This is a detailed and fascinating history of the Vine Inn, which once sat at 370 Portswood Road, and its demise after 150 years in 1999
Posted by Highfield Residents' Association on Apr 30, 2024 in Local History, News | 0 commentsCourtesy of:
“Pubs and Their Landlords
Vine Inn – Portswood Road
‘The Yeoman of Portswood’
As a member of the Vine’s darts team for a few years this old pub is one that I remember, it sat at number 370 Portswood Road. It was one of the many old pubs that sat along Portswood Road most of which have now gone. Good company, darts, lashings of cheese & onion sandwiches, a good and friendly landlord, and for the pleasure of the customers old Joey sat at the bar singing his old songs after the match, it all made for an enjoyable evening at the ‘Vine’.
Portswood Road’s Vine Inn was not recorded in the early Southampton Directory, to find the pubs origins the neighbourhood directories of Southampton have to be examined particularly early references to those living in the Parish of South Stoneham.
It is said that the Vine Inn dated to the 1850’s when Joseph Harbut ran the pub and that in those days it was called the Vine at Portswood, this history by a well known author is repeated by others when talking of our old pubs, however my own research differs from what has been written before me.
This area on the Portswood road was still very rural in the 1840’s with farms dotted around villas that lay along the road.
It is said that the pub in the early days was then called ‘The Vine at Portswood’ this statement I would suggest is a simple misinterpretation of the Vines’s address in Portswood Road. As for Joseph Harbut he did indeed run the Vine Inn from at least 1855 to 1859, but he was not the first, I shall talk of Joseph and his sad demise in this story of the Vine Inn’s origins.
As already mentioned the area around the ‘Vine Inn’ was farm land and one of those farmers was the ‘Yeoman’ Mr John Webb. A Yeoman was a old term used for a man who was considered to be above the working class whom he employed, but his position was considered to below that of a Gentleman. A Yeoman often owned his own freehold land where he would employ working class folk.
John Webb was born during the reign of King George III in South Stoneham (Portswood) around 1794. The area here when John was born would have looked very different, to the east of what became the Vine Inn there was no railway, the land of what was still countryside then sloped down to the River Itchen.
At the age of 32 John Webb married a 28 year old Millbrook lass by the name of Mary Payne, John worked hard as a farmer in Portswood, by 1841 he was classed as a Yeoman, he is seen working a local farm of 150 acres whilst employing men. Perhaps not surprising then he opened a pub, a pub called the ‘Vine Inn’ as his workers would have enjoyed a jug of ale after working the land in Portswood.
I see John Webb living at the ‘Vine Inn’ in 1851 with his wife and six children, John was still running his farm but at the age of 57 perhaps John who had worked the land for years had decided to take life a little easier by running his pub. I last see John Webb running the ‘Vine Inn’ in 1852 where he is listed in the Counties Directory of that year. The Portswood Yeoman John Web died that year of 1852, he was buried on the 7th of April 1852.
John’s Widow Mary along with her son Edmund continued to run the farm and employed men to work the family farm. Mary moved into ‘Vine Cottage’ which sat adjacent to the ‘Vine Inn’ pub, Vine Cottage was the property and family home of the Webb Family, aged 84 the widow Mary Webb died in Portswood on the 10th of August 1882.
Two of John’s sons whilst he was still alive lived in the family home allied to Dad’s farm his son John Webb (junior) worked as a butcher and his son Theodore Webb worked as a Dairyman.
Decades after John’s death the Webb family and extended family members continued to live in Portswood Road working in a variety of professions including Wheel Wrights, Blacksmiths, shop keepers and even ran the Post Office.
The next Landlord of the ‘Vine Inn’ seen is the afore mentioned Joseph Harbut, his story is a little sad.
Joseph Harbut was born in Chilworth, Hampshire around 1808, in the 1840’s Joseph like his father George Harbut was working as a agricultural labour in Chilworth. In 1843 Joseph married French born Marie Louise Pailliorde.
Before Joseph took on the pub I see the couple in 1851 with three children when they were living at number 9 Orchard Terrace in the town, Orchard Terrace in Orchard Place near Queens Park. 42 year old Joseph was at that time working as a ‘Oil and Colourman’, a profession you might associate with the oil or paint trade, however the old profession of a ‘Oil and Colourman ‘ was actually a dealer in the victualling trade.
Joseph Harbut is recorded as running the Vine Inn in the directories of 1855 & 1859, Joseph lost his wife Marie on the 25th of December 1860. Having attended a funeral this week I can say it’s never a nice time to lose a friend or loved but this date of 25th of December 1860 just so happened to be the birth day of their daughter also called Marie, young Marie Harbut was 13 years old that day her mum passed away.
The widower Joseph Harbut had moved by 1861, but not far as he was living in ‘Park Terrace’ which was on the South East corner of Dukes Road not far from the Portswood Hotel (on the top of Bevois Hill) where he worked as a waiter, work he did as the widower Joseph still had to provide for his five children aged 5 to 15 years. Portswood Hotel (pub) as I am sure some are aware became the ‘Hobbit’ Pub.
The Hampshire Advertiser Newspaper recorded that Joseph Harbut after a long and painful illness died on the 9th of May 1870, sadly his place of death was the Union ‘Workhouse’ in West End.
If Joseph was well enough as a inmate of the workhouse he would have been expected to work the land around the workhouse in West End, the old workhouse became Moorgreen Hospital after being taken in by Labours National Health Service. There are still clinics at Moorgreen which nowadays concentrate on Mental Health.
Mr Joseph Harbut landlord of the Vine Inn had gone, his surviving children had to make their own way in what sometimes can be a ‘Cruel Cruel world.’
The next landlord of the ‘Vine Inn’ seen is Mr Charles Allen Clifford, he ran the pub from at least 1860.
Charles Allen Clifford was born in Essex around 1801, by 1860 and at the age of 59 Charles was running the Vine Inn, 1860 was when he and his wife Elizabeth had their son Francis Archer Clifford christened in South Stoneham on the 26th of August 1860. Looking at the Census record of 1861 I see Charles was 60 years old and his wife Elizabeth was 29 years old, their son Francis was 8 months old (Lucky Landlord eh! 
) Charles ran the Vine Inn until at least 1865.
) Charles ran the Vine Inn until at least 1865.A little like Supermarkets that have taken over from smaller independent businesses, the folk at the early ‘Vine Inn’ and others pubs in the Portswood area brewed their own beer, and so were a target for the breweries who would take them over and sell their own beer, one advantage of a brewery taking over a small Inn is that they would often rebuild the pub.
Landlords came and went at this pub I remember, as the years and decades passed at the Vine Inn there are still many a yarn to tell.
The Vine Inn was a Marston’s pub in its later days, in 1979 the company said they wished to improve the toilets at the Vine, from experience I can say the toilets in the little pubs of Portswood were not the best to reach some you actually had to walk outside from the bar, back in 1950 the Ministry of Health required the Vine Inn to improve its toilets. In 1986 Marston’s sought to mount lights around the building so that the pub could better be seen.
My old watering hole has gone now, in 1999 planning permission was sought to build 4 two bedroom flats in a 2 story block, that planning permission was granted and so the Vine Inn which had been present in Portswood road for 150 years was gone.”
