While it’s far from the oldest building in the village, having been built in 1909, the Brimpton Village Hall is still an important fixture of village life. It plays host to various events, classes, parties and more, and with the closure of all the pubs near the village it’s even more important today than it ever has been. At just 113 years old, there’s not a huge amount of history to share about the hall. We know that it was…
The lovely folks over at the Wasing Estate have asked me to share the following information about their upcoming Christmas event: Wasing’s Christmas Carols and Craft Fair Wednesday 14th December | Doors open at 4.30pm Join us at Wasing Estate for an evening of festive cheer and get in the Christmas spirit alongside the local community. Father Christmas will arrive at 5.30 pm, bringing a special gift to all little ones on his Nice List. Sing along to your favourite Christmas…
Undoubtedly one of the oldest and most historically-significant buildings in the parish, St Leonard’s Chapel dates back to at least the 12th century. According to Heritage Gateway, the chapel (both a Scheduled Monument and a Grade II* listed building) is constructed of coursed flint with stone dressings and has a tiled roof. There are differing accounts of it’s origin, but many historians believe it to be the church of Shalford Manor, as mentioned by the Domesday Survey – despite Shalford…
One of the most prominent and impressive buildings along Hyde End Lane, Hyde End House was build in 1807 and has a long and chequered history. It has been a Grade II listed building since 1952, and was built by a builder from Newbury named Mr Edge. According to research collected by David Hyde (including from our own ‘Brimpton Story’), the existing building replaced an old one that was destroyed in a fire – though some original parts remain, including…
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…
A massive thank you to everyone who came along to our ‘arts and crafts’ show this weekend, Made in Brimpton. Having originally been planned for 2021 (but delayed by a year due to Covid) this show has been well over a year in the planning, but it seemed to go off without a hitch. If you came along to view the artwork, thank you! The organisers behind the scenes put a huge amount of work into getting everything to run…
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…