BASINGSTOKE

A potted history of the place that started as the offshoot of a larger village, but grew to something much bigger.

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c. 1200 BC: The Iberians (Bronze Age Man) arrive in England. These settlers bring with them a new metal, a copper-iron alloy called bronze. It makes better weapons for killing more enemies quicker. Which they do.

c. 6000 BC: First Celts arrive. The discovery of how to work iron enabled the Celts to improve weapons one stage further, and they swiftly overran most of Europe from their Swiss homelands. The Iberians get crushed by the Celts everywhere except… Iberia (Spain and Portugal).

c. 100-50 BC: A Celtic tribe called the Belgae (from modern Belgium) turns up. They occupy south Hampshire, Wiltshire and north Somerset. Their capital is at Oram’s Arbour, later re-sited slightly to the east at Venta Belgarum (Winchester). A second tribe, the Atrebates, settle at Calleva Atrebatum (Silchester). The two tribes don't exactly get on.

c. 45 AD: After the Roman invasion in 43, a Roman road is built from Londinium (London) via Calleva Atrebatum (Silchester) and Old Sarum (near Salisbury) to Isca Dumnoniorum (Exeter). Silchester soon becomes a major crossroads.

410: Romans leave the area. Celts take over again… for a while. The Atrebates build a defensive fort between the two cities just to the north of Campesette (Kempshott).

c. 530: The Gewissian Kingdom under the Jutish King Cerdic occupies Hampshire, defeating the Atrebates. Silchester is abandoned.

686: The Gewissian kingdom, now includes Dorset, Wiltshire and Devonshire, and is renamed Wessex. It continues to grow. By this time Basing is an established village, possibly founded by one Bassa ('-ing' meant village).

871: Following the West Saxon defeat by the Vikings, their retreating army is defeated at the battle of Basing. Luckily the Vikings don‘t stop to burn the town. They are later defeated by King Alfred the Great at the battle of Martin.

927: Wessex completes the Great Reconquest, and becomes a united England. A second settlement has been founded to the west of Basing, adding the suffix '-stock' (stockade, where animals are kept). For the really slow, it's Basingstock.

1066: The Norman Conquest. Forest laws are tightened up, and punishments for taking anything out of royal forests are having body parts cut off. Your hand, if you’re lucky.

1086: The Domesday Book records the villages in the area as Basinges, Basingstoches, Cleresden (Cliddesden), Odetone (Wootton St. Lawrence), Campesette, Chineham and Sireburn (Sherborne St. John), and notes that Basingstoke is owned by the royal family. Population probably around 200.

1211: Basingstoke gets its first charter as a town in its own right, but has difficulties keeping up payments to the king until a new charter is issued in 1256.

1217: The English barons get young Henry III to sign the Magna Carta (charter guaranteeing their rights) - and they sneakily tack an extra bit on. This Forest Charter makes the rules governing royal forests (covering much of England) less ferocious.

1249: Walter de Merton becomes chancellor to Henry III, and bishop of Rochester (1274). He leaves money for the founding of Merton College (Oxford) and a hospital in Basingstoke (closed before 1700).

1348: The Black Death hits the south of England, wiping out 1/3 of the population. Fields to the north of the town (near Popley) are used to bury the many dead).

1392: A major fire destroys much of the town.

1464: Basingstoke gets a new church, built and added onto over the next fifty years - St. Michael's. It's still there!

1601: Another fire.

1610: A Stuart map shows Basingstoke to be larger than Basing.

1643-5: During the English Civil War, the royalists hold Basing House for two years before finally being overcome. During this time St. Michael's Church is damaged after some gunpowder stored there goes off. Basing House is then destroyed by the parliamentarians.

1656: Yet another fire.

1730s: Turnpike roads bring stagecoaches to Basingstoke. Trade increases.

1795: The author Jane Austen visits Basingstoke to attend balls there.

1798: Basingstoke Canal opens, enabling heavy goods to be carried by water to London.

1801: The first census lists Basingstoke's population as 2,589.

1816: First police force arrives in the town.

1830: The Captain Swing Riots, a rebellion of countrymen against modern machinery, hits the town. Several locals get hung as a result.

1834: Basingstoke gets gas-lighting.

1839: London & Southampton Railway (later the London & South Western Railway) opens to London (it was actually aimed at building a London-Salisbury-Bristol line, which is why it was so far off the straight line between London and Southampton). Basingstoke begins to grow.

1840: L. & S. W. R. extends to Winchester and Southampton.

1849: Great Western Railway line to Reading opens, running from its own station to the north of the present one. The line is broad gauge (tracks about 50% further apart than today) but is soon (1865) converted to standard gauge.

1850s: Thomas Burberry opens a shop in the town and invents - the Burberry (rainproof coat).

1854: L. & S. W. R. extend westwards to Overton, Whitchurch and Andover, reaching Salisbury two years later. Basingstoke is now a major railway junction.

1878: First fire-brigade.

1901: Light railway opens to Alton. It is lifted during World War One (1914-8).

1910: First cinema opens.

1914: Pzzazz! The town gets its first electrical supply.

1916: Railway branch opens to Park Prewett Hospital (later demolished, on what is now the North Hampshire Hospital site).

1932: Basingstoke Great Western Station closed; trains use the Southern Railway station. Light railway to Alton closed, though it briefly becomes famous as the setting for the comedy film Oh Mr. Porter! It's track-bed is later used the western bypass.

1940: 700 children are evacuated to Basingstoke, because the government considers it safe. A mistake, as it is bombed soon after as part of the German campaign to destroy English churches. Note: the Germans complain very loudly about our bombing their cities during World War Two, but seem to somehow 'forget' who started both the town-bombing and the war itself!

1950: Park Prewett and its railway close.

1961: With a shortage of housing after World War Two, Basingstoke is designated an overspill town for London. Its population is 16,000 -but not for long.

1970: Population now 47,000 - up 150% in nine years!

Today: Population around 70,000.

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