Unlike a lot of the buildings or areas we’ve looked at so far, I’ve got very little history to share about today’s subject – the road known locally as ‘Manor View’. I say known locally for a reason – despite several efforts to get signage put up to reflect the name, the local council have always refused, claiming that the name is unofficial – preferring to stick with Brimpton Road. As far as I can tell, the stretch known as…
After the recent revelation that Little Park House was once home to both the King of Norway and Princess Diana’s aunt, I got to wondering whether Brimpton had ever had any other famous residents. As luck would have it, my lovely neighbour Doris is the font of all knowledge when it comes to Brimpton history, and has brought me right up to speed. It turns out there have been a number of notable (or in one case, notorious!) Brimpton residents…
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…
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…