Post-war suburban expansion begins in earnest

c. 1958

The late 1950s saw the first significant housing developments in the Locks Heath area, as the post-war housing shortage and the growth of Fareham created pressure for new residential land. Individual strawberry growers began selling their plots to housebuilders, and the first estate roads and new houses appeared in the fields. These early developments were modest in scale, filling individual smallholdings with short streets of new houses. The transformation was initially gradual, with working strawberry fields still visible between the new housing. But the pace accelerated through the 1960s as more growers recognised that their land was worth more for building than for farming. The seeds of the suburban village were being planted in soil that had recently supported strawberry plants.