AFTER seeing the cobblestones in the television series Coronation Street, a reader of my column asked if there was ever a similar road in Basingstoke laid out in cobbles.

There was one, until May 1967, and that was the upper part of Windover Street, where it joined Winchester Street.

To those folk who are not acquainted with the old Basingstoke streets, it should be pointed out that Windover Street used to lie between Cross Street and Winchester Street through what is now known as Joice’s Yard. It was named after John Joice, whose family originated from Middlesex.

John Joice was a businessman who established a coach-building firm in the yard of the Crown Inn, a 16th century building, having moved from Essex in 1880.

Later on, his son Arnold took over the business, which involved the making and repairing of horsedrawn vehicles, such as broughams and landaus, and the hiring out of horses.

As the motorcar replaced the horse-drawn vehicle, so Mr Joice and his small team of men took to repairing the bodywork of cars. But just as he was converting his workshop, a fire broke out in April 1905 at Burberry’s store, almost next to his yard, and although that building was gutted, the efforts of the firemen saved Mr Joice’s wooden structures.

In 1950, the business closed down and was sold as small units for commercial use. After several years, the main building, which spanned the yard, became unsafe and it was decided that it should be demolished.

However, before this could take place, a fire in May 1960 destroyed the archway. Two other fires occurred in April and October 1964 which cleared the main buildings.

In January the following year, demolition workers removed the side structures. Only the entrance buildings, from Winchester Street, with the shops on either side, still remain.

Arnold Joice, who lived in Bounty Road, was to see his beloved business pulled down and made into a car park, and before he died in September 1969, when he was in his 90s, he was to see the demise of the town centre that he had known all his life.

Cobblestones date back to the 15th century, when, in certain places in the country near the sea, the residents used to remove large pebbles from the beach and place them on the narrow roads to produce a better surface, for, in the winter, they had to contend with muddy tracks.

Cobblestone roads became quite common in London and other cities, but, nowadays, they are usually found in villages which date back to the 15th and 16th centuries.

The removal of cobbles from various streets in towns and other places goes back to the Public Health Act of 1875 and the Private Street Works Act of 1892, the latter pertaining to major excavations and resurfacing of roads in the course of laying sewers, water pipes and other services. It was decided to lay better surfaces for smoother rides.

Travellers in the various carriages and coaches had suffered rough roads for centuries and, although the Romans had laid magnificent roads during their stay in England, when they left in 400AD, they were not maintained.

Stage wagons carved the surfaces up with their wheels, and although the ruts were filled in at times, most people had to suffer the indignity of being bumped about during their journey.

The mail coaches (which carried eight passengers – four inside and four on the roof) were prone to the bumps. They had to be taken into places such as Mr Joice’s yard for repairs to the wheels, although, in his case, horse-drawn vehicles were slowly disappearing in the late 19th century.

On the odd occasion, Arnold Joice’s cobblestones were blamed for the damage to the carriages which were brought into the yard, and he remembered that, as one vehicle was being pushed into position, a rear wheel bumped over the cobbles with the result that both wheel and then the under-carriage collapsed!

The cobbles were finally covered over with a thick layer of tar in mid-1967, after complaints that people had twisted their ankles on the stones.

This column was originally published in The Gazette in March 2008. It was written by Robert Brown, a former photographer, columnist and historian at The Gazette. He died on March 25, 2019.

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