Alton

Town in northeast Hampshire, England, 20 km/12 mi southeast of Basingstoke; population (2001) 16,500. The church of St Laurence was built in the early Norman period; a second nave and chancel were added in the 15th century. The poet Edmund Spenser lived in Alton for a time; his cottage can still be seen.

The south door of the church still bears the bullet holes where a Royalist, Captain Boles, was shot in 1643 while holding out against the Parliamentarians.

Alton

City in Madison County, west Illinois, USA; population (1990) 32,900. It is situated on the Mississippi River, 32 km/20 mi northeast of St Louis, Missouri. The site of oil refineries and shipping facilities, this highly industrialized port city also has factories producing glass, paper, plastic, ammunition, hardware, steel products, boats, and clothing. Limestone and building stone are quarried in the vicinity.

Alton was founded in 1817 and became a busy river port; it was incorporated as a city in 1837. The abolitionist Elijah P Lovejoy was murdered in Alton in 1837. It was also the site of slavery debates in 1858 between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas, Lincoln's rival candidate for the US Senate. The city was one of the stops on the Underground Railroad (a network for escaped slaves). The first Illinois State Prison (for Confederate prisoners) was established here. In Alton is a campus of Southern Illinois University.