Basingstoke memories
Here are memories of Basingstoke and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Basingstoke or a Basingstoke photo.
Basingstoke Town Hall
I remember the Town Hall from the late 1950's - 1960's. My father, the late Dr Frank Foden MBE, used to be a lecturer at what was then Basinstoke Technical College. He used to write a pantomime each year for staff and students to perform at Basingstoke Town Hall. Some of early planning rehearsals used to take place in a coffee bar just round the corner from the Town Hall. I think it was called The Majorca? I also remember the market stalls outside the Town Hall each Saturday, when we would come into town. We lived in, what was then, the village of Chineham. I went to school in Old Basing. Shopping in Basingstoke was a regular Saturday event. I went to RAD Ballet classes in town, while my mother did the weekly shopping and placed her weekly shopping order at Oady's, near my ballet school. The shopping order would be delivered to our village home on Monday or Tuesday. Many of the shops were close to the Town Hall, such... Read more
Fairfields Infants
I went to Fairfields Infants in the years 1951-53, and can remember hearing of the death of King George VI in February 1952. My sister (a year older) was there too. We each received the book "Elizabeth Our Queen" soon after the Coronation in 1953. I remember the teachers well - Mrs Griffiths, Mrs Norsworthy, Mrs Croft, Mrs Webb and two terms under Miss Hole. In contrast to another posting here, I did not find Miss Hole "scary". She was quite nice. My brother went to the senior school at Fairfields and became a prefect there. This was afterwards. I remember that the senior school was mixed boys and girls when I was in the infants. After Fairfields Infants we went to the Shrubbery Junior in Cliddesden Road. I passed my 11-plus and went to Queen Mary's Grammar in Vyne Road. I sat the 11-plus exam in Fairfields Senior, and a group of us were threatened with the cane that day by Johnnie Littlefair the headmaster, who had a severe... Read more
Fairfields School
I attended Fairfields "school", and I use that term loosely, in the early 1960s. I have nothing but bad memories that have haunted me for 50 years! The only pleasurable memory I have of the school is hearing a new singing band being played in the schoolyard on a portable record player by a few girls, it was 1964 and it was the Beatles. The girls were immediately taken to the headmasters office and their record player confiscated! Fond memories indeed.
T.Tyrrell And Sons
To the right of the Town Hall is Wote Street and my father Ronald was one of the sons that worked in Tyrrells fishmongers all of his life, he can remember delivering fish from a horse and cart, the fish shop has now gone, that was a sad day
I Was Married Here
I was married there in 1964, long before it was swamped by the town centre. My daughter was christened there. I then went to work at Van Moppes, can anyone remember it? I was living at Viables Farm, a working farm then, I believe it's a craft centre now. They were good days.
Secondary Modern
I went to Fairfields in 1956 until 1961 and it was a Secondary Modern school then, and the infants were at the bottom end. I believe it was turned into a junior/infants school after that as most went to Charles Chute School which was brand new.
Farfields School
I suspect either caption "Basingstoke Boarding School" or "Fairfields School" is correct, depending on your time period. I attended this school in the 1960s & 70s when it was aan ordinary (non-boarding) Infants & Junior school called Fairfields, and yes I remember Mr. Thomas, the headmaster, as an authority to be feared.
But the building was much older than that, and I remember seeing a keystone with "1898" written on it. Quite likely it was a boarding school in its early days.
Fairfields School
Is this caption right? 42064 seems right - this is the Board School established under Act of Parliament. http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Leducation70.htm.
I believe that John Arlott went there, and Ruth Ellis. My children went there, both as Infants (nearest building) and Juniors (up to age 11) between 1973 and 1981. This was the last of the "old schools" in the town, where children were expected to learn, not play. It seems to have served the children well, judging by exam results in later life. This changed when the Headmaster Mr Thomas retired.
Woolworth
I use to spend some of my summer holidays with my lovely nan. She lived in a house called Swimbrook, it was up Kempshot Lane. It was pulled down years ago. She used to take me to Woolworths to buy a scrapbook and glue - we would catch the bus. I can remember going up some steps in Woolworth and the floors were wooden. She had the biggest garden, and my uncle used to push me round in a wheelbarrow. Such happy times for a girl from the East End of London.
Memories of Hampshire
School 1950's
Those of us who grew up in the very rural villages around Old Basing in 1950's, had to travel to school in Old Basing, by school buses.The school on Milkingpen Lane was the only school for miles. In the late 1950's the school still did not have flush toilets.This did present some serious health issues and some of us became very ill with scarlet fever. The school was very badly provided for, with few facilities. The school did not have any school kitchens, so each day the whole school would walk through the village, via the village churchyard, to the village hall for school dinners and then back to school for afternoon classes.The system worked just fine, until the day the wooden village hall burned down. This was as a result of sparks from a train on the nearby steam railway, alighting straw on the thatched roof of a cottage next door to the village hall. Soon a school kitchen was built and school dinners used to take place in... Read more
Memories From my Father (Rod Dean)
This is what Dad had to say when I emailed him this site and the photos from 1955. Dad lived in Oakley from childhood until 1987, when as a family we moved to Adelaide Australia. I myself lived in the village from birth in 1970 to 1987.He refers to Upper Farm, as this was where he lived. Now the site is covered by Upper Farm Rd, Yew Tree Close etc. I also lived in Yew Tree Close as a kid. Unfortunately we have no photos of the farm, but would love to have some.
"In 1955 I used to walk down Hill Rd each morning (to school) past those cottages then past the village pond then on past Cooper & Field ( once a week I was allowed to call into Cooper & Field to spend threepence, I used to get four fruit salads, four blackjacks and a large gobstopper or now and again for a change I would get threepence worth of broken biscuits) and then on... Read more
Railway
My father and his brother used to visit East Oakley as children, in the 1930s. They stayed in (we think) Railway Cottages, the family was William Catch and his wife Rose (who is my great grandmother). If anyone has any information it would be lovely to hear from you. William Catch worked on the railway as a plate layer. They later moved to Southsea. Any information would be really helpful.
Ancient Burial Mounds
I can remember ancient burial mounds at Battledown (along Pack Lane, towards Kempshott) and on some of the farms surrounding Oakley.
Does anybody know their age?
Rookery Farm
My grandad came from Monk Sherbourne. He lived at the Rookery Farm. I used to go there as a child, the kitchen was huge, there were two doors, one went through to an apple store, the other must have been a well, the water ran under the house. It was my Aunt Berta who we used to visit. My grandparents the Allen family are buried in a family plot in the churchyard. Good days.
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