History
The site is on the opposite bank of the river to Southampton Airport, the runway of which is reputedly built over the remains of a Roman villa.
The park was established when over 350 acres (1.4 km2) of the site were acquired by Eastleigh Borough Council in 1979. The visitor centre was built in 1990. In 2010 work started on a Go Ape adventure course in the park, expected to be open to the public in Spring 2011.
Read more about this topic: Itchen Valley Country Park
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The thing that struck me forcefully was the feeling of great age about the place. Standing on that old parade ground, which is now a cricket field, I could feel the dead generations crowding me. Here was the oldest settlement of freedmen in the Western world, no doubt. Men who had thrown off the bands of slavery by their own courage and ingenuity. The courage and daring of the Maroons strike like a purple beam across the history of Jamaica.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)
“Let us not underrate the value of a fact; it will one day flower in a truth. It is astonishing how few facts of importance are added in a century to the natural history of any animal. The natural history of man himself is still being gradually written.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“It takes a great deal of history to produce a little literature.”
—Henry James (1843–1916)