Basingstoke
Nearby towns and cities: Alton,
Andover,
Hook,
Newbury,
Overton,
Reading,
Tadley,
Whitchurch,
WinchesterNearby villages: Aldermaston,
Baughurst,
Bramley,
Kingsclere,
Oakley,
Old Basing,
Silchester.
Basingstoke has a long history of settlement. The
Winklebury hillfort (two miles west of the town centre) dates from the
Iron age and there are remains of several other earthworks around Basingstoke including Down Grange. Nearby a roman road from
Winchester to
Silchester, which has acted as a natural boundary to town expansion. To the east of the area another roman road runs from
Chichester through the outlaying villages
Upton Grey and
Mapledurwell. The
Harrow Way is also part of an older ancient route and still runs to the south of the town.
Basingstoke has held a
Charter Market since before
1203, and is recorded as being a market site in the
Domesday Book. The ruins of the
Tudor palace of
Basing House can be found two miles east of the town centre, in Old Basing. Population growth has been rapid since its designation as a London overspill town (often confused with
new town status) in
1961: in
1951 there were only 16,000 inhabitants. Today it is famous for having a large number of
roundabouts.
The name Basingstoke (
Domesday; Basingestoches) is believed to have been derived from the town's location, the western settlement of the people of
Baze. Basing, a village a few miles to the east, is normally considered to have the same etymology, but is believed to be the older settlement.
In the
18th century, it prospered as a major
brewing centre, after the brothers Thomas and William May set up the May Brewery around 1755. When the
Salvation Army arrived in Basingstoke preaching abstinence in 1881, the people were severely worried about the effect this would have on the brewing industry and local jobs. There were even armed clashes in Church Square.
The May family were
mayors and prominent benefactors of the town well into the
20th century, with May Place in the town centre being named for them.
In the late-
1960s, Basingstoke town centre was completely rebuilt. At this time many buildings of historic interest were replaced by a large concrete
shopping centre. The
brutalism of the town's architecture, and its perceived status as a
new town and haven for
accountants and those with other occupations considered "boring", have led to Basingstoke becoming a comedic
archetype for the soullessness of many modern British towns. It remains to be seen whether the opening of the new
Festival Place shopping centre will do anything to soften this image and part the town with its "Boringstoke", "Basingjoke" and "Basingrad" nicknames. More recently, the younger generation have surprisingly adopted a more positive name of "Amazingstoke". Due the large number of high-rise office towers in its central business district, the nickname 'Dallas, Hampshire' has also been applied to Basingstoke.
The
Basingstoke Gazette has recently launched the "A Place to be Proud of" campaign to raise the community awareness in the town - though with each new "community estate" being fairly self-sufficient, it is often easier to consider Basingstoke as a city-structure with separate community districts.
Basingstoke railway station is the junction between the
South Western Main Line railway, built by the
London and South Western Railway, and the
Reading to Basingstoke line, built by the
Great Western Railway.
In the
Gilbert and Sullivan operetta
Ruddigore, the word
Basingstoke is a sort of soothing charm which Sir Despard Murgatroyd intones to Mad Margaret when she seems in danger of getting agitated. Although she says the word is "teeming with hidden meaning", the joke lies in the town's utter unremarkability. It has been suggested that Gilbert had in mind the mental asylum at Park Prewett, northwest of the town centre, although this was not built until
1912, some 25 years after the opera was written.
Basingstoke also gets a mention in
Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
"How did we get here?" he (Arthur) asked, shivering slightly. "We hitched a lift," said Ford. "Excuse me?" said Arthur. "Are you trying to tell me that we just stuck out our thumbs and some green bug-eyed monster stuck his head out and said, Hi fellas, hop right in. I can take you as far as the Basingstoke roundabout?".
Vauxhall promoted their
Vectra car by demonstrating how well it handles Basingstoke's fictitious
Mitchell's Bush roundabout, which had only 2 exits.
Even
Shakespeare pokes mild fun at Basingstoke, with a line in "
Henry IV" (part 2). From act 2 scene 1:
Lord Chief-Justice: "I have heard better news."
Falstaffe: "What's the news, my good Lord?"
Ch-Just: "Where lay the King last night?"
Gower: "At Basingstoke, my Lord"
Fal: "I hope, my Lord, all's well: what is the news, my Lord?"
In the hugely popular
British sitcom "
Only Fools And Horses", the character
Rodney Trotter attended art college in Basingstoke before being thrown out after three weeks for smoking
marijuana.
Blessed, another British sitcom, also made reference to Basingstoke in an episode which aired during the last quarter of 2005. When the main charater meets a posh couple that have named their two children "
India" and "
Ireland" to reflect their supposed mystical nature, he ironically replies the he has named his own two children Basingstoke and
Milton Keynes.
Although not referenced,
Channel 4's hit comedy
Green Wing filmed scenes at Basingstoke hospital.
Thomas Hardy refers to Basingstoke as "Stoke Barehills" in
Jude the Obscure - Part Fifth, Chapter 5
"There is in Upper
Wessex an old town of nine or ten thousand souls; the town may be called Stoke-Barehills. It stands with its gaunt, unattractive, ancient church, and its new red brick suburb, amid the open, chalk-soiled cornlands, near the middle of an imaginary triangle which has for its three corners the towns of Aldbrickham and Wintoncester, and the important military station of Quartershot. The great western highway from London passes through it, near a point where the road branches into two, merely to unite again some twenty miles further westward. Out of this bifurcation and reunion there used to arise among wheeled travellers, before railway days, endless questions of choice between the respective ways. But the question is now as dead as the scot-and-lot freeholder, the road waggoner, and the mail coachman who disputed it; and probably not a single inhabitant of Stoke-Barehills is now even aware that the two roads which part in his town ever meet again; for nobody now drives up and down the great western highway daily.
The most familiar object in Stoke-Barehills nowadays is its cemetery, standing among some picturesque mediaeval ruins beside the railway; the modern chapels, modern tombs, and modern shrubs having a look of intrusiveness amid the crumbling and ivy-covered decay of the ancient walls."
Basingstoke is
twinned with
*
Alençon,
France*
Euskirchen,
Germany*
Braine-l'Alleud,
BelgiumFamous people who were born in, or lived in, the Basingstoke area:
*
John Arlott,
cricket journalist,
writer and
commentator*
Jane Austen,
author (born in nearby
Steventon and lived in nearby
Chawton)
*
Sarah Ferguson,
Duchess of York and former wife of Prince Andrew, raised in nearby Dummer
*
Carl Barat, lead
singer and
guitarist with
rock band The Libertines and now the
Dirty Pretty Things*
Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be
hanged in
Great Britain*
Elizabeth Hurley,
actress and
model*
Sir James Lancaster,
16th century navigator and
statesman*
Robert Steadman,
composer and
conductor*
Tanita Tikaram,
singer-songwriter*
Ramon Tikaram, Actor
*
Thomas Warton, academic and poet, holder of the title of
Poet Laureate from
1785.
*
Tom Rees, Rugby Player for
London Wasps, has also represented England at
Sevens and various other levels
*
:Category:Basingstoke: listing of Basingstoke-themed articles
*
Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council*
Basingstoke-Now Community and business information*
Local news (from the Basingstoke Gazette)*
BasingBusiness.com - a comprehensive directory of Basingstoke businesses*
e-basingstoke.com - Basingstoke's local information site*
It's Basingstoke Not Boringstoke*
Basingstoke.co.uk - Street index and A-Z of Basingstoke shops*
May Family History*
Map of Basingstoke and surrounding area at
Google Maps*
Aerial Map at
Google Maps
