A RECENT question in a national magazine about the origin of council houses has led to a more local enquiry as to when the first such homes were built in Basingstoke.

Although the Corporation (as it was known) had individual plots of land scattered around the town, on which a few houses were located in the mid-1850s, the decision to build council houses was not made until the First World War, when 28 homes were erected in Cranbourne Lane.

Land on the junction of Winchester Road (now known as Wessex Close) was chosen for the houses, which were built in 1915 and cost a total of £7,200 for the site and construction. They were let to workmen and their families for 7s.6d a week (now 35p). The houses were demolished in November 1966.

Another five years were to pass before any more council houses were built, then in 1920 a small part of the Merton Farm was acquired to build a total of 209 houses in Kingsclere Road and Sherborne Road.

Two farm cottages were included in the Kingsclere Road homes, which later became a shop and residence. In 1929 Merton Road and Lancaster Road were built.

On the other side of town, along Hackwood Road and on land adjacent, some 126 houses were built in 1927. When the Basingstoke bypass was laid in 1931, more houses were erected along part of the highway.

At South Ham Farm, off Worting Road, land was used to build eight cottages in 1930 then, two years later, South Ham Road, Bolton Crescent and Sandys Road were constructed.

The Second World War brought all house building to a halt but, within a few months of its ending, in June 1945, the first prefabricated homes were built in Sandys Road to help house the increased population of the town. During the war years, some 1,000 people had moved into Basingstoke. About 50 of these “prefabs” were erected at South Ham, a few of which were later demolished but many more were modernised in later years.

The local council realised that more homes were needed in the late 1940s, so land at South View, which belonged to Chineham Farm, was acquired to build 400 houses and bungalows over a 10-year period, ending in 1956.

It was the Town Development Scheme of 1961 which brought about a massive project to build hundreds of homes for London’s overspill and to house people in Basingstoke who were moved when their properties were demolished to make way for the planned “new town”.

Most of the local farms, such as Buckskin, Viables, Merton, Oakridge and South Ham disappeared as contractors moved onto the farmland to build large housing estates. By 1985 there were 12,170 council homes in the town.

In April 1989, a market research survey revealed that 89 per cent of the local council house tenants wished to stay with the Basingstoke council, so the housing committee decided to retain its housing stock.

Then, in 1995, they transferred their houses over to two housing associations.

Since then, another six have opened up in the town, all of which provide a similar service to that which Basingstoke council offered its tenants.

Municipal housing, as it was originally called, was first provided in this country by the City of Liverpool in 1864 when four four-storey blocks of flats, containing 88 flats, and two three-storey blocks with 36 flats were built at a total cost of £17,928.

The flats had no bathrooms or larders, and the community had to share the toilets in a separate section.

In 1884, a Royal Commission enquired into providing homes for working class people and, as a result, laws were passed giving local authorities power to erect new dwellings for this purpose.

In 1919, after the Great War, an Act of Parliament and subsequent legislation gave local councils a grant of money for every house that was built.

In 1930 this was altered to a sum of money given to the councils for every person they re-housed. Between 1919 and 1932 some 1,450,000 houses were built by local authorities in England and Wales.

Although most towns have handed their council homes over to housing associations, many older folk still call them “council houses”.

It seems that old habits never die!