The Saxons settled on Portsea Island in the 6th century by a warrior called Coppa. He owned a stretch of shoreline, in the Saxon language an ‘ora’. Today we put an apostrophe s at the end of a person’s name but the Saxons put the letter ‘n’ so it was called Coppan ora.
As Copenore, it was one of the three villages listed as being on Portsea Island in the Domesday book of 1086.
In 1665 a tax was placed on hearths (fireplaces). At that time Copnor was still a tiny village. Some houses only had one hearth because poor people often lived in tiny huts with just one or two rooms. However, a man named Charles Summers had 5 hearths.
Copnor was bombed in an air raid on Portsmouth on 16 November 1940. Copnor Road was hit by more bombs in an air raid on 10 May 1944. Meanwhile, Eastern Road was completed in 1942.
Factoid 1: James Callaghan, who served as prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1976 until 1979 and was in parliament from 1945 until 1987, was born at 38 Funtington Road in Copnor on 27 March 1912.
Factoid 2: College Park, the park is built on land that was a gift of the Wardens of Winchester College, granted in 1915 and is named after the College. Since July 1543 Winchester College had owned much of the area that was developed into the area known as North End.
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