Basingstoke Swift Streets
- 5 hours ago
- 3 min read
We have recently completed the first Phase of the Basingstoke Swift Streets Project, under which Hampshire Swifts, teamed up with Natural Basingstoke and Birds on the Brink, to increase the numbers of Swifts and House Martins in the town. Southeast England has lost 75% of its swift population since 1994, largely due to the loss of traditional nesting sites, and the project aims to play a part of their recovery locally. We had previously installed some scattered boxes in Basingstoke but not nearly as many as the other major urban centres here in Hampshire like Winchester, Southampton and Portsmouth.
We have firstly installed two double boxes with a call player on a building called Goldings in the town, ably assisted by Dr Paul Sterry from Birds on the Brink, and Kevin Chatburn a Councillor of BDBC. This building is owned by Basingstoke & Deane Borough Council (BDBC)and contains the offices of the Basingstoke Counselling Service (BCS). Liz Suatt, Investment Portfolio Lead from BDBC, has kindly arranged for the Council to fund this part of the project and BCS is kindly hosting the call player. Roger has made and painted the two boxes to match the walls of this beautiful, listed, building.
The project team is delighted that Basingstoke & Deane Borough Council has demonstrated its commitment to nature recovery by installing the first Swift box on a building that it owns. We are looking forward to working with them to progressively expand the programme to cover other suitable council properties across the borough.
Liz Suatt, Investment Portfolio Lead from BDBC has kindly arranged for the Council to fund this part of the project and BCS is kindly hosting the call player. Roger has made and painted the two boxes to match the walls of this beautiful listed building.
We have also installed twenty Swift boxes in the Brookvale area of the town. This area was selected as a heritage area with a history of nesting Swifts and evidence of recent Swift activity in the area. Brookvale’s western edge was heavily shaped by the John I. Thornycroft & Co vehicle and engineering factory. Opened in 1898, the plant was a major employer and vital to military production, and many of the employees will have lived in the area. The factory was demolished in 1991 and is now the site of Morrisons and B&M. The former Brook Street Elementary School in Lower Brook Street opened in 1909 and served the community until 1985. Today, this landmark building has been converted into award-winning flats and may still house a pair or two of Swifts, as we saw birds flying overhead though the adjacent George Street, which is where most birds are currently seen.
These twenty boxes have all been funded by South East Water, arranged through Patrick Austin for which the project is very grateful.
Most boxes have been installed in Lower Brook Street with some in George Street and a few in other surrounding streets.
In Lower Brook Street we have installed four boxes on the side gable of a house where Swifts have nested in the past, though not recently since the site was taken over by House Sparrows.
Here we have also installed a call player so that hopefully Swifts will quickly learn to recognise the boxes as good places to nest. This is what happens when enough boxes are installed in an area. On 5 June 2026, we installed two boxes on a house in South View, Fulflood, Winchester, which is a fantastic area for Swifts with many pairs already nesting in boxes. We didn’t think it would take long before Swifts found them, and just ten days later on 15 June the owner observed a Swift enter one of the boxes and not come out!
We will soon be installing a further two double boxes on the Samaritans building in Essex Road at the eastern end of Brookvale, and will also be selecting a further area of the town for the next phase of box installation.
Tim Norriss, Hampshire Swifts
