Basingstoke is first mentioned around 990. By the date of the Domesday book in 1086 there was a settled community. Below is the Domesday book description of our town:
“Basingstoches: The King holds BASINGSTOKE in lordship. It has always been a royal manor. It never gave tax, nor has the hide been apportioned there. Land for 20 ploughs. In lordship 3 ploughs; 20 villagers and 8 smallholders with 12 ploughs. 6 slaves; 3 mills at 30s; 12 freedmen with4 ploughs. A market at 30s; meadow, 20 acres.”
By this time, Henri de Port, one of William the Conqueror’s companions who came from Port-en-Bessin in Normandy had lands all across southern England and had built a fine motte and bailey castle at Basing. His successors remained in possession of these lands. Saxon lords were deprived of their lands or married the daughters of Normans to retain their status.
In medieval times, the town was surrounded by fields in which families held strips of land to grow food – the names still familiar; Chapel Field; North Field or Norden; Hackwood, Hatch and Winchester Field.
This system lasted until the Inclosures of the 18th century, when Basingstoke is mapped for the first time by the then Duke of Bolton. As fields came under the ownership of one person, farmhouses were built outside the town.
Eastrop was a separate parish and held lands around the north of Basingstoke as well as a water mill on the Loddon (roughly under where Eastrop roundabout is today.
In 1984, during work at Brighton Hill South near Sainsbury’s, the remains of the ‘lost’ medieval village of Hatch were excavated.
A small church and 250 burials were uncovered, some of which were excavated, and this land has been retained as open space.
It was likely to have been in existence before the Norman Conquest and was abandoned and then lost.
Evidence for dating comes from the town’s oldest buildings. The earliest part of the Holy Ghost Chapel dates from about 1244.
By the mid-13th century, Basingstoke had ‘overtaken’ Basing and had its own fine church.
St Michael’s was substantially rebuilt in the 15th and early 16th centuries.
An addition was the WW1 memorial chapel on the north-east of the church, which was badly damaged in WW2 – damage still visible on the east external wall opposite the entrance to Festival Place.
Church Cottage dates from about 1527 and had a use in the cloth trade with a leet from the river Loddon created to make use of the water.
Many of the buildings along London and Winchester Streets show evidence of the 16th century. Next door to the Red Lion, a building – the former Anchor Inn - has timbers which date back to not later than 1400.
Deane’s almshouses, founded by James Deane date from 1608 and are the oldest continually inhabited homes in the town.
Houses in London Road from about 1600 had a makeover when some of them were turned into the mansion of Goldings. When you walk around the town, look up and look at the sides of buildings and you will notice evidence of timber-framed buildings.
This is a very sketchy story of our town and there are books and DVDs in the Willis Museum or in the Local Studies part of the Discovery Centre.
This is the second part of this column. The first part was published last week.
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