Basingstoke, a municipal borough and a market and union town in North Hants. the town stands on a head-stream of the river Loddon, 15 1/2 miles SSW of Reading, and 45 1/2 SW by W of London. It is on the main line of the L. & S.W.R. to Southampton and Portsmouth, and also to Salisbury, Exeter, and Plymouth, and there is a branch line to the G.W.R. main line at Reading. The town dates from the Saxon times, and at that early period may have been inferior to Old Basing, but at the time of the Conquest it had obtained the superiority, and was a royal possession and a market-town at Domesday. In 1261 Walter de Merton, a native of Basingstoke, and founder of Merton College, Oxford, founded an hospital at Basingstoke for the maintenance of indigent and impotent priests, which was on the north side of the river, but it has entirely disappeared, and nothing now remains of the building. the town consists of several streets, and contains neat well-built houses. The town-hall is a handsome edifice of 1832, and cost £10,000. A handsome clock tower was erected in 1887, in commemoration of the Queen's jubilee, at the sole expense of Col. John May, the cost of which was £1200. the corn exchange was built in 1865, at a cost of upwards of £3000. The parish church is Late Perpendicular, large, and handsome; consists of nave, chancel, and side aisles, with a square tower; was built chiefly in the reign of Henry VIII., by Bishop Fox; was repaired and new seated in 1841; and contains a parochial library. A picturesque ruin, known as the Holy Ghost Chapel, founded in the time of Henry VIII. by the first Lord Sandys, stands adjacent to the railway station; shows characters of very Late Perpendicular, with debased and Italian details; and is believed to occupy the site of some previous religious edifice or edifices, dating back to the times of the Saxons. A burying-ground around it, now disposed as a new cemetery, contains two funeral chapels in Decorated Gothic, each with tower and spire about 70 feet high, founded in 1857, and contains also some ancient monuments. the town has several dissenting chapels, a grammar school with endowed income of £158, a Blue-coat school with £170, other charities with £500, three banks, a post, money order, and telegraph office. There is a drill hall, a masonic hall, and mechanics' institute, with a library containing over 3000 volumes. A cottage hospital was built in 1878. St Thomas' Home, built in 1874, is an institution for friendless and fallen women. The workhouse is at Basing. There are permanent "Barracks" for the Salvation Army. Hackwood House, the property of Lord Bolton, is a chief residence. A market is held on Wednesday. The manufacture of druggets and shalloons was once extensive, but making and the corn trade and the manufacture of ready-made clothing are now the chief employments. There are also some large iron foundries for the manufacture of agricultural and other implements. A staff of the Royal Engineers Postal Telegraph Department is stationed at Basingstoke. The town sent members to Parliament in the times of Edward I. and II.; was chartered by James I. and Charles I.; and is now governed by a mayor, 4 aldermen, and 12 councillors. Walter de Merton, mentioned above; John de Basingstoke, a celebrated Greek scholar of the 13th century; Sir James Lancaster, the eminent navigator in the time of Elizabeth ; Richard White, the author of a History of Britain in the time of James I.; and the brothers Joseph and Thomas Warton, the former headmaster of Winchester, the latter the well-known poet, were natives of Basingstoke; and Thomas Warton, the father of these Wartons, and Sir George Wheler the Eastern traveller, were vicars. Population of the municipal borough, 8213. The parish is politically conterminate with the town, and comprises 4194 acres; population, 7960. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Winchester, and till 1864 was united with Basing and Up-Nately; gross value, £377. Patron, Magdalen College, Oxford.
Basingstoke Parliamentary Division, or North Hants, was formed under the Redistribution of Seats Act of 1885, and returns one member to the House of Commons. Population, 70,497. The division includes the following:‹Odiham ‹Aldershott, Bramshill, Cove, Crondall, Dogmersfield, Elvetham, Eversley, Farnborough, Greywell, Hartley Wintncy, Hawley and Minley, Heckfield, Long Sutton, Mattingley, Odiham, Rotherwick, South Warnborough, Winchfield, Yately; Basingstoke‹Andwell, Basing, Basingstoke Town, Bradley, Bramley, Cliddesden, Church Oakley, Deane, Dummer, Eastrop, Ellesfield or Illsfield, Farleigh Wallop, Hartley Westpall, Herriard, Mapledurwell, Mortimer (West End), Nately Scures, Newnham, North Waltham, Nutley, Pamber, Popham, Preston Candover, Sherborne (St John), Sherfield-upon-Loddon, Silchester, Stratfieldsaye (part of), Stratfield Turgiss, Tunworth, Up-Nately, Upton Gray, West Sherborne (otherwise Monk Sherborne), Weston Corbett, Weston Patrick, Winslade and Kempshott, Woodmancott, Wootton (St Lawrence), Worting; Basingstoke, municipal borough.
