BASINGSTOKE HERITAGE SOCIETY

Basingstoke Heritage Society
News for Members no 80
June 2009

Canal Track Walk

Steven Pugh will be leading the annual Canal Track Walk for BDBC on Saturday 24th Oct

The walk will be from Eastrop to Greywell Tunnel West End

Meet at Eastrop Roundabout Fountains, Eastrop Lane at 9:45am

Walk approx 8 miles - back to town by 4:30pm return journey is by bus - fare approx £5.00.

Bring a packed lunch and plenty of liquids - wear appropriate footwear and clothing for field and countryside. Walkers must be have good health due to distance and inclines and able to walk the full distance of 8miles. No children. Must pre book due to restricted number of 30 persons.

Tel Steven 01256 358715 after 6.30pm.

Walk is free !

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HERITAGE OPEN DAY

Plans for Sunday September 13th are well under way – in spite of the collapse of The Civic Trust which caused some anxiety. However, management of the Heritage Open Days Scheme has been taken on by English Heritage so all is well. We have been awarded £200 by Destination Basingstoke so are off to the Place to be Proud of Awards on 28 June to be presented with our cheque. We asked for this money to enable the Proteans theatre group to put on a performance at the Open Day.

We have a good lot of volunteers, but more hands to the pump would be great. If you can spare even an hour on that Sunday, please let Debbie know. If you have already been in touch with us, then we will be contacting you over the next month or so to discuss what you would like to do to help on the day.

We are currently working on a trail for the day and are hoping that people will volunteer to act as stewards.

Even if you are not able to help, then put the date in your calendar and tell your friends and neighbours so that they can come along on the day and discover the history of this lovely site.

And bring your grandchildren too – we will have a trail for children, which will include the natural history of the site which is currently full of rabbits!

SOCIETY ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

The illustrated talk by Heather Needham, Principal Archivist at the Hampshire Record Office was fascinating and was enjoyed by nearly 60 people squashed into quite a small room at the Willis Museum. We hope you weren’t too hot and uncomfortable and we were delighted to see so many people. Heather’s talk just gave us a glimpse into the wonderful collection of photos at Winchester many of them by Terry Hunt who photographed Basingstoke over a long career. He was born in 1883 and came to Basingstoke to set up a photographic business. He died in 1949. Terry Hunt’s archive can be found on the HRO website using reference HPP38.

The AGM resulted in some changes to our committee. Hannah Williams, who had generously stepped into the breach last year and had taken over the Chairmanship until the AGM, resigned her post and Ian Williams is now our new Chairman. Colin Williams remains as Vice-Chairman and they are not related!

Other officers remain as before: Cathy Williams is Treasurer and has taken over as Membership Secretary, Debbie Reavell is Secretary and the rest of the committee were re-elected en bloc: Peter Davis, Gordon Bulpitt, Hannah Williams, Nicola Williams, Clive Lawson, Terry Tilley (Tree Warden), Tim Lehane, Chris Comer, Andrew Benson-Wilson.

Colin presented the framed photo of the ‘Monteith’ together with a map of the Basingstoke Racecourse at Kempshott Down to the museum and it will go on show when the Basingstoke Gallery is arranged.

Other Matters

=>South View - a large proposal for the land north of the railway some of which belongs to the council and some is railway land. It includes all the area north of the station from Vyne Road eastwards across the car parks and former allotment land and includes the Vyne Meadow Car Park. This area is all small roads and development on the scale proposed will really need a better route under or over the railway.

=>The Willis Museum - we were delighted to be among the first users of the recently refurbished museum. The newly enlarged exhibition space is excellent and gives a proper idea of the intentions of the architect, Lewis Wyatt.

=>Tree Wardens - reported that disease-resistant elms, raised on the tree wardens’ allotment have been planted at Crabtree to support the colonies of White Letter Hairstreak Butterflies which are to be found there

=>Talks to other clubs and societies - five talks to other societies and one walk have been arranged for this year or already taken place.

=> A website called Hantsphere - has lots of old photos of the town – well worth a look.

All members are welcome to attend meetings of the society.

At most meetings we consider planning applications which fall within the area of concern to the society and agree comments.

Next meetings - July 2 (there may not be an August meeting – phone for details) at Queen Mary’s College (go in at the main entrance and reception will guide you to the room) at 7.30.

For further information contact Debbie Reavell on 01256 473390
or by e-mail