Bassett is a suburb and

electoral ward A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected to t ...

of the

City of Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

, England. The suburb lies to the north of the city centre and is largely residential, including the

University of Southampton , mottoeng = The Heights Yield to Endeavour , type = Public research university , established = 1862 – Hartley Institution1902 – Hartley University College1913 – Southampton University Coll ...

Glen Eyre Halls , mottoeng = The Heights Yield to Endeavour , type = Public research university , established = 1862 – Hartley Institution1902 – Hartley University College1913 – Southampton University Coll ...

of residence complex (including Chamberlain), which houses around 2,100 students. Bassett gives its name to part of the A33 arterial road which links the city centre to the M3, described by Pevsner & Lloyd as "part of the splendid tree-lined route into Southampton from Winchester, London and the north". The highest point in the City of Southampton (its "

county top The mountains and hills of the British Isles are categorised into various lists based on different combinations of elevation, prominence, and other criteria such as isolation. These lists are used for peak bagging, whereby hillwalkers attempt ...

") lies on Bassett Avenue at a height of above sea level. Bassett Ward comprises Bassett,

Bassett Green Bassett Green is a suburb of Southampton, which has grown from the original small village of Basset. It remains part of the electoral ward of Bassett (q.v. for population). The area is mainly residential, with a mixture of Herbert Collins-design ...

and Lordswood. It had a population of 14,532 at the 2011 census.

History

A family named 'Basset' is known to have lived in

South Stoneham South Stoneham was a Manorialism, manor in South Stoneham ecclesiastical parish, parish. It was also a Hundred (country subdivision), hundred, Poor law union, sanitary district then rural district covering a larger area of south Hampshire, England ...

in the 15th century, and the place name may be from their name. The area broadly occupied by Bassett today was known as Stoneham Common, shown on th
1791 map
by Thomas Milne on which 'Bassets Lane' also appears (without any associated village). The village of Bassett appears on

located roughly where Bassett Green Village is today. In the late 18th century it grew as a retreat for rich people outside (and away from civic responsibilities in) the borough of Southampton. By the time of the Ordnance Survey of 1897, Basset had been renamed

(with a double 't'), and a more westerly area (west of Bassett Wood) was identified as Bassett. By the late 19th century, Bassett consisted of many substantial villas occupied by the middle classes. Despite having the appearance of a well-to-do district on the edge of the town, Revd. Elliott Kenworthy-Browne (rector of North Stoneham from 1886 to 1912) observed that three-quarters of the population of 800 were poor, chiefly mechanics and labourers. In 1920 the boundaries of Southampton were extended to include Bassett, along with Bitterne, Sholing, Woolston, Weston, Peartree and Swaythling.

Government

Along with the adjacent neighbourhoods of

and Lordswood, Bassett forms part of the Bassett Ward of Southampton, which had a population of 13,139 at the 2001 census. Councillors for the ward are elected to Southampton City Council, which is a

unitary authority A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governmen ...

and therefore the only tier of local government covering the neighbourhood. Nationally, Bassett falls within the Romsey and Southampton North constituency for the

UK parliament The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative supremac ...

. Prior to

Brexit Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or ...

in 2020, it was represented by the South East England constituency for the

European Union parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopt ...

Geography

Bassett is primarily urban or suburban in nature but is sandwiched between Southampton's two largest open spaces;

Southampton Common Southampton Common is a large open space to the north of the city centre of Southampton, England. It is bounded by the districts of Shirley, Bassett, Highfield and Portswood. The area supports a large variety of wildlife, including one of th ...

to the south and

Southampton Sports Centre Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Por ...

to the north. The main shopping area of the neighbourhood is located where three major roads meet; Hill Lane (the main road from Bassett to the

city centre A city centre is the commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart of a city. The term "city centre" is primarily used in British English, and closely equivalent terms exist in other languages, such as "" in Fren ...

), Winchester Road and Burgess Road (both major east–west routes across the city). The shops there include a well-established pharmacy, a cycle shop, and a butcher, Uptons of Bassett. Uptons frequently appears in regional and national butchery competitions; in 2014 they were named supreme champions in the Great Hampshire Sausage & Pie Competition.

Landmarks

The Bassett Hotel at 111 Burgess Road dated from before 1871 and was by that year owned by Coopers Brewery, subsequently taken over by

Watney Combe & Reid Watney Combe & Reid was a leading brewery in London. At its peak in the 1930s it was a constituent of the FT 30 index of leading companies on the London Stock Exchange. It produced Watney's Red Barrel. History The Watney family were the mai ...

. It became a popular music venue, with its back room housing a jazz club, the Concorde Club, which subsequently moved to separate premises in

North Stoneham North Stoneham is a settlement and ecclesiastical parish located in between Eastleigh and Southampton in south Hampshire, England. It was formerly an ancient estate and manor. Until the nineteenth century, it was a rural community comprising a num ...

. While located at the Bassett Hotel, the club was the scene of early performances from the likes of

Chris Barber Donald Christopher "Chris" Barber OBE (17 April 1930 – 2 March 2021) was an English jazz musician, best known as a bandleader and trombonist. He helped many musicians with their careers and had a UK top twenty trad jazz hit with " Petite Fl ...

Joe Cocker John Robert "Joe" Cocker (20 May 1944 – 22 December 2014) was an English singer known for his gritty, bluesy voice and dynamic stage performances that featured expressive body movements. Most of his best known singles were recordings of son ...

and

Manfred Mann Manfred Mann were an English rock band, formed in London and active between 1962 and 1969. The group were named after their keyboardist Manfred Mann, who later led the successful 1970s group Manfred Mann's Earth Band. The band had two differen ...

. The hotel's bar was also visited by

Ken Russell Henry Kenneth Alfred Russell (3 July 1927 – 27 November 2011) was a British film director, known for his pioneering work in television and film and for his flamboyant and controversial style. His films in the main were liberal adaptation ...

on his way to an infamous television interview for the '' Viewpoint'' programme; after drinking at least four scotches at the Bassett, Russell initially went to the wrong television studio and when he reached the correct one he failed to answer any questions. The hotel underwent an £80,000 refurbishment in 1972 and was relaunched as a Berni Steak House. It was later sold to

Whitbread Whitbread plc is a multinational British hotel and restaurant company headquartered in Houghton Regis, England. The business was founded as a brewery in 1742, and had become the largest brewery in the world by the 1780s. Its largest division ...

who turned it into a Beefeater restaurant and subsequently a

Brewers Fayre Brewers Fayre is a licensed pub restaurant chain, with 161 locations across the UK as of August 2018. Owned by Whitbread, Brewers Fayre restaurants are known for serving traditional British pub food and for their Sunday Carvery. History The f ...

before it was closed. The hotel was acquired by Sunrise Senior Living who demolished it and built a residential care home on the site. In 1962 the 14 story Brampton tower was built in Bassett.

Education

Primary-age children in Bassett tend to attend local schools in adjacent neighbourhoods, such as Bassett Green, Shirley and Lordswood. Bassett is also close to two large secondary schools;

Cantell School Cantell School is a secondary comprehensive school in Bassett, Southampton. In 2013, Ofsted judged Cantell to be a 'Good' school. History The school occupies the site that was previously home to Glen Eyre School. Cantell was formed as an amal ...

in Bassett Green and Regents Park Community College are roughly equidistant from the focal point of Bassett (the junction of Hill Lane and Winchester Road). The

's distinctive

Boldrewood Campus Boldrewood Innovation Campus is one of the University of Southampton’s campuses, located in Bassett, Southampton. The newly built campus is a centre where business, research and education coexist in engineering sciences, maritime engineerin ...

buildings are situated just off Bassett Avenue, at the eastern extremity of Bassett. The campus housed the Biomedical Sciences Centre until its closure in 2010. It has now been replaced by a joint centre for the University of Southampton and Lloyd's Register, completed in 2014.

Religious sites

Bassett was originally part of the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

, which can be traced back to the early 9th century when it was known as "Stonam Abbatis" or "Abbots Stoneham", and was attached to

Hyde Abbey Hyde Abbey was a medieval Benedictine monastery just outside the walls of Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was dissolved and demolished in 1538 following various acts passed under King Henry VIII to dissolve monasteries and abbeys (see Diss ...

Winchester Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...

. After the dissolution of the monasteries in the 1540s, the manor was acquired by

Thomas Wriothesley Sir Thomas Wriothesley ( ; died 24 November 1534) was a long serving officer of arms at the College of Arms in London. He was the son of Garter King of Arms, John Writhe, and he succeeded his father in this office. Personal life Wriothesley was ...

Earl of Southampton Earl of Southampton was a title that was created three times in the Peerage of England. The first creation came in 1537 in favour of the courtier William FitzWilliam. He was childless and the title became extinct on his death in 1542. The se ...

. In 1599, the Wriothesley family sold the estate to Sir Thomas Fleming. With the growth of Bassett came the construction of a second church within the parish, located on Bassett Avenue. The

foundation stone The cornerstone (or foundation stone or setting stone) is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry foundation. All other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entire structure. Over time ...

for the new church was laid in 1897 and

St Michael and All Angels Church St Michael and All Angels Church may refer to: Africa * St Michael and All Angels Church, Blantyre Malawi * St. Michael and All Angels' Anglican Church, Weltevreden Park, Johannesburg, South Africa America * Cathedral Church of Saint Michael and ...

is now a "

Grade II listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

". The parish has since been renamed "North Stoneham and Bassett", and encompasses the whole of Bassett, the portion of Bassett Green north of Bassett Green Road, North Stoneham, and the portion of Chilworth within the M3/M27 triangle. The parish also covers

Southampton Airport Southampton Airport is an international airport located in both Eastleigh and Southampton, Hampshire in the United Kingdom. The airport is located north-north-east of central Southampton. The southern tip of the runway lies within the Sout ...

. All Saints Church on Winchester Road was inaugurated in 1970 to serve the needs of the western edge of the parish.

Sport

Bassett is home to several of Southampton's main sports facilities:

Southampton Sports Centre

The centre is a 150-acre site with facilities for football, netball, cricket, cyclo cross, cross country, athletics, tennis, bowling, volleyball, crazy golf, putting, and hockey. The area has been used for the Millennium Youth Games, National Cyclocross Championships and to hold outdoor classical concerts.

Southampton Snowsports Centre

The centre has three dry ski slopes: a main slope of 110 metres; a second slope of 90 metres and a nursery slope of 30 metres long. All slopes are fully floodlit.

Southampton City Golf Course

Originally known as Southampton Municipal Golf Course or 'Muni', the course is a 27-hole venue set in woodland. The course was designed by five times British Open Champion J. H. Taylor, and was completed in 1935. It recently celebrated its 75th Anniversary in 2010.

Red Lodge Community Pool

Bassett has its own 20-metre swimming pool. Red Lodge Community Pool was threatened with demolition in 1999 and is now run by a charitable trust. The pool offers swimming lessons, community group bookings and public sessions.Red Lodge Community Pool"

References

External links

Old Bassett Residents Association

North West Bassett Residents Association

North East Bassett Residents Association
{{Districts of Southampton Wards of Southampton