Chapter 7. The Civil War
- Cromwell Blows the Crap out of Basing House

 

The historical high-water mark for Basing House was during the English Civil War when it was personally blown to pieces by Oliver Cromwell and his puritanical army of Roundheads. The house, which was generally considered to be fabulous, was inhabited at the time by The Marquis of Winchester, further evidence that even in historical times, basingstoke was a much better place to live than Winchester. Like all hereditary piers at the time, the Marquis was of course a staunch royalist. He did a terrific job of repelling repeated attacks by Sir William Waller (Willy Wally, as he is known locally), withstanding his sieges and killing a bunch of roundheads in the "Bloody Barn".

This went on for well into the war until at last Cromwell himself was forced to stop off on his way back up North and blast the place into the pages of history.

 

 

 

 

Chapter 8. Basingstoke in the Sixties - A Modernist Utopia

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