Hythe Vacation Rentals

Hythe is a quiet former fishing village situated on the Western banks of Southampton Water, Hampshire, United Kingdom. The meaning of Hythe is "A landing place" and the original landing place in Hythe is still visible if not continually used since the beginnings of the construction of the Hythe Pier in 1879 Originally before the pier was built "Werrymen" carried passengers & luggage from the Hythe Hard to Southampton Quay. The conservation village has now market town status but still retains all the characteristics of a friendly small village with many family run businesses still operating from the High Street. Locally fishing boats catch sea bass for the village restaurants and the local clams a often in abundance with many being exported to Europe. The New Forest National Park boarder are just 2 miles from Hythe town centre and the forests beauty attracts visitors to Hythe where with fortune they may catch a glimpse of the frequent summer cruise/passenger liners passing Hythe waterfront as they make their inward and outward Southampton Port journeys . Hythe being in Southampton Water has the benefit of a double high tide each day extending the length of high water access to many of the sedge shorelines where wildlife is in abundance. The second high tide of the Solent and Southampton Water is the only known existence in the World and is created firstly by the surge of the incoming tidal range flowing from Cornwall via the Cherbourg peninsular then the Eastern end of the Isle of Wight to the Solent & Southampton Water followed by a secondary tide created by the outgoing tide from Dover being restricted by Hurst Point on the Isle of Wight causing a holding up & back of the tide. In the past Hythe was used as a "Duty Free" landing hard where goods were landed free of duty and delivered to Southampton for sale. It connections with the navy lasted for generations and the local boat yards have built craft of all designs from the famous high speed 2nd World War RAF launches to the local former resident, Sir Christopher Cockerell, various hovercrafts. As early as 1918 Hythe began to use the foreshore to build seaplanes and in the 1930's Imperial Airways used Hythe as it base for the 'Flying Boats' services and as late as 1950 the craft could be seen taking off from the foreshore to the South of Hythe. Throughout all of the drama of Laurence of Arabia, yet another former, local resident Hythe has remained a quiet backwater where locals still sit & chat at the end of a day whilst the sun goes down over the upper reaches of Southampton Water. To many Hythe is just home. "Hythe, where the Forest meet the Sea" Just the place to see the rest of the World go by whilst relaxing to the sounds of the many variety of land & sea birds song over the lapping and rippling of ever rising and falling tides