While the recent closure of the Three Horseshoes pub might lead you to believe it was the only pub in Brimpton, there have actually been a number over the years. We’ve already covered the Pineapple in Brimpton Common, but over on Hyde End Lane they also used to have their own public house, in the shape of the Horse and Jockey. As the pub has now been converted to a residential home, it’s hard to find out much about its…
Until as recently as 2016, Brimpton still had a village shop, occupying the building that now houses Georgina Hill hairdressing. We don’t have much information about the building itself, but the stores opened in around 1920, where they traded for almost 100 years. Before that, the main store for the village was Tanners in Hyde End Lane. There’s a wealth of information about the ownership and establishment of the Store in the ‘Brimpton Story’ book, but here’s a short run-down…
The bungalow known as Byeways appears to date to the early 1930s or 40s, when it was built by the owners of East View (now Eastbank) in what was their garden. The house was originally built to house the Brimpton Post Office (one of at least 4 present buildings that has housed this at one time or another!) – you can still see some of the features on the modern building, if you look closely. The old shed you can…
Not a lot is known about the house known as East View (now Eastbank), short of one notable previous owner – Mrs Norman, who also owned what is now the Old Post Office, in the 1930s/40s. Mrs Norman ran the post office at the time, and during her ownership of East View she built a bungalow in its garden to house the Brimpton Post Office – the building now known as Byeways. Before this, and based solely one what we…
Like a number of other old buildings in the village (including the Old Post Office), Close Cottage was once the home to Brimpton’s Postal Service. In fact, it was the very first – home to the Penny Post from 1847, run by villager Stephen Stair (a local shoemaker). According to the ‘Brimpton Story’, letters arrived from Newbury at 9am and were dispatched around the area at 4pm. The Post Office continued to operate from Close Cottage for nearly 70 years…
Seemingly one of the most well-documented buildings in the village (see below for several examples), the building known now as ‘The Old Post Office’ was – as the name suggests – one of many buildings in the village that once served as the Post Office. In this case, from around the 1930s – though it also served as a village shop (called ‘The Old Post Office Stores’) in the 1960s and beyond. Before serving as the Post Office / Village…
Situated on the southern boundary of Brimpton Common, The Pineapple Inn was another of the village’s public houses for a time. Dating as far back as the seventeenth century (though possibly earlier) it remains today very much as it always has – though it is no longer in use as a pub. The name supposedly refers to the fruit of the pine tree – aka the pine cone (rather than the more tropical version), of which there are many in…
Situated in the middle of the village, the Three Horseshoes was Brimpton’s longest-serving public house, before it closed its doors in the year 2021. The present building (currently in the process of being turned into a private dwelling) was built in 1869, and replaced ‘The Horse Shoes’ pub which was sat near St Peter’s Church. The pub was named after the village farrier, who used to shoe horses in a building next to the pub. The building was first owned…
According to the writers of the ‘Brimpton Story’ book, the house known as ‘Brimpton Lodge’ (offset from Wasing Lane, on the way out of the village) is at least two hundred years old, but possibly a lot older. The oldest section of the building was originally a pair of cottages, which were merged and expanded by subsequent owners – adding on doors, windows, staircases and a number of roof alterations. Oddly, one particular ‘upgrade’ saw the addition of a large…
The following is an extract from “A Century of Witness”, a 1944 book by Mr Leslie Wyeth (a Baptist Minister who often preached in Brimpton’s Baptist Chapel) goes into great detail about the origins of the church and school room. The extract was transcribed in the village book, ‘The Brimpton Story’ in 1999. “In 1831 a corn merchant called Jabez Vines took a lease of Brimpton Mill. He was a member of the Baptist Church in Reading and Mr Wyeth…