Basingstoke Swift Streets

Hampshire Swifts are working with Gill Smallman of Natural Basingstoke and with the Birds on the Brink (BOTB) charity and others to promote the Basingstoke ‘Swift Streets’ campaign. The plan is to achieve a measurable increase in the population of Swifts and House Martins in the borough of Basingstoke and Deane, through installation of Swift boxes, Swift bricks and House Martin nest cups to create new nesting sites for our co-habiting urban birds.

I had a lovely walk in the sunshine this week with Paul Sterry (from BOTB) around parts of Basingstoke looking for likely places where Swift boxes might be installed on Council properties. The Council offices were not a suitable construction but the adjacent Registry Office looks great, though I believe this is an Hampshire County Council rather than BDDC building.

Basingstoke Registry Office

We then looked at All Saints Church where it may be possible to install boxes in the belltower – this needs further investigation. The houses in surrounding roads look promising and ideal for boxes.

All Saints Church, Basingstoke

Next we went to St Michaels Church where there have been historical records of many Swifts in the area. There is just one short section of open eaves on the whole Church and I don’t think that Swifts nest there; but there is potential to build in some bespoke boxes between the rafter ends. These would be very discrete but it would need a faculty…

Just to the west of the Church we made an exciting discovery. St Michael’s Church Cottage is a Grade 2 Listed Building. It has a long history, with its core dating to the late medieval period, likely originating from a manor called "Watermartyns". The building has evolved over centuries, with additions like the Schoolroom and Chapter Room built by early tenants, and later alterations around 1800 to create the current structure. It served various roles, from residential use to housing weavers and dyehouses, before becoming part of the church's glebe land and being used for meetings and functions. It is said to be the oldest building in Basingstoke. It has open eaves and from the lines of poo on the front of the wall plate, there are at least eight pairs of Swifts that use the front of this building. It seems very likely that this building has the oldest colony of Swifts in the whole of the town. Gilbert White, it is thought, went to school in Basingstoke at the Holy Ghost School, just across the road from the Church. He was the first (or maybe the one portrayed as the first) to note that Swifts mate on the wing and have just one brood a year.

St Michael’s Church Cottage, Basingstoke

We also went just a little further to the west to have a look at what used to be Brookvale School in Lower Brook Street. Swifts have been recorded here in the past but it seems now to have been converted into apartments. I’m sure this and adjacent streets would once have been alive with Swifts but I expect there are very few here now since most properties have had uPVC soffits and fascias fitted.

Lower Brook St, Brookvale, Basingstoke

Tim Norriss

Hampshire Swifts