| Basingstoke | |
|---|---|
| Town | |
 Clockwise from top: Town centre viewed from Churchill Way at night, The Anvil theatre,Basingstoke railway station,St Michael's Church, high-rise flats in Crown Heights and the AA Building (Fanum House) | |
  Basingstoke Location withinHampshire | |
| Population | 107,642 [1] |
| OS grid reference | SU637523 |
| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | BASINGSTOKE |
| Postcode district | RG21–RG24 |
| Dialling code | 01256 |
| Police | Hampshire and Isle of Wight |
| Fire | Hampshire and Isle of Wight |
| Ambulance | South Central |
| UK Parliament | |
| Website | basingstoke |
| 51°16′00″N1°05′15″W / 51.2667°N 1.0876°W /51.2667; -1.0876 | |
Basingstoke (/ˈbeɪzɪŋstoʊk/BAY-zing-stohk) is a town inHampshire, situated in south-central England across a valley at the source of theRiver Loddon on the western edge of theNorth Downs. It is the largest settlement in Hampshire withoutcity status. It is located 30 miles (48 km) north-east ofSouthampton, 48 miles (77 km) south-west ofLondon, 27 miles (43 km) west ofGuildford, 22 miles (35 km) south ofReading and 20 miles (32 km) north-east of thecounty town and former capitalWinchester. According to the 2021 population estimate, the town had a population of 107,642.[a] It is part of the borough ofBasingstoke and Deane and part of theparliamentary constituency ofBasingstoke.
Basingstoke is an oldmarket town and was mentioned inDomesday Book. At the start of the Second World War, the population was little more than 13,000. and it remained a small market town until the early 1960s. It still has a regular market, but is now larger than Hampshire County Council's definition of a market town.[2]
Basingstoke became an important economic centre during the second world war. It expanded further in the mid-1960s as a result of an agreement betweenLondon County Council andHampshire County Council. It was developed rapidly along with various other towns in the United Kingdom, in order to accommodate part of theLondon 'overspill' as perceived under theGreater London Plan in 1944.[3]
It now houses the UK headquarters ofMotorola,The Automobile Association,De La Rue,Sun Life Financial,ST Ericsson,GAME,Barracuda Networks,Eli Lilly and Company, FCB Halesway part ofFCB, BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions (the leasing arm ofBNP Paribas in the UK) andSony Professional Solutions. It is also the location of the European headquarters of theTaylorMade Golf Company. Other industries includeIT, telecommunications, insurance and electronics.
The name Basingstoke (A.D 990; Embasinga stocæ,[4]Domesday; Basingestoches) is believed to have been derived from the town's position as the outlying, western settlement of Basa's people.[5][b] Basing, nowOld Basing, a village 2 miles (3 km) to the east, is thought to have the same etymology, and was the original Anglo-Saxon settlement of the people –Basingas – led by a tribal chief calledBasa. Basing remained the main settlement until changes in the local church moved the religious base from St Marys Church, Basing, to the church in Basingstoke.[6][7]
A Neolithic campsite of around 3000 BC beside a spring on the west of the town is the earliest known human settlement here, but the Willis Museum has flint implements and axes from nearby fields that date back to Palæolithic times. Thehillfort atWinklebury (2 miles (3 km) west of the town centre), known locally as Winklebury Camp or Winklebury Ring[8] dates from theIron Age and there are remains of several other earthworks around Basingstoke, including along barrow near Down Grange. The site of Winklebury camp was home to Fort Hill Community School (this school has shut down).[9] Nearby, to the west, Roman Road marks the course of aRoman road that ran fromWinchester toSilchester. Further to the east, another Roman road ran fromChichester through the outlying villages ofUpton Grey andMapledurwell. TheHarrow Way is an Iron-ageancient route that runs to the south of the town. The first recorded historical event in the area was the defeat of KingÆthelred of Wessex and his brotherAlfred the Great at Old Basing by the Danes in 871.
Basingstoke is recorded as a weekly market site in theDomesday Book, in 1086, and has held a regular Wednesday market since 1214.[10]During theCivil War, and the siege ofBasing House between 1643 and 1645, the town played host to large numbers ofParliamentarians. During this time,St. Michael's Church was damaged whilst being used as an explosive store[11] and lead was stripped from the roof of the Chapel of the Holy Ghost, Basingstoke[12] leading to its eventual ruin. It had been incorporated in 1524, but was effectively out of use after the Civil War. The 17th century saw serious damage to much of the town and its churches, because of the great fires of 1601 and 1656.Oliver Cromwell is thought to have stayed here towards the end of the siege of Basing House, and wrote a letter to the Speaker of theHouse of Commons addressed from Basingstoke.[13]
The cloth industry appears to have been important in the development of the town until the 17th century, along withmalting.[14]Brewing became important during the 18th and 19th centuries, and the oldest and most successful brewery was May's Brewery, established by Thomas and William May in 1750 in Brook Street.[15][16]
TheLondon and South Western Railway arrived in 1839 from London and, within a year, it was extended toWinchester andSouthampton. In 1848, a rival company, sponsored by theGreat Western Railway built a branch fromReading. In 1854, a line was built toSalisbury by the London and South Western.[17] In the 19th century, Basingstoke began to move into industrial manufacture; Wallis and Haslam (laterWallis & Steevens) began producing agricultural equipment includingthreshing machines in the 1850s, moving into the production of stationarysteam engines in the 1860s and thentraction engines in the 1870s.[18]
Two traders who opened their first shops within a year of each other in the town, went on to become household names nationally: ThomasBurberry in 1856 and Alfred Milward in 1857.[19] Burberry became famous after he inventedGabardine and Milward founded the Milwards chain of shoe shops, which could be found on almost every high street until the 1980s.[20]
John May, a member of the brewery family, was several times mayor of the town. A benefactor to the town, he paid for the building of a drill hall in Sarum Hill for the use of the Hampshire Volunteers (later used as a cinema and then a furniture shop) and a wing for the Cottage Hospital in Hackwood Road. The drill hall was opened in 1885 and also used for concerts and exhibitions. He also bought a piece of open space that was about to be sold for housing and let it at a low rent to the Basingstoke Cricket Club. This cricket ground is still in use and is calledMay's Bounty.[21]
Ordinary citizens were said to be shocked[22] by the emotive,evangelical tactics of theSalvation Army when they arrived in the town in 1880, but the reaction from those employed by the breweries or within thelicensed trade quickly grew more openly hostile. Violent clashes became a regular occurrence.[c] On Sunday 27 March 1881, troops were called upon to break up the conflict after the Mayor had read theRiot Act. The riot and its causes led to questions inParliament and a period of notoriety for the town.[24] The town was described as "Barbarous Basingstoke" by one London newspaper in 1882 but, by March 1882, the disturbances were dying down.[25][26]
In 1898,John Isaac Thornycroft began production ofsteam-powered lorries in the town andThornycroft's quickly grew to become the town's largest employer.[27]
Basingstoke suffered very little bomb damage during the Second World War. A stick of German bombs did fall in the Church Square area on 16 August 1940. On the same day, bombs destroyed part of a row of houses in Burgess Road; six people were killed in the raid.[28] Overall, 13 civilians died from enemy action during the war in the town.[29] After the war, the town had a population of 25,000.[30]
As part of the London Overspill plan, along with places such asAshford andSwindon, Basingstoke was rapidly developed in the late 1960s as anexpanded town, in similar fashion toMilton Keynes. As the population increased, the town produced more figures of national importance, such as the art criticWaldemar Januszczak and the actressElizabeth Hurley. Many office blocks and large estates were built, as well as aring road.[30] The shopping centre was built in phases. The first phase was completed by the 1970s and was later covered in the 1980s, and was known as The Walks. The second phase was completed by the early 1980s, and becameThe Malls. The third phase was abandoned and the site was later used to buildthe Anvil concert hall.[31] The central part of the shopping centre was rebuilt in 2002 and reopened asFestival Place. This has brought a dramatic improvement to shoppers' opinions of the town centre.[30][32]
Situated in a valley through theHampshire Downs at an average elevation of 88 metres (289 ft),[33] Basingstoke is a major interchange betweenReading,Newbury,Andover,Winchester andAlton. It lies on the naturaltrade route between the south-west ofEngland andLondon. The area had been something of an interchange even in ancient times. It had been cut by a Roman roadway that ran from north-east to south-west, from Silchester towards Salisbury (Sorbiodunum), and by another Roman road that linked Silchester (Calleva Atrebatum) in the north with Winchester (Venta Belgarum) to the south. These cross-cutting highways, along with the good agricultural land hereabouts, account for the manyRoman villas in the area, mostly put up by Romanized native nobility. Even more ancient was the Harrow Way, a Neolithic trackway, possibly associated with the ancient tin trade, that crossed all of southern England from west to east, from Cornwall to Kent, passing right through Andover and Basingstoke.
Basingstoke has no single boundary that encompasses all the areas contiguous to its development. The unparished area of the town represents its bulk, but several areas popularly considered part of the town are separate parishes, namelyChineham,Rooksdown, and parts ofOld Basing and Lychpit.[34] The unparished area includesWorting, which was previously a separate village and parish,[35]extending beyond Roman Road and Old Kempshott Lane, which might otherwise be considered the town's 'natural' western extremity.
Basingstoke is situated on a bed ofcretaceousupper chalk with small areas of clayey and loamy soil, inset with combinedclay and flint patches.Loam andalluviumrecent andpleistocene sediments line the bed of the river Loddon. A narrow line of tertiaryReading beds run diagonally from the north-west to the south-east along a line fromSherborne St John through Popley,Daneshill and the north part ofBasing. To the north of this line, encompassing the areas of Chineham and Pyotts Hill, isLondon clay, which has in the past allowed excavation for high quality brick and tile manufacture.[36]
Basingstoke's expansion has absorbed much surrounding farmland and scattered housing, transforming it intohousing estates or local districts. Many of these new estates are designed as almost self-contained communities, such as Lychpit, Chineham, Popley,Winklebury,Oakridge,Kempshott,Brighton Hill,Viables,South Ham, Black Dam,Buckskin and South Ham Extension andHatch Warren. TheM3 acts as a buffer zone to the south of the town, and theSouth West Main Line constrains the western expansion, with agreen belt to the north and north-east. The villages ofCliddesden,Dummer,Sherborne St John andOakley, although being very close to the town limits, are distinct parishes. Popley, Hatch Warren andBeggarwood saw rapid growth in housing in the mid to late 2000s.[37][38]
The population of Basingstoke increased from around 2,500 in 1801 to over 52,000 in 1971; the most significant growth occurring during the latter half of the 20th century.[39] The borough of Basingstoke was merged with other local districts in 1974 to form the borough ofBasingstoke and Deane; census data from that point covers the whole borough.
Figures published for theUK census in 2011 for the Borough of Basingstoke and Deane give a population of 167,799 and a population density of 2.7 persons per hectare—only about half the national figure.[40] The number of women slightly exceeded that of men and a slight increase in the percentage of residents over 65 was also noted.[41] Among other findings in 2001 were that 74.33% felt they were in good health, 50.98% were economically active full-time employees (over 10% higher than the national average) and 48.73% were buying their property with a mortgage or loan (almost 10% higher than the national average).[40]Amongst the working population, 64.2% travelled less than 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) to work.[42] The biggest percentage of employees, 17.67%, worked in real estate, renting and business activities.[43]
Basingstoke is part of a two-tier local government structure and returns county councillors toHampshire County Council. It is the third largest settlement in theceremonial county, but when the cities of Southampton andPortsmouth attainedunitary authority status in 1998, Basingstoke became the largest settlement in thecounty administered by the county council.[44][45]
Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council is the lower-tierlocal authority for the town, and has its offices in the town centre.Elections to the council take place in three out of every four years.
Under thetown twinning scheme, the local council have twinned Basingstoke withAlençon in France,[46]Braine-l'Alleud in Belgium andEuskirchen in Germany.[47]
The Top of Town is the historic heart of Basingstoke, housing theWillis Museum[48] in the formerTown Hall building (rebuilt 1832) as well as several locally run shops and themarket place.
Basingstoke is home to two theatrical organisations: the Haymarket, which is situated in the formerCorn Exchange, andThe Anvil,[49] which is near to the railway station.
The Willis Museum was founded and directed by Alderman George W. Willis, a local clocksmith, who served as Mayor of Basingstoke in 1923–24. Willis established the museum in 1931 with much public support, and built its holdings up into a major collection on local history, with a particularly extensive collection of prehistoric implements and of antique clocks and watches. His association with the expanding museum continued for forty years. The museum's central location today is whereJane Austen and her sister used to go to dances; a statue of Jane Austen was installed outside the museum in 2017, on the 200th anniversary of her death.[50] Although ostensibly set in Hertford, Austen's novelPride and Prejudice, written in 1797, is thought to have been based on her view of Basingstoke society two centuries ago.[citation needed]
The major shopping area isFestival Place, which opened in October 2002. Festival Place gave a huge boost to the town centre, transforming and replacing what was the former The Walks shopping centre and the New Market Square.[51] Aside from a wide range of shops, there is also a range of cafés and restaurants as well as a large multiscreenVue cinema (formerlySter Century from Festival Place's opening until their takeover in 2005; the pre-existing Vue in the Leisure Park was sold toOdeon).[52]
The Malls is a shopping area linked by a gateway entrance to the rail station. It had declined since the opening of Festival Place and the closure of itsAllders department store. The leasehold was purchased in 2004 by theSt Modwen development group, in partnership with the Kuwait property investment company Salhia Real Estate, with provision for redevelopment[53] The redevelopment of The Malls started in late 2010. A clear roof canopy was installed to protect the Malls from bad weather while still allowing natural light and air in. The Malls has been repaved and new street furniture installed. The redevelopment was completed in the last quarter of 2011, carried out byWates Group using a variety of subcontractors.[54]
A largeWaitrose store is located near the station. It was built in November 2015 as part of the redevelopment of Basing View. The John Lewis at Home store at Basing View closed in 2021 due to financial losses worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic and a shift toward online shopping, as part of a company-wide closure of loss-making stores.[55]
The town's nightlife is split between the new Festival Square and the traditional hostelries at the Top of Town, with a few local communitypubs outside the central area. The town has four nightclubs: two in the town itself, one on the east side and one2 miles (3.2 km) out to the west.
The Basingstoke Sports Centre is located in Portchester Square. The sports centre has a subterranean swimming pool,sauna,jacuzzi and steam room. Above ground there is a gym, aerobics studios, squash courts and main hall. There is also an Ofsted-registered crèche.[56]
Outside the town centre there is a leisure park featuring the Aquadrome swimming pool (recently refurbished), which opened in May 2002.[57] Also located at the leisure park are an ice rink, a bowling alley, an indoor sky-diving centre with ski and surf machines, aBingo club and a ten-screenOdeon (formerly Vue prior to the takeover of the Ster Century cinema in Festival Place, and before that, Warner-Village)cinema, as well as a restaurant and fast food outlets. The leisure park is home to theMilestones Museum, a living history museum which contains a network of streets and buildings based on the history ofHampshire.
The town has anfootball club,Basingstoke Town F.C., theBasingstoke Rugby Football Club and theBasingstoke Bisonice hockey team. There is also a swimming team,[58] known as the Basingstoke Bluefins and an American Flag Football Team, known as theBasingstoke Zombie Horde.[59] Further sporting organisations in the area include Basingstoke & Mid Hants Athletic Club,[60] Basingstoke Demons Floorball Club, Basingstoke Volleyball Club, Basingstoke Bulls Korfball Club andLasham Gliding Society. The home ground of Basingstoke & North Hants Cricket Club, Mays Bounty, was used once a season byHampshire County Cricket Club until 2000.[61][62][63][64]
Basingstoke has a wide diversity for musical groups ranging frombrass bands tosymphony orchestras.[65] The Basingstoke Concert Band is a traditional wind band which has now been in existence for more than 35 years.[65] The band was started in 1977 by Lawrie Shaw when Brighton Hill Community School opened, where he was the first headteacher. Shaw formed the band as an evening class for amateur wind players and it was then known as the Brighton Hill Centre Band.[66]
There are two local newspapers: theBasingstoke Gazette and theBasingstoke Observer. The town is also covered by the broadsheet newspaperHampshire Chronicle.
Local TV coverage is provided byBBC South andITV Meridian, withBBC London andITV London also received in the town.
Basingstoke is served by three regional radio stations:
The town has coverage fromdigital radio; theBBC, Independent National and Now Readingmultiplexes can be received in the town;[67] the outskirts can also receive London and South Hampshire stations.[68][69] The BBC national stations and DAB coverage is enhanced by a small relay just south of the town centre.[citation needed]
The local radio station isHHCR - Basingstoke's Community Radio, an internet-based broadcaster opened on 3 June 2019 by Cllr Diane Taylor Mayor of Basingstoke and Deane.[70]
The Holy Ghost School (subsequentlyQueen Mary's School for Boys) was a state fundedgrammar school operating in Basingstoke for four centuries, from 1556 until 1970, producing nationally recognised alumni such as Revd.Gilbert White (1720–1793), a pioneer naturalist, and the famed cricket commentator,John Arlott (1914–1991).
In modern times, education in Basingstoke has been co-ordinated byHampshire County Council. Each neighbourhood in the town has at least one primary school, while secondary schools are distributed around the town on larger campuses. Basingstoke has two largefurther education colleges: asixth form college,Queen Mary's College (QMC) andBasingstoke College of Technology (BCoT). TheUniversity of Winchester had a campus in Basingstoke (Chute House Campus) which closed in July 2011; it had offered full-time and part-time university courses in subjects including childhood studies, various management pathways, community development and creative industries.Bournemouth University's health and social care students can work on placement at theNorth Hampshire Hospital.[71] The hospital only caters for midwifery students.[72]
Basingstoke railway station is served by three lines:
The town was also the terminus of the formerBasingstoke and Alton Light Railway.
Basingstoke is situated close to junctions 6, 7 and 8 of theM3 motorway; it skirts the town's south-eastern edge, linking the town to London, Southampton and the South West. The central area of the town is encircled by The Ringway, aring road constructed in the 1960s, and is bisected east to west by the A3010 (Churchill Way). TheA33 runs north-east to Reading and theM4 motorway, and south-west to Winchester.[76] TheA30 runs east to Hook and west to Salisbury. The A303 toWiltshire and the West Country begins a few miles south-west of Basingstoke, sharing the first few miles with the A30. On the M3, there is a flyover, which passes over the slip road to A303, near Junction 8. The A339 runs south-east to Alton and north-west to Newbury.
Most services in the town operate from Basingstoke bus station. TheStagecoach Group, through theirStagecoach in Hampshire sub-division, is the largest operator.[77] Basingstoke Community Transport and Communities First Wessex run some smaller routes.[78][79]
A peak-time service is provided byThames Valley Buses between Chineham Business Park and the railway station.[80]National Express offers direct coach services to London and Southampton.
Separating cyclists from other road traffic was not part of the remit of the 1960s town redevelopment and, in 1996, the perception of provision for cyclists was very poor.[81] Following the Basingstoke Area Cycling Strategy in 1999[82] an extensive cycle network was developed,[83] mainly utilising on-road routes or off-road routes that run parallel with and directly alongside roads. Basingstoke was linked to Reading on theNational Cycle Network route 23 in May 2003; the route was extended south to Alton and Alresford in April 2006.
TheBasingstoke Canal started at a canal basin, roughly where the cinema in Festival Place is located. From there the canal ran alongside theRiver Loddon following the line of Eastrop Way. The old canal route passes under the perimeter ring road and then follows a long loop partly on an embankment to pass over small streams and water meadows towardsOld Basing, where the route goes around the ruins ofBasing House and then through and around the eastern edge of Old Basing. It followed another loop to go over small streams near the Hatch public house (a lot of this section was built over when constructing the M3) and headed across fields on an embankment towardsMapledurwell. The section of the canal fromUp Nately to the western entrance of theGreywell Tunnel still exists and is a nature reserve; there is water in the canal and the canal towpath can be walked. A permissive footpath at the western entrance to the tunnel allows walkers to access public footpaths to get to the eastern entrance of the tunnel. The limit of navigation is about 500m east of the Greywell Tunnel. The renovated sections of the canal can then be navigated east towardsWest Byfleet where it joins theWey Navigation, which itself can be navigated to the RiverThames atWeybridge.
Aims to reconnect the town with the surviving sections of the Basingstoke Canal have been beset with difficulties,[84] and actual restoration of a canal link is impossible. The Basingstoke Canal Society aspire to re-establish the route of the lost section of the canal as closely as possible with a footpath and cycleway.[85]
Basingstoke istwinned with:
"Basingstoke" is a code word inGilbert and Sullivan's 1887 comic operaRuddigore, used by the "bad baronet" after he reforms, to remind his bride "Mad Margaret" of their plan to live lives of boring respectability.[94] In 1895,Thomas Hardy referred to Basingstoke as "Stoke Barehills" inJude the Obscure.
Basingstoke'sNorth Hampshire Hospital was one of two hospitals used for the filming ofChannel 4's hit comedyGreen Wing.[95]George Formby's film,He Snoops to Conquer was partly shot in the town in 1944 and in 1974 theNational Film Board of Canada produced a documentary here calledBasingstoke – Runcorn: British New Towns. The former Park Prewett Mental Hospital was the setting for the novelPoison in the Shade (1953), by Eric Benfield, a local author and sculptor who worked as an art therapist at that hospital. Parts of the upcomingMCU filmSpider-Man: Brand New Day is being filmed in Basingstoke, with filming expected to continue through early October.[96]
Patrick Wilde's 1993 play,What's Wrong with Angry?, is set in Basingstoke. It was later adapted into the 1998 film,Get Real, which was filmed at various locations around Basingstoke.[97]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
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