The CAMROSE ground has been through several controversies in the past few years. But there used to be a time when it was not a football ground. This is the story of how the Camrose became the home of the Basingstoke Town football club.

When the Battle of Britain began in 1940 with all its terrible bombing raids by the Germans, people realised that it had been essential to stop large assemblies for it could have meant the deaths of those who may have been at the various gatherings.

The government also issued an order banning such gatherings.

This meant that hundreds of clubs, societies and other established organisations had to close down their activities for the distant future.

One local organisation that ceased activities for six years was Basingstoke Football Club.

Within months of the end of the war, in 1945, a special meeting was held in a bid to re-establish the club in the town, and an agreement was made to play a game against Andover on September 15 that year.

The match resulted in a 2-1 victory for Andover.

Further matches took place over the following weeks, but the local venue of Castle Field, near Fairfields School, with its temporary dressing rooms, was not really suitable for football, so the club was informed that they would have to find an alternative ground.

It looked as if the club would have to be disbanded. Then, after an appeal to Lord Camrose, of Hackwood Park, who owned South Ham Farm, he told the football club that they could have a section of land near the Winchester Road on a long lease, or 99 years, at a peppercorn rent.

Members of the club were overjoyed and they quickly prepared the ground for future games.

But there was one slight disadvantage – it had a distinct slope and much money was needed to overcome that problem, and to build the structures needed for matches.

But over the following months a team of men worked together and produced a football pitch worthy of Basingstoke.

In more recent years, a grandstand with dressing rooms inside and a clubhouse have been built, while the floodlighting is as good as any major football stadium.

The very first recorded football match played by a team under the title of Basingstoke Football Club was on February 9, 1878, when Basingstoke beat Andover 2-0 at The Folly, Bounty Road – now known for its cricket matches.

By 1893, other local clubs had been formed, including Overton and Heckfield, and certain industries in the town had their own teams.

These such as the Wallis and Steevens firm, who played under the title “The North Hants Iron Works”.

This particular team had a great deal of rivalry with the Basingstoke club and sometimes the game got quite rough.

In the end the two teams joined forces and the combined club had a series of successful matches.

The Folly, where the club’s matches were held, had become the focus for another sport – cricket – so the football club moved to Castle Field.

Originally called Down’s Meadow, then Cannon’s Meadow (after a local butcher and local councillor), the field became the football club’s venue up to the Second World War.

By the time it was reformed in 1945, the field was being used constantly by the Fairfields schools and the ground had become torn up by so many sporting events. (Castle Field’s name has never been explained, and there never has been a castle built on the land!)

Football has been played in England since the Middle Ages, although it was condemned by several rulers of the country, including King Edward II in 1314, Edward III in 1349, Henry IV in 1401, and an attempt to stop it altogether was made by Henry VIII.

For some reason it was not heard of after 1650 but it was revived in the mid-19th century by public schools and various clubs.

From 1860 onwards, large numbers of town and village football clubs were formed, and now the game is played throughout the world.

It is probably the richest game on the planet, for it brings in enough money to make club owners and players in professional clubs into millionaires.

This column has been updated and was originally published in The Gazette in September 2005. It was written by the late Robert Brown, a former photographer, columnist and historian at The Gazette. He wrote eight books on the town’s history and sadly passed away on March 25, 2019.