The Royal Victoria Hospital was built after the Crimean War and was for wounded and invalid soldiers who were landed on a jetty in front of the hospital. During WWII the building fell into disuse and though part of it were still used as a hospital by the army it was closed and demolished in 1966.

Netley also has the ruins of a Cistercian Abbey from the 13th century and which was founded in the time of Henry III and then suppressed by Henry Viii in the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

'An extensive and inspiring ruin, in a peaceful and beautiful setting. Founded in the 13th century by Peter des Roches, Bishop of Winchester, who also founded Titchfield Abbey, its fate at the Dissolution was to be converted into a private residence. This entailed the destruction of the abbey buildings, but left the walls of the church, including the fine east window. While still ivy-covered and quietly crumbling, the ruins became a source of inspiration for 18th century writers and poets, such as Horace Walpole and Thomas Gray. They came in search of the romantic and the picturesque, and were not disappointed by these fine old ruins.'
http://www.hants.gov.uk/discover/places/netleyabbey.html

Netley Castle stands nearby and this incorporates part of a fort that was built by Henry VIII in 1540, to defend the approach to Southampton, later being converted to a Victorian mansion. The ancient church of Netley is to be found in the village of Hound and is said to have been built by Hamble Priory situated in Hound village, and is said to have been built by Hamble Priory.

The church of St Edward the Confessor

The War Memorial

All that remains today of the Military Hospital is the chapel and the grounds have been made into a country park which is favoured by the local people who flock down here to see various displays that are held on Southampton Waters, like the fly past of Spitfires to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Spitfire in 2006. Hampshire police now have a training area here as well
(see also Hound and Netley)

SOUTHAMPTON WATER FROM THE ROYAL VICTORIA COUNTRY PARK

Ode to Netley
“Within the sheltered centre of the aisle
Beneath the ash whose growth romantic spreads
Its foliage trembling o’er the funeral pile
And all around a deeper darkness sheds
While through yon arch, where the thick ivy twines
Bright on the silvered tower the moon-beam shines
And the grey cloister’s roofless length illumes
Upon the mossy stone I lie reclined
And to a visionary world resigned
Call the pale sceptres forth from the forgotten tombs
But now no more the gleaming forms appear
Within their graves at rest the fathers sleep
And not a sound comes to the wistful ear
Save the low murmur of the tranquil deep
Or from the grass that in luxuriant pride
Waves o’er yon eastern window’s sculptured side
The dew drops bursting on the fretted stone
While faintly from the distant coppice heard
The music of the melancholy bird
Trill to the silent heaven a sweetly plaintive moan”
William Sotheby 1790

VIEWS OF NETLEY ABBEY

HISTORY OF THE ROYAL VICTORIA HOSPITAL NETLEY
NETLEY ABBEY photos and history