Have you seen the banners suspended from lampposts in the Historic Heart of the town?

Basingstoke & Deane Borough Council gave Basingstoke Heritage Society the opportunity to talk about our town’s history on the banners, which are funded from the Government’s ‘Welcome Back’ to encourage us all to get back to our high streets.

If you haven’t seen them then do head to Cross Street and then up Church Street and see the banners all along Winchester Street and London Street and down Wote Street.

Most people know the story of Mrs Blunden, buried alive in 1674, but the banners don’t go as far as the Liten where she is buried. However, one of the panels on the Triumphal Gates sculpture near Deane’s almshouses does illustrate this story, so it’s worth looking at the panels to find which one.

The almshouses, founded in 1608, are the oldest continuously occupied homes in the town.

We would love to get Festival Place shoppers to leave the precinct and head uphill to see ‘old’ Basingstoke.

The town trail has been updated too. Our 2003 version needed an updated mention of Jane Austen, now familiar to townspeople as she walks across Market Place – perhaps shopping or visiting a lending library.

Basingstoke has had a market since at least 1087, when it is mentioned in the Domesday Survey.

It’s nearly half-term. Pick up the new town trail from the Discovery Centre, Willis Museum or shops and cafés in the old town and walk it with your kids and grandkids.

Imagine the coaches on their way to and from London or Exeter rattling through the town day and night, with weary travellers having a brief stop while the horses were changed at one of the many coaching inns.

In 1805 we know that the Despatch Rider, bringing news to the Admiralty in London of the victory at Trafalgar and the sad death of Nelson, stopped in Basingstoke to change horses.

Imagine Oliver Cromwell settling down in the inn (where Tea Bar is) on 8 October 1645 after the final battle for Basing House and the end of the long siege.

From here he wrote to the Speaker of the House of Commons: “I thank God, I can give you a good account of Basing ... ...We stormed this morning after six of the clock; the signal for falling on was the firing four of our cannon, which being done, our men fell on with great resolution and cheerfulness”.

His prisoners, including the Marquis of Winchester, were safely locked up in the cellars of The Bell Inn opposite.

You can do the trail a bit at a time but do go and see the banners which are brightening up the historic heart of our town for another month or so.