occupant was listed as a Benjamin Passingham. An 1835 map of Milton also shows a building on the same spot.

 

The cottage was located diagonally across the road from where the current Shepherds Crook now stands and would have been where the entrance to Milton park is now. The cottage was located next to a bridge called the Shepherds Bridge which spanned the Portsmouth to Arundel Canal and the road that it was located on was called Hill Lane (now called Priory Crescent). The Portsmouth to Arundel canal plans were approved in 1815 and an Act of Parliament approving its construction passed in 1817. At this stage the costs for the canal were estimated at £119,000, this rose to £125,452 in 1818. Construction started in 1818 and the canal was finished in 1823, at a final cost of £170,000.

 

The origins of the Shepherds Crook can be traced back to at least 1841 when a shepherds cottage was listed in the first census of the area, the date of the cottage was unknown, but it's occupant was listed as a Benjamin Passingham. An 1835 map of Milton also shows a building on the same spot.

 

The cottage was located diagonally across the road from where the current Shepherds Crook now stands and would have been where the entrance to Milton park is now. The cottage was located next to a bridge called the Shepherds Bridge which spanned the Portsmouth to Arundel Canal and the road that it was located on was called Hill Lane (now called Priory Crescent). The Portsmouth to Arundel canal plans were approved in 1815 and an Act of Parliament approving its construction passed in 1817. At this stage the costs for the canal were estimated at £119,000, this rose to £125,452 in 1818. Construction started in 1818 and the canal was finished in 1823, at a final cost of £170,000.

 

 

From the beginning the canal was plagued with numerous problems, and in 1827 the Portsea section of the canal had to be drained due to complaints about salt water contamination in some of Portsmouth's wells. In 1845 parts of this section were sold to the London and Brighton railway company with another section being sold to the company in 1851. By the 1880's the remainder of the canal in Portsmouth was filled in,with the final part filled in by 1890.

 

During or shortly after the construction of the canal in Portsmouth a bridge was built over the canal from Winter Road to Hill Road (Now called Priory Crescent). The bridge was called the Shepherds Bridge, a name that was probably derived from the fact that at the time the Milton area predominantly consisted of farm-steads and allotments for tenant farmers.

 

 

On the opposite corner where the Shepherds Crook currently stands, where the entrance to Milton Park now exists (on the southern corner of the junction of Goldsmith Avenue and Priory Crescent) a Pub called The Shepherds Arms existed until just prior to the construction of the Shepherds Crook in 1908. The Shepherds Arms, pictured to the left in an old water-colour painting was named after the Shepherds Bridge which was constructed during or shortly after the construction of the canal. In the picture you can see where the canal used to run, which is now Goldsmith Avenue. The road that led up to the bridge was then called Winter Road and still is, the road on the opposite side of the bridge (where the pub sits, was called Hill Road and is now called Priory Crescent.

 

The first census of the Milton village area took place in 1841, the census showed that a Shepherds Cottage existed on the exact site where the Shepherds Arms would eventually exist. In 1851 records show that the Shepherd that lived in the cottage, Benjamin Passingham, passed away, the freehold property was acquired by James Stephens, who converted it into the Shepherds Arms.
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By the 1890's the Shepherds Arms was still in existence, however the area was beginning to change significantly, with large swathes of new housing, the new football ground being formed in 1898 and the canal was now filled in and made into a road, the Shepherds Bridge had by now disappeared.

 

​In 1908 a local land owner called James Goldsmith, who owned much of the land around Milton and was involved in the early emergence of Milton as a village, applied for the license of the Shepherds Arms so that he could transfer it to a new Public house of the same name, the Shepherds Arms, which he commissioned to be designed by A E Cogswell. The old Shepherds Arms, across the road had ceased trading this year and was demolished, some of the materials were used in the construction of the new Shepherds Arms, which was built by A E Cogswell and opened in 1912. The teracota design was quite unique at the time as the fashion was for normal brick builds or glazed tiled pubs, many of which still exist today. Unfortunately James Goldsmith never saw the completion of the Shepherds Arms, he passed away in 1911, a year before the Pub was completed and was probably the reason why the Pub took so long to build.

 

The Shepherds Arms was renamed the Shepherds Crook in 1933 when it became a Unted Ales pub, the pub still carries the livery of the United Ales brand on the front of the Pub and the Pub now sits on the corner of Goldsmith Avenue which was named after the very person who had the Pub built.

 

 

James Goldsmith, was a prominent businessman and landowner in the Milton area of Portsmouth towards the end of the 19th century. He came from a long line of Goldsmiths all with the same christian name who each succeeded each other by taking over the family estate .

 

Despite the rapid emergence of Portsmouth as a major naval base and urban area, new development largely passed the Milton area by, it remained predominantly agricultural until the beginning of the 20th century, and even now has more of a village feel than most parts of Portsmouth.

 

The lack of development was largely due to the Goldsmith family who from the 16th century had owned land in the Milton area. The first James Goldsmith was recorded as owning land near Locksway road (Milton road) and Hill Lane (Priory Crescent) in 1750. In 1808 he then acquired Purnell farm, later named Middle farm, which is the today the location of Milton Park. The second of the of the James Goldsmith's was to acquire large swaithes of land in the 1850's as he was not keen on the emergence of new urban developments in the area that he lived. At the time of the purchase the land was advertised for urban development, so he effectively put a stop to any urbanisation of the Milton area. He passed away in 1858 to be succeeded by the his son the third James Goldsmith who passed away in 1911 during the construction of the Shepherds Arms Pub (now called the Shepherds Crook), which he commissioned.

 

At the time of the death of the last James Goldsmith, Milton was still very much a village and large parts of the Goldsmith estate were kept as parkland, giving it a much greener feel than the rest of Portsmouth.