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Registered Charity No 1000447

Latest News...…

July 2024

Membership Information

If a Basingstoke resident why not Join us? - We need your support

Help us by joining the Basingstoke Heritage Society today.

Annual subscription - £5.00 per person, or £6 per household

(Students and under 18’s FREE)

Membership Benefits:

 Quarterly Newsletter

 Occasional free talks, walks and visits to places of local interest

 Opportunity to attend the Society’s monthly Business Meetings & make views known

 Opportunity to contribute to submissions on issues of concern

 Support the protection of your locality from inappropriate development

To download an application form go to the ‘contact us’ page.

Our Aims...…

The Society focuses its attentions on the town centre area of the Borough where residents have no Parish Councillors to represent them. Particular emphasis is on the six conservation areas and any surrounding area likely to impact on the town. Subject to this the Societies objectives are -

●	To promote high standards of planning and architecture.

●	To inform the public in the geography, history, natural history and architecture in the area.

●	To secure the preservation, protection, development and improvement of features of historic or public interest.

General Data Protection Regulations 2018 – please click here for the BHS Data Privacy Policy

Do get in touch - we like to hear from you.

Committee members and Western Red Cedar

After one of our recent meetings and a warm moment in this wettest of summers, we decided to look for trees which would once have been part The Shrubbery planting. You can use this link below to a site which allows you to overlay a modern view onto an historic map. Georeferenced Maps - Map images - National Library of Scotland (nls.uk)

Lime

Holm or Evergreen Oak

• We were surprised to see that Aldworth school is now calling itself The Blue Coat school. Richard Aldworth’s school in Basingstoke founded in Cross Street by his will of 1646, was indeed a Blue Coat School but Blue Coat schools are specific establishments!

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• Debbie did a walk for the Basingstoke Festival which went from Market Place along Winchester Street, up to All Saints’ including the Bounty and Fairfields School and along Southern Road and into War Memorial Park through the Festival of Britain gates, around to Goldings and back along past Deanes Almshouses. It was great that All Saints was open so that the group could see the inside of the church. At the URC the heavens opened and, so close to the end, we called it a day. Thanks to the council for organising the walk and for all those who attended.

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• The blue plaque for Cllr Weston is at the final stage which is to paint the plain metal plaque blue and pick out the lettering. We will have missed the opportunity to fit into this term but hope to get it installed after the school returns.

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This is a horse brass clearly labelled John Wheeler of Basingstoke. His business in Basingstoke is in a Trades’ Directory of 1875 where he has a business as a saddler in Church Street. by 1880 he is recorded as a ‘saddler and harness maker’ with a note that he has been awarded a Certificate of Honour at the Hampshire Exhibition in both 1866 and 1869. He was also a patentee of the celebrated adjustable ladies, gents and military riding saddles. His business was carried on by his sons and shows up in directories until 1935, by then at 60 Wote Street.

Cathy has been in touch with the owners of 83 Lower Church Street. This house was the home of several generations of members of the Ring family – a family of the middling sort in 18th century Basingstoke. It was from John Ring that the Reverend George Austen bought a writing-slope for his daughter, Jane. An item that was very precious to her.

John Ring's house location. A possible workshop was on the east side of Chapel Street.

“A small mahogany writing-desk with a long drawer and glass ink-stand compleat.”

Next year is going to be another big year for Jane Austen as it will be the 250th anniversary year of her birth on 16th December 1775. Steventon, her birthplace, will mark the event with a Festival which will derive in part from a festival held in the village in 1975. We have met with a member of the committee who is organising events for next year and we have agreed to set up an exhibition in Steventon village hall to show what Basingstoke was like at that time and for a few years after, as it changed from a busy coaching town of significance in north Hampshire and became the more industrial town of the early 19th century. We would welcome any members who would like to be involved in that exhibition. It will span 2 weekends 5th -7th July 2025 and the weekend after.

The council are using this quiz (which Basingstoke Heritage Society devised) as part of their offering for young people during August.

But it’s not just for children – it tests your powers of observation!!

For the answers contact Debbie Reavell at reavell25@btinternet.com