Waterlooville 5.43

Waterlooville is a town in Hampshire, England, approximately 8 miles north of Portsmouth.The town has a population of about 64,350 and is surrounded by Purbrook, Blendworth, Cowplain, Lovedean, Clanfield, Catherington, Crookhorn, Denmead, Hambledon, Horndean and Widley. It forms part of the South Hampshire conurbation. The town formed around the old A3 London to Portsmouth road.Waterlooville is twinned with Maurepas, Yvelines in France and Henstedt-Ulzburg in Germany.HistoryIt is reputed that the name derived from a pub that stood at the centre of the village, then known as Wait Lane End, where the stage-coach horses waited to change places with the team that pulled the coach up and over Portsdown Hill. The pub had been named Heroes of Waterloo because, on its opening day, in 1815, soldiers who had just disembarked at Portsmouth, returning from the Battle of Waterloo, decided to stop there and celebrate their victory. According to local legend, many of them settled there.There is no proof of this assertion. The pub was thereafter renamed in their honour and the area around the pub became known as Waterlooville.