THE construction of the two new restaurants, McDonald’s and KFC, at West Ham, is ironic, for the land on which they are being built was where food and drink was once created in the form of crops and cows.

The area between the railway and Worting Road was once the West Ham estate and farmland – some 208 acres – and it stretched from the old Thornycroft factory to Worting village.

The estate was situated near Worting Road, where the tall trees line the road and feature a mansion house, lodges, and parkland.

Part of the estate was acquired in 1948 as a sports ground for Thornycroft’s staff.

The farm, with its castle and various crops, survived until the 1960s when the Town Development Scheme brought about the acquisition of the land for various purposes, including the Ring Way West, a new Worting Road (to take traffic away from the residential section), and to construct the fire station and housing estate behind it.

The farmer, Mr Frederick Rendell, later moved his cattle to College Farm at Pamber, although he continued to live in a newly-built farmhouse in West Ham Lane for a while.

This lane still exists, although severed by the ring road, and its full length of one-and-one-third miles remains, from Deep Lane to Worting village.

The land between the source of the River Loddon (which flooded into the meadow in 2001) and the railway leisure centre was constructed during the following years.

In 1976, the Westfield Lido was opened (and has recently seen a major alteration to its facilities), while in 1990 the Warner Bros cinema complex was opened.

Six years later the Club 2000 Bingo Hall was completed.

Other leisure venues were built, such as the ten-pin bowling alley, the ice rink, the pitch and putt green, the indoor bowling building, and the Spruce Goose restaurant.

In November 2000, Milestones museum’s huge structure was opened to the public by the Duke of Edinburgh on land where Mr Rendell used to grow hay for his cattle.

Meanwhile, the estate land, with its football ground and other sporting greens, was taken over for commercial and industrial purposes, and now has Grafton Way, Morse Road and Davy Close, with their various units.

The West Ham mansion was demolished in January 1970 in preparation for these roads.

And so the complete transformation of the area was complete, with only the West Ham Farm cottages, now remaining in West Ham Lane, converted into offices.

Like so many other parts of Basingstoke, the West Ham estate and farm are just memories.