Jo’s parents lived in Basingstoke, she was born in Winchester Hospital and has lived in Basingstoke all her life except for 10 years when she was away for education.

Jo tells us her earliest memories

“My grandfather lived with us and his brother lived in Goat Lane. They’d walk around town and sit outside the town hall until the pubs opened.”

Growing up she went to Coombehurst School before going to The Shrubbery secondary modern girls school where “the headmistress did all she could to raise our expectations and horizons, if we had been good then we got to play tennis on the grass courts by the maternity home.”

“I was a St Michaels guide. The meetings were in the church cottages and the garden outside (Glebe Gardens) was our playground.”

“At 9pm at the Top of the town there was nothing. People were in the pub. As a teen it was a bit dead. Now it’s just beginning to get alive at 9pm!”

“There were two cinemas when I was growing up. One was the Savoy where the vicarage is and next to it was a crooked house.”

Talking about how Basingstoke has changed she says

“All of this has gone on around me. You used to be able to see all the way up to the Railway Station from Wote Street and you could see Kingsclere Street from Church Street.”

What about local events that hold a special meaning for her?

“The balloon festival. It made me upset when it stopped. Lots of people came for it. You would see the balloons go up at 6am and 6pm”

These days Jo volunteers at Shopmobility. She walks her dog in War Memorial Park, Crabtree Plantation and over the Common. In terms of hidden gems she tells us “The Holy Ghost and the little churches the town has got.”

January 2025