Chartered Surveyors Hereford Herefordshire

Approximate Population: 50,400

Hereford, Herefordshire, was founded in around AD 700 and became the Saxon capital of West Mercia. The present Hereford Cathedral dates from the 12th century. Former Bishops of Hereford include Saint Thomas de Cantilupe and Lord High Treasurer of England Thomas Charlton. The city gave its name to two suburbs of Paris, France: Maisons-Alfort (population 54,600) and Alfortville (population 36,232), due to a manor built there by Peter of Aigueblanche, Bishop of Hereford, in the middle of the 13th century.

Hereford, a base for successive holders of the title Earl of Hereford, was once the site of a castle, Hereford Castle, which rivalled that of Windsor in size and scale. This was a base for repelling Welsh attacks and a secure stronghold for English Kings such as King Henry IV when on campaign in the Welsh Marches against Owain Glyndŵr. The castle was dismantled in the 1700s and landscaped into Castle Green.

After the Battle of Mortimer’s Cross in 1461, during the Wars of the Roses, the defeated Lancastrian leader Owen Tudor (father of the future Henry VII of England) was taken to Hereford by Sir Roger Vaughan and executed in High Town. A plaque now marks the spot of the execution. Vaughan was later himself executed, under a flag of truce, by Owen’s son Jasper.

During the civil war the city changed hands several times. On 30 September 1642 Parliamentarians led by Sir Robert Harley and Henry Grey, 1st Earl of Stamford occupied the city without opposition. In December they withdrew to Gloucester because of the presence in the area of a Royalist army under Lord Herbert. The city was again occupied briefly from 23 April to 18 May 1643 by Parliamentarians commanded by Sir William Waller but it was in 1645 that the city saw most action. On 31 July 1645 a Scottish army of 14,000 under Alexander Leslie, 1st Earl of Leven besieged the city but met stiff resistance from its garrison and inhabitants.

Chartered Surveyors Hereford Herefordshire

Chartered Surveyors Poole Dorset

Approximate Population: 138,288

Poole’s name derives from a corruption of the Celtic word bol and the Old English word pool meaning a place near a pool or creek. Variants include Pool, Pole, Poles, Poll, Polle, Polman, and Poolman. The area around modern Poole has been inhabited for the past 2,500 years. During the 3rd century BC, Celts known as the Durotriges moved from hilltop settlements at Maiden Castle and Badbury Rings to heathland around the River Frome and Poole Harbour. The Romans landed at Poole during their conquest of Britain in the 1st century and took over an Iron Age settlement at Hamworthy, an area just west of the modern town centre.

In Anglo-Saxon times, Poole was included in the Kingdom of Wessex. The settlement was used as a base for fishing and the harbour a place for ships to anchor on their way to the River Frome and the important Anglo-Saxon town of Wareham. Poole experienced two large-scale Viking invasions during this era: in 876, Guthrum sailed his fleet through the harbour to attack Wareham, and in 1015, Canute began his conquest of England in Poole Harbour, using it as a base to raid and pillage Wessex.

Following the Norman conquest of England, Poole rapidly grew into a busy port as the importance of Wareham declined.  The town was part of the manor of Canford, but does not exist as an identifiable entry in the Doomsday Book. The earliest written mention of Poole occurred on a document from 1196 describing the newly built St James’s Chapel in ‘La Pole’. The Lord of the Manor, Sir William Longspée, sold a charter of liberties to the burgesses of Poole in 1248 to raise funds for his participation in the Seventh Crusade.

Consequently, Poole gained a small measure of freedom from feudal rule and acquired the right to appoint a mayor and hold a court within town. Poole’s growing importance was recognised in 1433 when it was awarded Staple port status by King Henry VI, enabling the port to begin exporting wool and in turn granting a license for the construction of a town wall. In 1568, Poole gained further autonomy when it was granted legal independence from Dorset and made a county corporate by the Great Charter of Elizabeth I. During the English Civil War, Poole’s puritan stance and its merchant’s opposition to ship money tax introduced by King Charles I, led to the town declaring for Parliament. Poole escaped any large-scale attack and with the Royalists on the brink of defeat in 1646, the Parliamentary garrison from Poole laid siege to and captured the nearby Royalist stronghold at Corfe Castle.

Chartered Surveyors Poole Dorset

Chartered Surveyors Nottingham Nottinghamshire

Approximate Population: 288,700

Nottingham, Nottinghamshire is home to a multitude of different architectural styles, with buildings from a vast swathe of history stretching right back to the 1100s.  Victorian Nottingham saw a building boom with many ornate buildings being built owing to the city’s 19th century industrial importance, including work by architects such as Alfred Waterhouse (architect of London’s Natural History Museum), Thomas Chambers Hine and Nottingham’s own Watson Fothergill.

The western third of the city is home to most of the city’s modern office complexes.[citation needed] Several tall office buildings line Maid Marian Way whilst the Georgian area around Oxford and Regent Streets is dominated by small professional firms. The Albert Hall (rebuilt in 1909 after the original Watson Fothergill structure fell victim to fire) faces the Gothic revival St Barnabas’ Cathedral by Pugin. Nottingham Castle and its grounds are located further south in the western third of the city.

The central third descends from the University district in the north, past the Gothic revival Arkwright Building where Nottingham’s Central Library was previously based – Nottingham Trent University now owns this building as well as many others in the area. Theatre Royal on Theatre Square with its pillared façade was built within six months in 1865. King and Queen Streets are home to striking Victorian buildings designed by the likes of Alfred Waterhouse and Watson Fothergill.

The central focal point of the City is Old Market Square which is the largest in the UK and is dominated by the Council House. This was built in the 1920s to display civic pride, ostentatiously using baroque columns and placing stone statues of two lions at the front to stand watch over the square. The Exchange Arcade on the ground floor is an upmarket shopping containing high-end boutiques. Portland Stone, the same as used for St Paul’s Cathedral, was used to construct the Council House and Exchange Arcade. Streets lead from all directions off the square but to the south, shopping streets lead their way in to the Broadmarsh Shopping Centre which is soon to be completely rebuilt. Plans include a much larger three-floor centre with glass-covered ’streets’ (similar to the Birmingham Bullring), an iconic new building on the south west corner of the site and a new transport terminus for the proposed tram lines and buses.

Chartered Surveyors Nottingham Nottinghamshire

Chartered Surveyors Lincoln Lincolnshire

Approximate Population: 87,800

Lincoln’s economy is based mainly on public administration, commerce, arable farming and tourism, with industrial relics like Rustons (now Siemens) still in existence. However, many of Lincoln’s industrial giants have long ceased production in the city, leaving large empty industrial warehouse-like buildings. More recently, these buildings have become multi-occupant units, with the likes of Lincs FM radio station (in the Titanic Works) and LA Fitness gym taking up space. Like many other cities in Britain, Lincoln has developed a growing IT economy, with many e-commerce mail order companies setting up in or around the place.

A plethora of other, more conventional small industrial businesses are located in and around Lincoln. One of the reasons for building the University was to increase inward investment and act as a springboard for small companies. The University’s presence has also drawn many more licensed premises to the town centre around the Brayford Pool. A new small business unit next door to a University accommodation building, the Think Tank, opened in June 2009.

The Extra motorway services company is based on Castle Hill, with most new UK service areas being built by Swayfields who are the parent company. There are two main electronics companies in the town: Chelmsford-based e2V (formerly Associated Electrical Industries before 1961) is situated between Carholme Road (A57) and the Foss Dyke next-door to Carholme Golf Club; and Dynex Semiconductor (formerly Marconi Electronic Devices) is on Doddington Road (B1190) near the A46 bypass just inside the borough boundary, and near North Hykeham.

Over the last few years, Lincoln has also seen rapid development in its retail sector, in an attempt to keep people shopping in the city and to compete with the neighbouring cities of Nottingham and Sheffield. Around the Tritton Road (B1003) trading estate, many new businesses have begun trading from large units with car parking. Lincoln has a choice of five large national supermarkets. The recently developed St Mark’s Square complex has Debenhams as the flagship store and has an accompanying trading estate with well known chain stores such as Bhs.

Chartered Surveyors Lincoln Lincolnshire

Chartered Surveyors Basingstoke Hampshire

Approximate Population: 80,477

Basingstoke, Hampshire was among the towns and cities targeted during the Second World War, and suffered bomb damage including St Michael’s Church. After the war, it had a population of 25,000.

As part of the London Overspill plan, Basingstoke was rapidly developed in the late 1960s as an ‘expanded town’, along with places such as Ashford and Swindon. Basingstoke town centre was completely rebuilt. At this time many buildings of historic interest (including a bomb-damaged Methodist church) were replaced by a large red brick shopping centre and concrete multi-storey car park. Many office blocks and large estates were built, including a ring road.

The shopping centre, following money issues, was built in phases. The first phase was completed by the 1970s and was later covered in the 1980s, and was known as The Walks. The second phase was completed by the early 1980s, and became The Malls. The third phase was abandoned and the site was later used to build The Anvil concert hall.
The new shopping centre Festival Place

In 2003 Basingstoke was voted ninth in the Crap Towns survey, a humorous, but unscientific guide to the worst places to live in Britain though was not in the top ten of the 2004 survey.

Later that year, the Basingstoke Gazette launched its “Basingstoke – A Place to be Proud of” campaign, aimed at changing people’s perception of the town. The campaign is ongoing (as of May 2009[update]) and marked by the presentation of annual awards to individuals, organisations or businesses nominated by the public for commendable local achievement.

Chartered Surveyors Basingstoke Hampshire