I am doing a little research about the building I now work in.

2 Cross Street is in the old part of Basingstoke and as such has quite a history. As part of my research, I turned to the Internet, which drew a blank, so I ended up in the tried and trusted local library, finding a book called “Basingstoke Directory Entries 1784-1935″.

It’s a book that lists people and businesses, with an overview of the town at different moments in time. For instance, 100 years ago, Basingstoke Parish had just 11,450 people living here. Now it is well over ten times that amount.

Anyway, my point…

Reading through the directory listings I have come across a whole host of people trading as tanners, staymakers, a Woollen Draper and Breeches Maker, Coal Merchants, Brewers, Clothes Makers and the list goes on.

If anything, it shows me what this ‘new’ town used to be like before the growth thrown on it in the sixties.

What it also shows me is that back then there must have been a need for these trades and from the beginning of the book to the end, I can see the trades evolving as the world (and peoples needs) changed.

Which begs the question.

In a hundred years from now (not that we may be particularly interested ourselves) what will a web designer or games programmer be? Or, maybe we will be asking ourselves that question in 20 years time?