A visitor to Basingstoke may be forgiven for thinking that amid the hustle and bustle of this thriving modern town and centre of commerce there would be little to remind us of old Basingstoke, of the town our grandparents knew 100 years ago.

Many could also be forgiven for thinking that Basingstoke has any past at all. Over the last thirty years the relentless march of progress has left an indelible mark on the town. Contemporary office high-rises and 1970s post-modernist architecture have replaced the old eighteenth- and nineteenth-century timber-framed cottages, turn-of-the-century shop fronts and late Victorian terraces that used to predominate. To the uniformed visitor, Basingstoke today may appear to be a new town; yet if you know where to look, the remnants of the past are never far away and can be clearly seen. This book uses images of the past and the present to draw out that comparison, and remind us that the past is really all around us, if we only know where to look.