Sholing

Sholing, previously Scholing, is a district on the eastern side of the city of Southampton in Southern England. It is located between the districts of Bitterne, Thornhill and Woolston.Various explanations from where the name derives but the most popular is that "Sholing" derives from the Anglo-Saxon phrase for "hill on the shore."The parish church for Sholing, St Mary's, was opened in 1866. The first Vicar, the Rev. Francis Davidson, (the father of the "Rector of Stiffkey" Harold Davidson) remained in place for the first 48 years.In 1920, the village became part of the Borough of Southampton.Sholing has a railway station, opened in 1866, which connects the area to Southampton and Portsmouth.HistoryToponymyThere are various explanations for the origin of the name 'Sholing', spelt 'Scholing' on many old maps. One version is that it means, in Old English, 'the hill above the shore' or 'the hill sloping down to the shore' and it is true that Sholing is indeed on high ground and slopes down towards Southampton Water. However, others think that the ending 'ing' indicates an area where the sons of a man named "Schol" lived. The Old English 'Scēolingas' means 'people associated with somebody called 'Scēolh', a nickname for somebody who was crooked or squint-eyed. Another local Romany explanation is that it comes from the presence of the heather 'ling' when it was mentioned that the area had a 'nice show o' ling"'.