Basingstoke History

Medieval Baskingstoke

At the time of William the Conqueror Basingstoke was quite a large village. It had 3 watermills, which ground flour for the villagers. Soon it grew into a busy little market town. It would seem tiny to us and had less than 1,000 inhabitants but towns were very small in those days. In the Middle Ages Basingstoke had only 4 main streets with Market Square in the centre. North of the Market Square was the main road from London to Winchester. That was a busy road in those days and many people must have stopped in the town and spent their money there.

In 1257 Basingstoke was given a charter. In the Middle Ages a charter was a document giving the people of a town certain rights. It was very important.

Like other towns in Northern Hampshire Basingstoke relied on the wool industry. Wool from local sheep was woven in Basingstoke. Then it was fulled. To clean and thicken the fibres they were pounded in a mixture of clay and water. The wool was pounded by wooden hammers, which were worked by wooden hammers.

In Medieval Basingstoke we would also find the same craftsmen found in any town such as tanners, blacksmiths, carpenters, tailors, bakers and brewers.

Even so some people in Basingstoke was farmers and they grew crops in the fields around the little town. Basingstoke also had a common where the townspeople were allowed to graze their livestock. If we visited Basingstoke in the Middle Ages it would seem like a little village with domestic animals and small huts, but it was busy especially on market days.

In the Middle Ages life expectancy was short and illness was common. The church provided the only hospitals. Basingstoke had a hospital for the sick and poor travellers dedicated to St John the Baptist. Realistically there was probably little the monks could do for the sick but at least they had a place to stay.

Most of the buildings in Medieval Basingstoke were made of wood with thatched roofs so they were vulnerable to fire. In 1392 a dreadful fire broke out in Basingstoke and it destroyed much of the town. However Basingstoke soon recovered and the little town flourished. As a sing of its growing importance the king gave the people of Basingstoke the right to form a corporation and to have their own seal for sealing documents. In 1449 Basingstoke was given the right to hold an annual fair. In those days fairs were like markets but they were held only once a year. People came from far away to attend a Basingstoke fair.

Tudor and Stuart Basingstoke

During the Tudor period and afterwards Basingstoke remained a busy little market town. It was struck by fire again in 1601 but once again quickly recovered. In 1656 the Town Hall burned down but it was rebuilt in 1657.

However during the 17th century the old wool industry in Basingstoke declined.

Then in 1642 the English Civil War began. Most people in Basingstoke supported parliament but the Marquis of Winchester, the owner of Basing House was a royalist.

On 31 July 1643 parliamentary troops tried to capture Basing House but the Marquis and his men were armed and they drove away the Roundheads. The king sent reinforcements to Basing House. To strengthen the house they built earthworks around it.

They were needed in June 1644 when parliamentary troops tried to capture Basing House again but failed. However by 1645 the king was losing the civil war and in October the parliamentary army came again. This time Oliver Cromwell led it. This time Cromwell and his men took Basing House and they looted it.

In the late 17th century Basingstoke was still a busy little market town but the old industry of wool, which had existed for centuries in the town was in decline.

Georgian Basingstoke

In the 18th century the wool trade in Basingstoke continued to fade. Basingstoke remained a quiet market town and by 1800 it had a population of around 2,500. To us it would seem no more than a village but by the standards of the time it was a fair sized town and at the end of the 18th century a canal was built from Basingstoke to Southampton.

In 1722 a workhouse was built in Basingstoke to house the poor. As its name suggests the poor were expected to work if they were capable of doing so!

Otherwise Basingstoke changed little in the 18th century. In other parts of Britain the Industrial Revolution began to transform life but it had little effect on Basingstoke.

Victorian Basingstoke

At the beginning of the 19th century Basingstoke had a population of just over 2,500. By the end of the century it had risen to over 9,500, a huge rise in a space of only 100 years!

However if we visited Basingstoke in the early 19th century (or any other town) we would think it was overcrowded and very dirty. Yet all this gradually changed during the 19th century. Amenities in Basingstoke gradually improved and the town became healthier. From 1816 Basingstoke had a kind of police force, which must have made the streets safer. From 1834 it had gaslight. Lighting the streets with gas made it much safer to go out after dark. There was much less risk of tripping over! Furthermore in 1838 Basingstoke gained its first fire brigade.

Then in 1839 a railway was built from Basingstoke to London. In 1840 the railway was extended to Southampton. In 1848 a railway was built from Basingstoke to Reading. Today we take fast travel for granted but at that time railways must have been a huge benefit to people.

In 1865 the Haymarket was opened. It was a corn exchange where people could buy and sell grain but after a fire in 1925 it was converted to a theatre. Furthermore in 1879 Basingstoke gained a cottage hospital.

New schools were built. A Blue Coat School (so-called because of the colour of the uniforms) opened in Basingstoke in 1862. It was followed by Fairfields School in 1887.

During the 19th century Basingstoke was still a market town but there was some industry. From 1857 boots and shoes were made in Basingstoke and from 1the mid-19th century there was an engineering industry. In 19th century Basingstoke there was an important brewing industry in Basingstoke. However in 1880 the Salvation Army arrived in the town. They were not at all popular with the local people as they were teetotallers. People feared the Salvation Army would be bad for the local brewing industry and they met with much local opposition.

Modern Basingstoke

In the 20th century the market town of Basingstoke continued to grow. Its population reached about 15,000 by the mid-1930s. Amenities in the town continued to improve. The Alton Light Railway opened in 1901. However it was closed in 1936. From 1910 Basingstoke had cinemas and in 1914 the first electricity generating station was built in the town. Basingstoke War Memorial Park opened in 1921. The first Basingstoke Museum opened in 1931.

Then came the Second World War. In 1939 the government planned to evacuate children from cities likely to be bombed by the Germans to more rural areas. About 900 children were evacuated to the market town of Basingstoke and the surrounding communities. Yet Basingstoke did not escape bombing entirely. Six people were killed in August 1940 when bombs hit Church Square. In 1956 a remembrance garden was created on the site of the destroyed houses.

After the Second World War new council house estates were built in Basingstoke. The Oakridge Estate was built shortly after the war and Oakridge Tower was added in 1967. A council estate was also built at West Ham at that time. Private houses were also built after the Second World War. The Berg Estate was built in the late 1950s.

However the fate of Basingstoke was changed forever in 1961 when the government decided to make it an overspill town for London. At that time the government sought to remove part of the population of London to other towns in southern England and Basingstoke was selected. In 1961 the population of Basingstoke was only 16,000 but the government planned to raise it to 75,000 by 1981. About 37,000 of these 'extra' people would be moved to Basingstoke from London.

So in the years after 1961 Basingstoke boomed and it changed from being a market town to being a large, modern community. Around Basingstoke new estates, both council and private were built and by 1971 the population of the town had risen to 47,000. In the 1970s Basingstoke continued to grow. Private houses were built at Brighton Hill and both council and private houses were built at Black Dam.

Furthermore many new industries moved to Basingstoke at that time. New offices and warehouses were built in Basingstoke to accommodate them. Houndsmill industrial estate was built at Basingstoke in the 1960s and in 1973 the AA headquarters opened in the town.

The new enlarged town would, of course need many more shops and a new shopping precinct was built in Basingstoke. The first shops in the new Basingstoke shopping centre opened in November 1968. It had a multi-storey car park for the increasing number of cars in the town. Festival Place Shopping Centre was opened in 2002.

Meanwhile other amenities in Basingstoke continued to improve. A technical college opened in the town in 1970 and Russell Howard Park opened in 1967. In 1970 a new sports centre opened in Basingstoke. It was followed by a new hospital in 1974 and new civic offices in 1975.

Today Basingstoke is a flourishing community of 90,000.