Report on Hampshire Archives Trust cataloguing project ‘Basingstoke Has History’
A Hampshire Archives Trust grant-funded project ‘Basingstoke has history’ has recently been completed. The project aimed to catalogue some previously uncatalogued archives relating to Basingstoke found among the collections held at Hampshire Record Office in Winchester, and revealed some exciting and unexpected treasures.
The catalogues completed, which are all now available to view online at https://www.hants.gov.uk/archives, include the following:
Basingstoke Borough (67M98 additional)
This collection consisted of a large quantity of nineteenth and twentieth century deeds, with a few dating back to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Many relate to the building of housing in the Hackwood Road, Station Hill, Lower Broad Street and May Street areas of the town. Of particular interest were the deeds relating to the North Hants stone and marble works on Chapel Street, 1896-1966 (67M98/E1/6/2) and deeds relating to the North Hants Iron Works, owned by the well-known firm of Wallis and Steevens, 1827-1931 (67M98/E1/26/1).
Plan of the North Hants stone and marble works, 1918 (67M98/E1/6/2)
Basingstoke Methodist circuit (57M77 additional)
This additional deposit included baptism registers from Basingstoke Methodist circuit, 1842-1966 and Wesleyan Methodist registers of baptisms in the Basingstoke Circuit, 1873-1971 along with a photograph album of Trinity Methodist church from 1970-1981 and photographs and leaflets from Sarum Hill Methodist Church, 1959-1970. These photographs are particularly important as Trinity Church, which opened in 1970 (partly comprising the former Sarum Hill Church), recently closed.
Page from Basingstoke Methodist circuit baptism register, 1850 (57M77/NMR32)
Queen Mary’s School, Basingstoke (69A15)
An additional small collection of records from this school was completed, which included a staff register 1883-1923 and admission registers, 1916-1940. The staff register is particularly useful, as it includes details of where the teachers themselves went to school and trained and previous posts (staff register from Queen Mary’s School for 1894, (69A15/1)
Lansing Bagnall (5A19)
Lansing Bagnall moved their premises from London to Basingstoke in 1948, and they became one of the largest employers in Basingstoke. They manufactured vehicles such as forklift trucks and pallet trucks. The cataloguing work completed comprised of a small collection of photographs of staff and premises at the Basingstoke factory and the products made, such as the forklift truck, 1950s-1960s.
Hackwood Estate (54M98 additional)
Another catalogue completed was an additional deposit of records relating to the large Hackwood Estate on the north side of Basingstoke. Most of the material catalogued dates from the twentieth century and includes papers about the sale of the estate to Lord Camrose in the 1930s and the sale of the estate in 1998. Interesting documents unearthed include correspondence files about the use of part of the estate as a Canadian Neurological Hospital during World War Two. Shown below is a collection of receipts and bill heads from Basingstoke shops and businesses in the 1960s, a period of great change for Basingstoke, when it was designated an overspill town for London (54M98/E/B6/37).
Receipts and bill heads from Basingstoke shops and businesses, 1960s (54M98/E/B6/37)
Lamb Brooks and Bullock (12M49)
The final catalogue completed was the unlisted section of a very large solicitor’s collection, Lamb Brooks and Bullock, comprising deeds from Basingstoke and Old Basing. The Basingstoke section consisted of deeds from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries. They included a release of the Angel Inn, 1820, which when opened, excitingly revealed an inventory of the Inn which covered three large sheets listing all the furniture and goods in each room. As the cataloguing continued it became clear it contained more than just deeds, as the documents included papers and drafts compiled by the solicitors in the course of their work as clerks to local organisations. An important discovery was a schedule of deeds, books, papers and documents belonging to the parish of Basingstoke , ‘late in the possession of Charles Shebbeare and delivered by his executrix to the churchwardens and overseers of the parish in 1860’. This includes lists of all the Basingstoke parish removal orders, settlement certificates, apprenticeship indentures and bastardy bonds which then existed. These documents are not in the Basingstoke parish collection held at Hampshire Record Office, so this list may be the only record of their existence.
More details of this collection can be found in the following blog: Cataloguing a Basingstoke solicitors’ collection – Hampshire Archives and Local Studies (wordpress.com)
Extract from the inventory of The Angel Inn, Basingstoke, 1820 (12M49/A7/1/160)
Sarah Farley
Archivist
