When I first started talking about my intention of creating a dedicated Portsmouth History website, several people suggested that I was re-inventing the wheel, that there were already internet sites that covered the subject - but I begged to disagree, and still do.

Yes, there are sites out there that contain quite a lot of historical information and pictures, but they are not what I would call "comprehensive"; many are specialist sites and one in particular, which covers the history of Portsmouth pubs, past and present, is superb.

With sites such as that, we won't even think about trying to better them, but will simply include a few brief review pages and links to the sites themselves.

There are, however, a few supposedly "comprehensive" sites that I can only assume were left incomplete, perhaps due to pressures of time and in some, the various internal page links haven't worked properly for the past five years to my own knowledge - one even has a link in it that crashes my browser every time I try to click it. Needless to say, I don't even try any more!

That's not to be too critical of what's out there on the web - I know only too well just how large a commitment it is to continue producing interesting material that other people will find equally interesting to read and, as I sit here writing this, I am well aware of the magnitude of the task we are about to undertake with this site. I just hope we are able to stay the course, which might even become a never ending one.

Portsmouth has a wealth of history, but there are times when it can take some digging out; back in the early middle ages, French raiders made a hobby of burning down Old Portsmouth and a lot of records disappeared up in smoke as a result.

Thanks to those early Gallic tourists, much of what is actually known about Portsmouth's early life has had to come from records preserved elsewhere and it's going to be great fun researching those, I can tell you.

However, just in case you think this is starting to sound a bit too serious, don't worry. Yes, we'll be striving for accuracy, of course, but I have always held that history should be fun, a journey of discovery and so it's my intention to make this site entertaining for "historians" of all ages, especially the younger ones, who will take over when we crustier scribes have faded into history ourselves.

I'm hoping that teachers and pupils alike will find this place a valuable resource, as well as writers, professional and amateur alike and, if we make any mistakes, I hope that you will help us correct them as we go.

You can also help us by spreading the word about this site to all your friends, either still in and around Portsmouth, or anywhere in the world they may now be - the positive power of e-mails should never be underestimated.

Our work here has only just started and it is likely to be another month before we have any extensive content in here, although it will be growing on a daily basis. In the meantime, from this page itself I can start us off with a little bit of interest.

The photographs on the right span a century, from 1909 until 2009 and you can see the building which is our base and from which we produced and published the Portsmouth Post magazine for five years.

There's quite a jump from 1909 to 2000, but I think I will shortly have a photograph from the 1930s and I believe that somewhere in my archives is another picture from the late nineteenth century, as well - I'll include those here as soon as I find them again.

Clicking on any of these images will bring up a full page photograph, together with a brief explanatory text - as I said, this is just a little fun starter, close to our own "home" and I'll be including a much more detailed history of the North End area in due course.

Anyone who has any further pictures or documents, please e-mail me; I can assure you I will be most grateful for all the help we get in this massive enterprise.

Well, that's it for now, because the serious work is only just beginning, but I shall be including a sort of "blog" in this site soon, from which I can keep you all up to date with our progress.

Many thanks for your time and interest and I hope you will become a regular visitor and friend to this site.

Time to get all historical ...