The picture postcode village of ‘Long Stone’, now Langstone, sits on the water’s edge. The village is at the narrowest crossing point between the mainland and Hayling Island, near the Royal Oak pub and the old mill.
Before construction of the wooden Langstone toll bridge in 1824, access to Hayling Island was only possible by boat or by use of the wadeway.
Did You Know?
A wadeway is a footpath where people could wade across at low tide. Obviously, everyone tended to get extremely muddy when crossing it!
The three-quarter mile long wadeway offered a route between Langstone and Hayling for pedestrians and horse riders, during the three hours either side of low tide. Even today the remains of the wadeway remain visible, with oak stumps marking part of the route.
Did You Know?
A piece of timber found at the Hayling end of the wadeway was proved by carbon dating to be 3,000 years old. This tells us that this route has been in use even before the Romans arrived in Britain in AD43!
One of the wadeway timbers, which bares the mark of a bronze age axe used to make it, can now be seen at the Havant museum.
The wadeway was cut in two by the construction of the Chichester to Portsmouth canal in 1820. To the west, several stone plinths exist where the ‘Hayling Billy’ train line once travelled alongside the old toll bridge.
Here is how the Langstone Bridge looks today.
- Read more about the wadeway and Langstone bridges – click here
- Read the Loop web page about the Langstone bridges – click here