Basingstoke was a small Hampshire market town with a history of wool and then malting. The industrial revolution arrived in the form of Wallis's foundry which produced farm equipment and in time powered threshing machines. The town had already been linked to the Thames via the Basingstoke canal and Wey navigation. Railways arrived between 1840 and 1854 and could have brought railway workshops but for the town's resistance. These went instead to Eastleigh.
In 1856 Thomas Burberry noticed that the coats that shepherds wore tended not to soak up rain and he concluded that this must be because of the natural oil in fleeces. He took the idea and began manufacturing coats that also did not absorb rain. This was a product of the process he invented to produce woollen material called gabardine. Coats made of this were, and indeed are, sold under his name. Some half a million were worn as trench coats by British troops in the First World War. The Basingstoke factories closed in 1959 but production continues in Castleford In Yorkshire.
John Isaac Thornycroft of Chiswick built ships and in the later nineteenth century built a vertical steam engine to power a wheeled wagon. In the early twentieth century he moved this activity to Basingstoke and developed petrol engines capable of powering trucks. In 1905 the company produced a bus with capacity for 36 passengers. In the First World War the company supplied 5,000 'J' type trucks for various uses including having an anti-aircraft gun mounted on the back. Further buses and trucks were developed and in the Second World War Thornycroft again provided many heavy vehicles. The company joined Leyland in 1962 with specialist vehicles going to Scammells in Watford. The Basingstoke factory was sold to the American axle manufacturer, the Eaton Corporation, and now manufactures power solutions.
In 1960 Basingstoke was designated as a London over-spill town and this required new housing but also employment. The companies which chose to set up in Basingstoke included the British fork lift truck maker, Lansing Bagnall, Honeywell, Thermo-Fisher, De La Rue, Albright International and the AA.
Paper maker Wiggins Teape had their headquarters in the town. The predecessor partnerships were founded in Aldgate in the eighteenth century. Gateway House was opened in 1977 by which time the Group had mills across the UK and around the world. It later merged with the French Arjo but was forced into administration in 2021 partly as a result of rising gas prices.
At nearby Laverstoke Henry Portal set up his second paper mill in the early eighteenth century. It began printing bank notes for the Bank of England. The company bought the Bathford mill in Bath in 1970.
Further reading:
Anne Hawker, The Story of Basingstoke (Newbury: Local Heritage Books, 1984)
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