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Tag: village life

Brimpton History: East View / Eastbank

Brimpton History: East View / Eastbank

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…

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Brimpton News: Made in Brimpton

Brimpton News: Made in Brimpton

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…

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Brimpton History: Close Cottage

Brimpton History: Close Cottage

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…

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Brimpton History: The Old Post Office

Brimpton History: The Old Post Office

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…

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Brimpton History: Brimpton Lodge

Brimpton History: Brimpton Lodge

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…

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Brimpton History: Baptist Church & School Room

Brimpton History: Baptist Church & School Room

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…

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