Aldershot

Aldershot
Hampshire
Union Street, Aldershot
Location
Grid reference:	SU865505
Location:	51°14’49"N, -0°45’35"W
Data
Population:	33,840  (2001)
Post town:	Aldershot
Postcode:	GU11
Dialling code:	01252
Local Government
Council:	Rushmoor
Parliamentary constituency:	Aldershot

Aldershot is a town in Hampshire, located on heathland at the eastern edge of the county. The town part of a loose conurbation within the Blackwater Valley which includes other towns, such as Farnborough and Farnham across in Surrey.

Aldershot is best known as an army town and today it is known as the "Home of the British Army". The coming of the Army in the Victorian period led to rapid growth from a small village to a Victorian town.

The Army still has its barracks in Aldershot, though the town itself is no longer the thriving that it once was, a story spelled out in the decayed town centre and empty shops along the main street.

History

The name of the town is from the Old English for "Alder wood". The growth of alder trees indicates that it was a boggy place. The name is found in the Domesday Book as Alreshete.

Before 1850, Aldershott (as it was spelt then) was little known. The area was a vast stretch of common land, a lonely wasteland unsuitable for most forms of agriculture with scant population, though a village existed; a 1722 edition of Camden's Britannia included a map of Hampshire with a village where Aldershot stands.

These heaths were regarded as dangerous and at one time they had almost as bad a reputation as Hounslow Heath. The stretch of the London to Winchester turnpike that passed through it between Bagshot and Farnham (now known as the Farnborough Road) was the scene of highway robberies. There were many tales of highwaymen holding up coaches. Dick Turpin is said to have operated in the area having his headquarters near nearby Farnborough, and there were sightings of Springheeled Jack.

In 1854, at the time of the Crimean War, the heath land around Aldershot was established as an army base with Aldershot at its centre. This led to a rapid expansion of Aldershot's population going from 875 in 1851, to in excess of 16,000 by 1861 (including about 9,000 from the military). The town continued to grow, reaching a peak in the 1950s.

Queen Victoria was a regular visitor to Aldershot and a Royal Pavilion was erected for her use. For her Diamond Jubilee Review on 21 June 1887), 60,000 troops lined up in the Long Valley. They stretched from the Basingstoke Canal to Caesar's Camp. Royalty and VIPs from all over Europe and the British Empire attended the event.

A substantial rebuilding of the barracks was carried out between 1961 and 1969 by Building Design Partnership. The town was designated an "Experimental Site" by the government and various new building technologies were employed with mixed success.

In 2004 some former Gurkha soldiers were given the right to settle in the UK. As many had previously been based in Aldershot, the town became host to a growing Nepalese population; between 2004 and 2008 the Nepalese]] here and round about grew to approximately 7,000 and after the Government allowed settlement by soldiers and their families after four years' service, between 2009 and 2011 Rushmoor's Nepalese population increased by approximately two thousand.

The Aldershot Military Tattoo

The Aldershot Military Tattoo was an international annual event. Between 1922 and 1939 the Aldershot Military Searchlight Tattoo held at the Rushmoor Arena presented spectacular displays from all branches of the services. This was the premier military Tattoo in Britain during the inter-war years; before there was an Edinburgh Tattoo, the Aldershot show took the lead for sheer scale and spectacle. Its post-war format, the Army Show, was an annual event until financial circumstances saw its cancellation in 2010.

1972 Aldershot bombing

On 22 February 1972 Aldershot experienced one of the worst mainland terrorist attacks by the IRA. Seven people, all civilian support staff, including cooks, cleaners, and a Roman Catholic priest, were killed in a car bomb attack on the 16th Parachute Brigade headquarters mess at Aldershot. This blast was later claimed by the Official IRA as revenge for the shootings in Londonderry that came to be known as "Bloody Sunday". Until then the military town had been open-plan, but the attack led to immediate action to secure military property by erecting security fences topped with barbed wire. Other security measures, including armed patrols were also implemented.

Following the bombing, it was decided to erect a memorial plaque in the grounds of a prominent new building approximately one mile away in Aldershot's town centre. However, this was soon rejected, and once the building of the attack was demolished, the plaque was moved to its current position, on the actual site of the bombing. The grounds and the site of the memorial have been preserved by the Army ever since.

Aldershot Military Town

Sign for Aldershot Military Town

Aldershot Military Town is the area between Aldershot and North Camp near Farnborough. It is a garrison town that serves as the location for the military presence in the area. It houses Aldershot Garrison's married quarters, barracks, Army playing fields and other sporting facilities. It is mostly centred around the junction of Queen's Avenue and Alisons Road. The military town includes some local landmarks, such as the Aldershot Observatory, Aldershot Military Cemetery, the Royal Garrison Church and other churches. The town used to be the corps headquarters for the Royal Corps of Transport and the Army Catering Corps, these were merged into the Royal Logistic Corps in 1993 and the corps headquarters moved to Princess Royal Barracks, Deepcut.

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert showed a keen interest in the establishment and development of Aldershot as a garrison town in the 1850s, at the time of the Crimean War. They had a wooden Royal Pavilion built which they would often stay in when attending reviews of the army. In 1860 Albert established and endowed the Prince Consort's Library, which still exists today.

Aldershot Military Town is separate from the town of Aldershot and comes under its own military jurisdiction. It was home to the Parachute Regiment from its formation in 1940 until it moved to Colchester Garrison in 2003. Many famous people have been associated with the Military Town, including Charlie Chaplin who made his first stage appearance in The Canteen theatre aged 5 in 1894, and Winston Churchill, who was based there in the 19th century.

The area also houses various military and regimental museums, including the Aldershot Military Museum, housed in a red-brick Victorian barracks. Until December 2007 the Parachute Regiment and Airborne Forces Museum was in Aldershot Military Town. It has since moved to the Imperial War Museum in Duxford, Cambridgeshire.

In recent years plans have been unveiled for planners to redevelop some of the Military Town according to Aldershot's urban extension.

Sights of the town

Wellington Statue

1st Duke of Wellington astride Copenhagen

A statue of the first Duke of Wellington]] mounted on his horse, Copenhagen, is situated on Round Hill behind the Royal Garrison Church. The statue is 30 feet high, 26 feet from nose to tail, over 22 feet in girth, weighs 40 tons and is intricately detailed including musculature and veins. It was designed and built by Matthew Cotes Wyatt who used recycled bronze from cannons that were captured at the Battle of Waterloo. It took thirty men over three years to finish the project.

Originally, in 1846, the statue was erected at Hyde Park Corner, London on the Wellington Arch. However, Decimus Burton, architect of the arch, had tried to veto this plan for his preferred "figure in a four horse chariot". Many agreed with Decimus Burton that the statue looked ridiculous since it was out of proportion. It was nicknamed "The Archduke" and was a popular topic in the satirical magazine Punch.

Queen Victoria claimed that the statue ruined the view of the skyline from Buckingham Palace, and she privately proposed that the statue be moved. The Duke, who had only sat for the sculptor on two or three occasions, suddenly became very attached to the statue and would not consider its removal from its arch.

In 1883, due to a road widening project, the arch was moved a short distance and now looks down Constitution Hill. The Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII ) wrote to the Prime Minister, Gladstone, "As regards the old colossal statue of the Duke. I would suggest that it should not be broken up but removed to Aldershot where it will be highly valued by the Army".

In 1885, the Prince of Wales handed the monument over to Lieutenant General Anderson, the commander of the Aldershot garrison.

Aldershot Observatory

Aldershot observatory

The observatory is a circular red-brick building with a domed roof and it stands on Queen's Avenue. Inside is a telescope, 8-inch refractor, mounted on a German-type equatorial mount with a clockwork drive. The telescope and observatory building were a gift from aviation pioneer Patrick Young Alexander to the British Army, a fact which is recorded by a plaque near the observatory door. It reads: "Presented to the Aldershot Army Corps by Patrick Y Alexander Esq 1906".

Shopping in Aldershot

Aldershot was once the principal retail centre in the Blackwater Valley, however, other centres have grown to compete for customers. Union Street and Wellington Street were pedestrianised in the 1970s when the Wellington Centre, a covered shopping centre, was built. In the 1990s, an extension of the Wellington Centre, The Galleries, provided extra shops, although nearly all are now closed. Local traders have claimed that this centre and its associated development are threatening the remaining independent shops operating in Aldershot. A local councillor has claimed "we have too many empty shops in the town", and it is a frequent complaint of local residents that the town has declined since the 1960s. In 2003, a health check of the town centre was published, the report concluded that "Aldershot is experiencing promising signs of revitalisation, particularly in the shopping core" Although, in 2005, Rushmoor Borough Council documented the percentage of vacancies at 10%, 8% and 7% respectively for Union Street, the Wellington Centre and Wellington street.

Sport

• Cricket: Aldershot Cricket Club
• Football: Aldershot Town. On 24 September 2011 Aldershot Town were drawn against Manchester United at the Recreation Ground in Aldershot in the Carling Cup 4th round losing 3-0, Aldershot Town's most successful run to date in the Carling Cup.
• Hockey: Aldershot Hockey Club
• Running: Blackwater Valley Runners
• Swimming: Aldershot Lido opened in 1930. It is a traditional outdoor leisure pool that contains 1.5 million gallons of water situated on a 10-acre site. The original land was a lake that had become overgrown with weeds. It was bought by the council in 1920 for £21,000 and was the focus of the council's improvement projects for the town. The Lido became an Olympic venue in 1948 when it was the site of the swimming event in the Modern Pentathlon of that year's London Olympic Games. The pool has extensive areas of shallow water for children to play including a large fountain at the centre. It also has a diving area and water slides. There is an adjoining 25 m indoor pool that allows all year round swimming.

• Rugby Union: Aldershot and Fleet RUFC (named Fleet RUFC until a move in 2003 to Aldershot Park)

• Olympics: Aldershot hosted three of the five events in the modern pentathlon at the 1948 London Olympics. The swimming was held in Aldershot Lido, Maida Gymnasium hosted the fencing, and the cross-country equestrian event was held at Tweseldown. All of the Olympic equestrian events, excluding the Prix des Nations, were also held at Aldershot.

For the 2012 Olympics, Team GB trained at Aldershot Barracks.

Media

• Aldershot News & Mail
• Surrey-Hants Star Courier, a free tabloid

In literature

Aldershot appears often in literature, always for its military connection.

Rudyard Kipling writes in his poem "Gunga Din".

You may talk o’ gin and beer
When you’re quartered safe out ’ere,
An’ you’re sent to penny-fights an’ Aldershot it;
But when it comes to slaughter
You will do your work on water,
An’ you’ll lick the bloomin’ boots of ’im that's got it.

Sir John Betjeman's poem "A Subaltern's Love Song" has:

Miss J Hunter Dunn, Miss J Hunter Dunn,
Furnish'd and burnish'd by Aldershot sun,
What strenuous singles we played after tea,
We in the tournament - you against me!
Love-thirty, love-forty, oh! weakness of joy,
The speed of a swallow, the grace of a boy,
With carefullest carelessness, how gaily you won,
I am weak from your loveliness, Joan Hunter Dunn.

Aldershot appears as Quartershot in Thomas Hardy's novels.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle set the short story The Adventure of the Crooked Man in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes in Aldershot. Holmes suspects a deformed beggar knows what caused Colonel James Barclay's sudden death during an argument with his wife.

P G Wodehouse set several episodes of his early school stories in Aldershot, at a convocation of British public school athletes. He refers to the Queen's Avenue gymnasium as the site of the boxing matches there. He mentions this convocation in The Gold Bat, The White Feather, and The Pothunters.

Aldous Huxley mentions Aldershot in Eyeless in Gaza

Aldershot on film

Due to its architecture, Bruneval Barracks in Montgomery Lines was chosen as the location for snowy scenes in Kazan, Russia at the end of the 2009 James Bond film Quantum of Solace. Parts of Aldershot's military training area were also used for the opening sequence in the 2002 James Bond film Die Another Day.

The Montgomery Lines were again used for the film World War Z based on the novel by Max Brooks.

Outside links

• The Aldershot Civic Society
• Aldershot Military Museum
• Aldershot Library Military Collection