The Crofton pub has been a regular watering hole for customers for about 47 years. It has changed hands a number of times and had many a facelift! Local knowledge places the opening of The Crofton at 1962, built by local builders and merchants.
The function room was built on the side of The Crofton around 1985. At this time, the landlord was Norman Shouter (pronounced shooter) and his wife Betty. Norman was fondly known as “Big Norm” for his well built physique.
New managers came in, and, as you would expect, the Crofton changed face many times. Fish tanks arrived and went, and a pet donkey was left in a cart outside the pub, causing nuisance and keeping many neighbours awake at night. The pub as been expanded over the years – for example, the restaurant area as it is now, was only half the size in the late 70’s and early 80’s with the rest of the area being for staff or storage.
Rumour has it that both Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh and Andrew, Duke of York, have drunk at the Crofton whilst visiting Portsmouth Dockyard.
The area
Both Stubbington and neigbouring Crofton were mentioned in the Doomsday book (the 11th century UK census), as small districts belonging to the estates of Titchfield Abbey. Crofton Old Church was built by the Saxons in the 9th century.
In 1232 the Bishop of Winchester founded Titchfield Abbey and the Crofton became the property of the Abbey until the dissolution in 1536 when all estates were surrendered to the King, Henry VIII. Ownersip then passed to the Earl of Southampton. A map of the area, circa 1610, shows all the major roads as we know them today were well established. At this time the sea came in as far as the Crofton Old church.
Local legend has it that Crofton was a centre for smuggling. Some believe that a tunnel, used by smugglers, still exists. A watertight underground chamber, probably for concealing contraband, was discovered in the grounds of Smugglers’ Cottage in Crofton Lane. The name Anker Lane comes from the Dutch word for a keg of spirits
At the start of the 20th century Stubbington consisted of just a few dozen cottages and farms. Gradually the development of Stubbington began, closely followed by the Crofton area.
During World War II, Hill Head was one of many loading zones for the D-Day invasions and the area was inundated with allied troops. Along the coast there are still many reminders of the war time activities including remnants of fortifications.
Hill Head has a shingle beach with fishing, sailing, windsurfing and kitesurfing being the most popular pastimes upon its shores. There is also a small harbour, located where the River Meon enters the Solent.
HMS Crofton (M1216) 1958-1987
As one of the later ships of the 118 ton class coastal minesweepers built for the Royal Navy between 1951 and 1960, HMS Crofton was built with a closed bridge and two deltic diesel engines. The ton class was named after British villages with names ending in ‘ton’. The ships had double mahogany hulls and were constructed as much as possible with aluminium alloy and other non magnetic materials for safety when sweeping magnetic mines.
Standard Displacement was 360 tons, full load 425 tons, 153ft long, 29/9ft wide and 8.2ft draught. Armament was a 40mm bofors and 2 x 20mm oerlike guns. Twin diesels gave a range of 2300 miles at 13 knots with a top speed of 16 knots. Normal complement was 27 men.
HMS Crofton was laid down by John I Thornycroft in 1956 and completed in 1958. After usual trials and training she became the 9th ship in the Malta based 108 minesweeping squadron, joining five of her closed bridge sisters and 3 of the early open bridge ton ships fitted with wireless diesels. One of her sisters was HMS Stubbington (M1204) built by Camber and Nickolson.
As completed and operational, HMS Crofton was equipped with wire sweeps to deal with moored mines, a magnetic electrical pulse loop for magnetic mines and 3 anti acoustic mine systems (acoustic drum, acoustic hammer and acoustic oscillator).
HMS Crofton became the deputy (or half) leader of the 108 MS which was the Royal Navy mine counter measures unit in the Mediterranean and worked with Nato and non Nato units from nations throughout the Mediterranean . Visits to many large and small ports were also frequent by all or part of the squadron.
As half-leader HMS Crofton was commanded by a lieutenant commander and as onboard accommodation was limited, it did not allow all squadron staff to live in. The leader often carried an extra officer and/or senior rate for squadron not ship duties.
As British influence grew less in the Mediterranean and requirements for minesweepers increased in the red sea/Aden area in the 1960’s, the 3 open bridge ships in the 108ms were recalled to the UK in 1962 and a new closed bridge squadron was formed in the UK and were worked up by HMS Crofton and other ships of the 108ms before transitting the Suez Canal. The 108 ms was re-desiginated as the 7ms in 1963.
After the Royal Navy left Malta, the squadron returned to the UK, and both HMS Crofton and HMS Stubbington were re-named, HMS Crofton became HMS Solent (training ship for Solent division Royal Naval Reserve) and Stubbington became HMS Montrose (Tay division RN).
The ship had a varied life. She carried out earthquake relief duties in Sicily in the 1960’s. She was escort to HMS Britannia on 6th June 1977 for the silver jubilee before joining the RNR fleet in 1982. One of the many crowning moments for HMS Crofton was a rescue from a collision between HMS Mermaid and HMS Fittleton which unfortunately claimed 12 lives.
