A Short History of Hayling Island: Things Most People Don't Know
The birthplace of windsurfing, a Mulberry Harbour section left behind after D-Day, a railway nicknamed the Hayling Billy and a church said to have been lost to a tidal wave. A quick tour of Hayling's past.
Hayling is known as the birthplace of windsurfing (Peter Chilvers' board of 1958), played a part in building the Mulberry Harbours for D-Day, and had a railway, the Hayling Billy, that ran from 1867 to 1963 and is now a trail.
Hayling is a small island with a surprisingly big story. Here are some highlights, drawn from the sources linked at the end.
The birthplace of windsurfing
In 1958 a 12-year-old called Peter Chilvers, living on Hayling Island, assembled a board with a sail, a freesail system that had the main elements of a modern windsurfer. The UK Windsurfing Association's hall of fame calls him the world's first windsurfer. A decade later, in 1968, Jim Drake and Hoyle Schweitzer patented the modern Windsurfer, and later patent court cases in England recognised Chilvers' earlier board as prior art, after Tabur Marine's lawyers found a local newspaper photograph of it from 1958. Chilvers was born in 1946 and died on 26 February 2015. Our watersports guide covers where to windsurf today.
The Mulberry Harbour connection
During the Second World War, Hayling Island and Langstone Harbour were used to build parts of the Mulberry Harbours, the artificial harbours the Allies used for the D-Day landings. The Langstone Harbour Board's Langstone Loop pages say many Phoenix caissons, huge hollow concrete units that could be floated and then sunk as breakwaters, were manufactured near Ferry Point, Hayling. Wikipedia's Mulberry harbour article lists a faulty caisson left in place at the place of construction on Hayling Island and in Langstone Harbour, and describes a wrecked Phoenix breakwater near the harbour entrance. The Langstone Harbour Board says you can see the unit from the car park at the end of Ferry Road, and that broken caisson sections remain visible at the entrance to Langstone Harbour.
The Hayling Billy
A branch railway linked Havant with Hayling Island. A Hampshire leaflet says it opened for passengers in 1867 and closed following the Beeching cuts in 1963. It became known as the Hayling Billy. Today the old line is a trail; see our Hayling Billy Trail guide.
A ferry that stopped and started
The Hayling Ferry to Eastney ceased in March 2015 when its operating company went into administration. It was bought in August 2015 and reopened on 5 August 2016 under its present operator, according to Havant Borough Council's transport assessment.
Sandy Point, from hospital gardens to nature reserve
The Chichester Harbour Conservancy says Sandy Point Nature Reserve used to be the gardens of a hospital for children with TB and polio, opened in 1919 by the Treloar Trust. In the 1980s Hampshire County Council bought the grounds to manage as a nature reserve, and the hospital was demolished and replaced with houses. The lifeboat station on the sea front dates from 1865 and moved to its present site in 1975, with the present building completed in 2007.
A church and a tidal wave
A Hampshire leaflet notes that St Peter's Church in North Hayling stands on a site that dates back to 1140, and that the original church is thought to have been washed away by a tidal wave in 1325.
Where to read more
Hayling's history is well covered by local heritage groups; for current visiting information see our Hayling Island beach guide and things to do.
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