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…
Situated in Brimpton Common, Blacknest Lodge dates back to 1903, though there have been buildings on the site for a lot longer – John Arundell purchased much of the land in Brimpton Common back in 1839 and this included the house at Blacknest. Supposedly the cellar underneath the lodge dates back to Georgian times, and the occupants at the time (the Goddards) had lived there from the mid 1700s. The Lodge was built by a Mr P Dollar, whose initial…
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…
According to the details recorded in the ‘Brimpton Story’ book, the St Peter’s Almshouses (to give them their full name) date back to 1854 when they were built to accommodate the poor, the elderly and widows. They were built and maintained by the Brimpton Charity, and endowed by the Countess of Falmouth. The building originally housed six separate almshouses, each of which was made up of a living room with a bedroom above. The six dwellings shared a single outside…