Flashback: When single women owned plenty of properties in Basingstoke

By this date some fine villas had already been built in Worting Road – as early as 1862 ‘5 tenements on Salisbury Road’ possibly refer to the villas west of Alexandra Road.  

Just to confuse the issue, both Henry Mundy and his son, also Henry, were builders –  the younger being a builder’s clerk at just 13.

Both lived in Essex Road.

The older Henry married Alma Attwood in 1876 and they both died in 1922. The younger married Clara; in 1901 they lived in Queens Road.

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It hasn’t always been possible for me to decide which of them was building what.

When John Mares sold the Worting Road land to Henry Mundy in 1903, the deed stipulated that only private houses or a ‘scholastic establishment’ could be built here, and the houses must have a minimum value of £450, if detached and £400 if terraced.   

Mundy built 10 houses between Alexandra Road and Queens Road – numbered 16 – 7. 

Henry Mundy's plots of land in Basingstoke (Image: Contributed)

There was a covenant which said that “ no plot and no building which may be erected upon any plot shall be used for the sale of beer ale wine or spirits. No plot shall be used for any other purpose than as garden-ground, meadowland, plant nursery, or orchard until built upon and no noxious or offensive matter shall be stacked or allowed to accumulate thereon  … … ”. 

Such restrictions were not that unusual –  South View, north of the railway,  also had brewing restrictions.

For Mundy senior, this would tie in with his teetotal Methodism.  

Henry Mundy applied to build six new terraced houses in Queens Road in 1903 and a few years earlier two houses in Rayleigh Road.

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Mundy (the older) had been a trustee of the Primitive Methodists and had possibly built the old church at the top of Sarum Hill.

Sarum Hill Methodist Church in Basingstoke (Image: Contributed)

Between 1895 and 1899 he had bult the Primitive Methodist Chapel in Alresford.

A third party to one agreement was Mary Bertha Atwell, then living at 2 Jubilee Road, described as a spinster.

At that time, Mary Atwell was sharing her house with Wilhelmina Daglish.

The two women were in their early 30s (in 1901) and both were described as Elementary School teachers.

The Elementary Education Acts of the 1870s brought in compulsory education from 5 – 13.  

It seems likely that the two women taught at Fairfields School, which was Basingstoke’s Board School.

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It’s interesting how many single women owned property, either to rent or to occupy.

It seems clear that the best way for women who were unlikely to receive a pension or income after their father died, was to own a property or several.

These weren’t wealthy landowners, but ordinary women.

Mary Atwell later moved to ‘Glengarth’ in Queens Road, where she was living on her own in 1911, described then as an assistant teacher.

Miss Emma Smith owned 25, 26 and 27 Essex Road.

She was one of the Smith Bros. Seeds’ business family.

Similarly, we can’t assume that people must be well-off to own several houses.

In 1922, retired engine driver, Frederick Charles Carey owned 17, 19 and 21 May Street while living at no.37.

You can search the Hampshire Archives and Local Studies database for your street, and if you visit the Hampshire Record Office in Winchester, you may be able to see plans of the proposals in most cases.

Fifteen houses in Southend Road belonged to Francis Budd, who had plant nurseries off Winchester Road and lived at The Cedars, Winchester Road.

These houses, known as ‘Stanley Terrace’,  date from about 1881.

The name  Lorne Villas, in Worting Road near Essex Road, may have come from the Marquis of Lorne who married Queen Victoria’s daughter, Louise in 1900.

Lorne Villas in Worting Road, by Terry Hunt (Image: Contributed by Terry Hunt)

When May Street and Lower Brook Street were built, the area previously known as Longcroft, was named ‘Newtown’, providing homes for both railway workers  and for Thornycroft, whose business in Worting Road  had arrived in the town in 1899.  

In 1879 a shortage of houses for working people in the town was noted and in the 1880s, the population increased to 6,681.

Worting Road Villas by Terry Hunt & Co (Image: Terry Hunt)

The busy rail junction for the Great Western and London and South Western Railway, with extensive goods yards created many jobs. 

Most of Lower Brook Street and May Street disappeared when the spine road, as it was called, was built.

The back gardens of May Street would have extended as far as the houses in Sinclair Drive on the north side of Churchill Way West and much of Lower Brook Street  where Victory pocket park is now.    

Chute House boundary wall on the corner of Lower Church Street and Churchill Way still shows evidence of the old road.  

The Co-op in Essex Road opened in 1898 and supplied NHS dried milk and orange juice to many young townschildren.

Worting Rd with Thoryncroft, looking towards Sarum Hill (Image: Terry Hunt)

In 1912 when Penrith Road was built, archaeological evidence of an ancient cooking site and flint hearth was unearthed,  after worked flint flakes were noticed on the builders’ spoil heap.

When May street was built, Roman bridle spurs (cheek part of a bridle bit)  were discovered and are in Reading museum.

Possibly it had been the site of a villa as roof tiles, nails, paving and ridge tiles were found.

Brook Street school opened in 1909 – built by Mussellwhite - and in 1955 changed its name to Brookvale School.

In 1985 the building was sold, with the Council’s Conservation Officer moving swiftly to designate the whole area a conservation area to prevent the demolition of the school buildings, which was then converted into flats.

Henry Goodall, born 1851, was both a licensed victualler at The White Hart, Worting and a builder.

He was bankrupted (not unusual for builders) but eventually re-started his building business again as H J Goodall & Sons, with a new workshop in 1900,  followed by an application a year later for 10 new terraced cottages in George Street and a pair of terraced cottages and 1 shop with living accommodation on the corner of Queens Road and George Street – one of many corner shops in the town back then.  

Goodall Barnard Construction are still in business today.  If you live in Brookvale and have more information about who built your house, Basingstoke Heritage Society would like to hear from you.