Eastleigh has seen a rapid and controlled expansion in residential, industrial and commercial development over recent years.

Eastleigh has two further education colleges, Barton Peveril College ( the alma mater of Colin Firth ) and Eastleigh College ( both on the same road ).

Eastleigh has a tradition of close contests, and Huhne narrowly beat the Conservative candidate Conor Burns with the second lowest swing against the Liberal Democrats of any seat with a retiring MP ( 2. 6 %).

The appearance of a large number of withdrawn Victoria line vehicles of 1967 stock at Eastleigh works during mid 2011 has fuelled speculation that these may be the next generation of Island line trains.

It is also linked by ferry to Warsash, and has some bus services to Southampton and Eastleigh.

A community theatre / cinema ( The WAVE ) has been built at Wildern School with support from Eastleigh Borough Council.

The route has been promoted by the Eastleigh Group of the Ramblers with grant aid from Hampshire County Council and Eastleigh Borough Council.

It had been closed since 1969 and is now has an hourly service by South West Trains, running from Romsey to Salisbury via Chandler's Ford, Eastleigh and Southampton, and stopping at all stations in between.

With funding from the Football Foundation and Eastleigh Borough Council, the facility has undergone significant improvement.

It has an hourly service in each direction which runs a ' figure of six ' route from Romsey to Salisbury, running from Romsey via Eastleigh and Southampton before re-visiting Romsey and continuing to Salisbury.

At the 1992 general election, Milligan was elected as Member of Parliament for Eastleigh with a majority of 17, 702.

* Black Velvet Travel, which operates a bus company in Eastleigh, Southampton

Local bus services in Eastleigh are primarily operated by Solent Blue Line, with other operators including First Hampshire & Dorset and Stagecoach Group.

For more details about bus routes in the Borough of Eastleigh see List of bus routes in Eastleigh & Romsey

The Southern Vectis acquisition brought with it Eastleigh based bus operator Solent Blue Line.

* Velvet ( bus company ) based in Eastleigh, near Southampton, in England

Twyford is served by several regular bus routes, operated by Bluestar ( bus company ) and Stagecoach Group among others, linking the village with Winchester, Eastleigh, Southampton and Fareham.

The line was extended to Havant in the 1850s as a speculative venture, backed by Portsmouth townspeople frustrated with the circuitous routes via Eastleigh or Brighton.

Subsequently some of the routes considered were indeed electrified ; other routes mentioned included South Croydon-Oxted-East Grinstead * ( 1987 ), Bournemouth-Weymouth ( 1988 ), Hilsea / Farlington Junction-St Denys / Eastleigh ( 1990 ) and Redhill-Tonbridge ( at the time the furthest extent of North Downs Line services, in 1994 ).

Southampton Airport is served by a dedicated mainline railway station, Southampton Airport Parkway, which is the next station stop ( 5 minutes ) from Eastleigh railway station.

Eastleigh is served by Eastleigh railway station, a mainline station on the South Western Main Line from London Waterloo ( just 66 minutes away ) and Winchester to Southampton, Bournemouth and Poole, with a fast and frequent service to those places.

There are seven railway stations in the borough, served by the South Western Main Line, the Eastleigh to Romsey Line, the Eastleigh to Fareham Line, the West Coastway Line and the Cross Country Route.

The station is located on the Eastleigh to Fareham line, and is served by regular trains to London Waterloo and Portsmouth Harbour operated by South West Trains.

By 1935 part of the site was being used by the Fleet Air Arm of the RAF and was briefly known as RAF Eastleigh before it became RAF Southampton in 1936.

Netley's fresh water was supplied by two aqueducts which ran for several miles east and west of the abbey, up into the areas of modern Southampton and Eastleigh.

Eastleigh is home to many businesses, including a manufacturing plant owned by Prysmian Cables & Systems ( formerly the cables division of Pirelli ).

The borough of Eastleigh was ranked the " 9th best place to live in the UK 2006 " by a Channel 4 programme.

The largest was Eastleigh, which was built by the LSWR in 1909 to replace the cramped Nine Elms Locomotive Works in South London.

For operation at Southampton Docks the Class was based in the former steam shed in the Old Docks near the River Itchen, work being carried out there by a fitter sent from Eastleigh.

* 07007-In use by Knights Rail Services Ltd at Eastleigh Works.

* An essay entitled " William Gilbert ( 1804 – 1890 ) of Bishopstoke " by a local historian can be viewed at Hampshire County Council, North Walls, Winchester Library, Eastleigh Museum and Eastleigh Library, which lists all of Gilbert's known works.

Nowadays, the village can be easily accessed from Eastleigh and Fareham by train.

Dream 107. 2 was a local adult contemporary radio station, primarily serving Winchester, Eastleigh and their conurbations, owned by the Tindle Radio Group.

2004 / 05 saw Leyton finish fifth in the Isthmian Premier Division and reach the final of the play-offs for promotion to the Conference South, but the Lilywhites were beaten 2-1 in the final by Eastleigh.

During the construction of the new stands, a construction worker was crushed to death in February 2009, while prior to the Test match the new access road still had not been constructed ; meanwhile legal action by local hoteliers led to the construction of the hotel at the Northern End being put on hold, with the hoteliers objecting to the possible impact on competition and the use of public funds from Eastleigh Borough Council to fund its construction.

Hampshire found themselves £ 12 million in debt by the end of the 2011 season ; with the county unable to maintain the upkeep of the ground with their own finances, the decision was taken to sell the ground to Eastleigh Borough Council, with the council completing the purchase in January 2012.

While all the other carriages for these units were built by the SR at its Eastleigh Works, the Trailer First carriages ( which were laid out as dining cars ) were built by the Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Company ( BRCW ) and the Trailer Restaurant Kitchen Third carriages by Metropolitan Cammell.

Following Hampshire County Cricket Club finding itself in financial trouble in 2011, the ground was sold to Eastleigh Borough Council for £ 6. 5 million in January 2012.

But it was to be followed by a string of heavy defeats at home 5 – 0 and 6 – 2 against Eastleigh & Bishop's Stortford.

The substantial boiler design was also different to the parallel version used on the H15, and became the first tapered types to be constructed at Eastleigh Works.

Locomotives were constructed and maintained at works inherited from constituent companies at Eastleigh, Ashford and Brighton.

Numbers allocated to the locomotives were a variation of LSWR practice and, being constructed at Eastleigh, were given the prefix " E " before the number to distinguish from the locomotives of other pre-grouping railway companies that also carried the same number.