Originally Bridgemary was a scattering of farms but has grown over the last half century and has a population recorded in 1991 of 6,685. The area between Rowner and Fareham has changed dramatically with large housing estates being built thre and much of it by the local council.

The older houses were built by German prisoners of war at the end of the war and a large section was prefabricated. The area has continued to grow and there are now many private housing estates there and amenities and communications have made life easier, there is also some light industry. Bridgemary is now regarded as a dormitory area of Gosport with a large indigenous population that commute to work in Gosport, Fareham, Portsmouth and in some cases up to London

Elson also has almost been swallowed up by Gosport though up to the Second World war it was still a true rural area. Elson goes back to a time before either Gosport or even Portsmouth had been founded and it is mentioned in records before the Domesday Survey of 1086, in fact a Royal Saxon Charter of Alverstoke dated AD948 describes the boundaries and at one point they run along 'the meadows of the people of Aethelswithetun', which as shown above is the old name of Elson. This was the only settlement between the harbour entrance and the town of Fareham up to the 12th century, the time the Norman Prior of St Swithun built the Priory Home farm at Hardway. There was a jetty and wharves for the transporting of both cargo and passengers across the channel to Normandy, this was known as Popes Walk. But it collapsed into the sea at the start of the 20th century.

Local folklore has it htat King Alfred granted this little retreat which nestles on the western shore of Portsmouth harbour as a present to either his mother or wife.

The markets at 'Godsport' as the small peninsula by the entrance to Portsmouth harbour was called was granted by Henry de Blois after the brother of King Stephen was rescued by the local fishermen when he was involved in a shipwreck in the Solent, and in 1204 Bishop Godfrey de Luce put his signature to a charter which  endowed Winchester Cathedra l'all the trading profits which can reasonably be derived from the village newly built upon the harbour in the manor of Alverstoke'.