Snowy Glebe Gardens
Close to the Basingstoke town centre, opposite the Anvil, Glebe Gardens once belonged to the rectory, Chute House, the large house in the background.
The gardens have many fine old trees, set within grass and during the spring, swathes of snowdrops, crocuses and daffodils. The River Loddon, in the foreground, meanders through the trees, lined by willow trees.
The grounds of Glebe Gardens originally formed the lawns and meadows attached to the rectory for St Michaels Church. In the early 1900s the main summer event of the year was the annual pageant, held on the rectory lawn and meadows, and the church garden party continued into the 1960s. In 1925 one of the events at the pageant was the re-enactment of Danes landing from a boat on the river.
The Georgian rectory standsin the north eastern corner of the gardens. It dates from 1773 but has been altered and extended since. It is named Chute House after the Rev. Anthony Chute, vicar of St. Michael’s Church from 1938 to 1947. In the 1960s it was decided to build a new rectory which now stands close to St Michael’s Church.The gardens and the rectory were bought by the borough council in the early 1970s.
The University of Winchester used Chute House as a Campus which closed in July 2011. It had offered full-time and part-time university courses in subjects including childhood studies, various management pathways, community development and creative industries.
Although the River Loddon is now only a very small stream, in the past it had a considerable flow and its water was used in various industrial processes such as fulling cloth, milling and brewing. Records show that fullers were fined for polluting the river with their waste and in 1547 a vicar was ordered by a Basingstoke court to remove the privy he had erected over the common brook, "which is a great nuisance to all who wash there". A Mulberry tree remains in the gardens near the car park entrance, planted in connection with the silk mill which used to be in Brook Street.
In the 16th century, there was a bridge across the Loddon at the bottom of Wote Street and there was a causeway at the bottom of Church Street. A small footbridge in the grounds, which still remains, gave the vicar direct access to the church. During the construction of the town centre in the 1960s, the river was diverted underground and now re-emerges in Eastrop Park.
The River Loddon flows through both counties of Berkshire and Hampshire. It is a tributary of the River Thames, rising within the urban area of Basingstoke and flowing to meet the Thames near the village of Wargrave. The river has a total length of 28 miles (45 km) and, together with its tributaries, drains an area of 400 square miles (1,036 km2).
Historically, the river has been important for milling, and the channel has been modified by the creation of mill ponds, weirs and sluices. Most of the mills used water wheels to generate their power, although two used water turbines. One was a silk mill for a short period, and one was a paper mill, with the rest milling corn or producing flour. Several have been converted to become homes or hotels, but one (Longbridge Mill) is still operated on an occasional basis. The river has been used for navigation in the past, although its exact nature is unclear.
The river is an important resource for wild life. Former gravel workings have become Loddon Nature Reserve and Dinton Pastures Country Park. A section of it is a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest due to rare populations of bulbs and pondweed. It supports several species of fish, and recent improvements have included the provision of a fish bypass, to enable migrating fish to move around the mill site at Arborfield. The scheme has been implemented to comply with the Water Framework Directive and is expected to be a benchmark for similar schemes on other rivers.
Beyond Chute House can be seen part of the 'Great Wall of Basingstoke' in Church Street which was built in the 1960s to contain the great mass of concrete poured over the razed remains of the old market town.
www.basingstoke.gov.uk/browse/leisure-and-culture/parks-a...
Snowy Glebe Gardens
Close to the Basingstoke town centre, opposite the Anvil, Glebe Gardens once belonged to the rectory, Chute House, the large house in the background.
The gardens have many fine old trees, set within grass and during the spring, swathes of snowdrops, crocuses and daffodils. The River Loddon, in the foreground, meanders through the trees, lined by willow trees.
The grounds of Glebe Gardens originally formed the lawns and meadows attached to the rectory for St Michaels Church. In the early 1900s the main summer event of the year was the annual pageant, held on the rectory lawn and meadows, and the church garden party continued into the 1960s. In 1925 one of the events at the pageant was the re-enactment of Danes landing from a boat on the river.
The Georgian rectory standsin the north eastern corner of the gardens. It dates from 1773 but has been altered and extended since. It is named Chute House after the Rev. Anthony Chute, vicar of St. Michael’s Church from 1938 to 1947. In the 1960s it was decided to build a new rectory which now stands close to St Michael’s Church.The gardens and the rectory were bought by the borough council in the early 1970s.
The University of Winchester used Chute House as a Campus which closed in July 2011. It had offered full-time and part-time university courses in subjects including childhood studies, various management pathways, community development and creative industries.
Although the River Loddon is now only a very small stream, in the past it had a considerable flow and its water was used in various industrial processes such as fulling cloth, milling and brewing. Records show that fullers were fined for polluting the river with their waste and in 1547 a vicar was ordered by a Basingstoke court to remove the privy he had erected over the common brook, "which is a great nuisance to all who wash there". A Mulberry tree remains in the gardens near the car park entrance, planted in connection with the silk mill which used to be in Brook Street.
In the 16th century, there was a bridge across the Loddon at the bottom of Wote Street and there was a causeway at the bottom of Church Street. A small footbridge in the grounds, which still remains, gave the vicar direct access to the church. During the construction of the town centre in the 1960s, the river was diverted underground and now re-emerges in Eastrop Park.
The River Loddon flows through both counties of Berkshire and Hampshire. It is a tributary of the River Thames, rising within the urban area of Basingstoke and flowing to meet the Thames near the village of Wargrave. The river has a total length of 28 miles (45 km) and, together with its tributaries, drains an area of 400 square miles (1,036 km2).
Historically, the river has been important for milling, and the channel has been modified by the creation of mill ponds, weirs and sluices. Most of the mills used water wheels to generate their power, although two used water turbines. One was a silk mill for a short period, and one was a paper mill, with the rest milling corn or producing flour. Several have been converted to become homes or hotels, but one (Longbridge Mill) is still operated on an occasional basis. The river has been used for navigation in the past, although its exact nature is unclear.
The river is an important resource for wild life. Former gravel workings have become Loddon Nature Reserve and Dinton Pastures Country Park. A section of it is a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest due to rare populations of bulbs and pondweed. It supports several species of fish, and recent improvements have included the provision of a fish bypass, to enable migrating fish to move around the mill site at Arborfield. The scheme has been implemented to comply with the Water Framework Directive and is expected to be a benchmark for similar schemes on other rivers.
Beyond Chute House can be seen part of the 'Great Wall of Basingstoke' in Church Street which was built in the 1960s to contain the great mass of concrete poured over the razed remains of the old market town.
www.basingstoke.gov.uk/browse/leisure-and-culture/parks-a...