Registered Charity No 1000447
Latest News...…
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
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 -
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To promote high standards of planning and architecture.
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To inform the public in the geography, history, natural history and architecture in the area.
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To secure the preservation, protection, development and improvement of features of historic or public interest.
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General Data Protection Regulations 2018 – please click here for the BHS Data Privacy Policy
Do get in touch - we like to hear from you.
The Basingstoke Heritage Society works with the following kindred organisations. . Simply click on their name to establish links to their own web sites.
Basingstoke & Deane Borough Council
The Basingstoke Willis Museum
Milestones Museum
The Friends of the Willis Museum
The Basingstoke Archaeological & Historical Society
Destination Basingstoke
The Surrey & Hampshire Canal Society
Civic Voice
The Hampshire Building Preservation Trust
The Viables Community Association
The Brookvale Community Association
The Vyne at Sherborne St John
The Basingstoke War Memorial - Regimental details, grave locations and home addresses of men listed on the town memorial
Basingstoke & Deane Borough Council
The Basingstoke Willis Museum
Milestones Museum
The Friends of the Willis Museum
The Basingstoke Archaeological & Historical Society
Destination Basingstoke
The Surrey & Hampshire Canal Society
Civic Voice
The Hampshire Building Preservation Trust
The Viables Community Association
The Brookvale Community Association
The Vyne at Sherborne St John
The Basingstoke War Memorial -
You can follow and contact us on facebook by following this link.
Jane Austen in Steventon.
This is the display whi
ch we were delighted to put up in Steventon Village Hall. We were able to be there on the first two weekends in July. The main event – Jane Austen’s Country Fair was on the 6th July but it was ticketed and limited, so many fans came to the village anyway. We met Jane Austen fans from all over the world who had come for the Country Fair and were visiting all the ‘Jane’ sites in the country. Of course, we think that Steventon and Basingstoke were highly significant sites for the first 25 years of her life. The display is now in The Discovery Centre, but it is over near the Local Studies section and not presented in the right order, but at least it is there.
ch we were delighted to put up in Steventon Village Hall. We were able to be there on the first two weekends in July. The main event – Jane Austen’s Country Fair was on the 6th July but it was ticketed and limited, so many fans came to the village anyway. We met Jane Austen fans from all over the world who had come for the Country Fair and were visiting all the ‘Jane’ sites in the country. Of course, we think that Steventon and Basingstoke were highly significant sites for the first 25 years of her life. The display is now in The Discovery Centre, but it is over near the Local Studies section and not presented in the right order, but at least it is there.
50 years ago, the village had celebrated with a similar great fair and that had included a First Day Cover sent from the village hall by Mail Coach to the Beach Arms, where the the envelopes were put into a red Royal Mail van.
Our next blue plaque … …
On Friday December 5th at 11 we will unveil our latest blue plaque – the 25th. It will go onto 83 Lower Church Street. This was the home of John Ring, who sold household goods to the great and middling sort in the 18th century. We are delighted that Cllr Colin Phillimore, Mayor of Basingstoke and Deane, will attend. It was on this day in 1794 that the Reverend Austen made the purchase. Jane Austen wrote about her writing desk, which was a treasured possession and would have been made at Ring’s workshop. Please come if you can.
On Friday December 5th at 11 we will unveil our latest blue plaque – the 25th. It will go onto 83 Lower Church Street. This was the home of John Ring, who sold household goods to the great and middling sort in the 18th century. We are delighted that Cllr Colin Phillimore, Mayor of Basingstoke and Deane, will attend. It was on this day in 1794 that the Reverend Austen made the purchase. Jane Austen wrote about her writing desk, which was a treasured possession and would have been made at Ring’s workshop. Please come if you can.
The VCH (Victoria County History Project) launched their latest book on 14th June in Church Cottage. It really is a great addition to their work. It is clearly written and adds so much to this moment, when with the imminent arrival of the railway in 1839, the town went through momentous change. Sixty years later, the decision by J.I. Thornycroft to bring his steam lorry business to land west of the town brought in workers from far and wide. The town had suffered from the collapse of the coaching trade as the railway took over their business and coaching inns went bankrupt. Well worth adding to your bookshelf!
You have prob
ably read that if Great Wolf Water Parks do move to Worting Road, then the golf facility will require a new home. Down Grange, already substantially occupied by sports clubs may be the new site. We would oppose any development between the house and Winchester Road. Down Grange is Listed Grade 2. The curtilage of a Listed Building has protection.
ably read that if Great Wolf Water Parks do move to Worting Road, then the golf facility will require a new home. Down Grange, already substantially occupied by sports clubs may be the new site. We would oppose any development between the house and Winchester Road. Down Grange is Listed Grade 2. The curtilage of a Listed Building has protection.
Down Grange House
Have you
noticed this clock on Brookvale Village Hall? It is a full-size replica of the Thornycroft Works’ clock. The original is in Milestones Museum. When it was removed from the Works, Safeway paid for its removal as part of their planning consent for the supermarket (now Morrisons). The clock was started on Saturday 6th September by Bob Young, a former Thornycroft apprentice and a member of Status Quo. (see left). The Society supported this project by the Brookvale Community Association.
Have you
noticed this clock on Brookvale Village Hall? It is a full-
The crane lifting the replica clock into place.
The clock in its old home on the factory.
The Local List
The conservation team at the council have agreed to review the Local List this month. There has been no action on it for many months. Our member, Liam Harding has submitted some potential sites, which we have supported.
Society member, Ian Richards has produced a book ‘Echoes of Basingstoke. A Tapestry of Personal Memories’, which will be available next month. He sought contributions from the Basingstoke History Facebook page, which he set up. The result is a mix of stories, some well-located in the town’s history with some excellent recall and others recalling their childhood. For more information, contact
Basingstokehistory@gmail.com
The conservation team at the council have agreed to review the Local List this month. There has been no action on it for many months. Our member, Liam Harding has submitted some potential sites, which we have supported.
Society member, Ian Richards has produced a book ‘Echoes of Basingstoke. A Tapestry of Personal Memories’, which will be available next month. He sought contributions from the Basingstoke History Facebook page, which he set up. The result is a mix of stories, some well-
Basingstokehistory@gmail.com