East Ilsley is a village and civil parish in the Berkshire Downs in West Berkshire, north of Newbury. The village is centred immediately east of the A34 dual carriageway which passes the length of the village from north to south. It has the vast majority of its buildings in a traditional clustered centre.

History

Hildersley

The parish was anciently called Hildersley, as in a medieval inscription in the church. West Ilsley was a hamlet in Ilsley. Ilsley has been attributed by antiquaries as a leading contender for the uncertain site of the Battle of Ashdown (

Alfred the Great Alfred the Great (alt. Ælfred 848/849 – 26 October 899) was King of the West Saxons from 871 to 886, and King of the Anglo-Saxons from 886 until his death in 899. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf and his first wife Osburh, who bot ...

's victory against the Danes). ''Hilde-Laege'', a strong plausible root of Hildersley, means "battle place".

Sheep market

In 1620 East Ilsley was granted a

charter A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the ...

to hold a sheep market in the village, however the market had been informally held from the reign of Henry II. This became the second largest sheep market in the country, after Smithfield, throughout the 19th century.''A Topographical Dictionary of England''. S. Lewis (1848). London: Samuel Lewis, p.691.Imperial Gazetteer of Britain
John Marius Wilson (1870-72). (

University of Portsmouth The University of Portsmouth is a public university in Portsmouth, England. It is one of only four universities in the South East England, South East of England rated as Gold in the Government's Teaching Excellence Framework. With approximately 28 ...

visionofbritain.org.uk website). Retrieved 2014-12-03

Economy in the 1870s

Its real property, farms and homes, was worth £4,490 () and its population in the United Kingdom Census 1871 was 746. It had 130 houses. This capital was remarked in a contemporary description as owned by a few. The

manor Manor may refer to: Land ownership *Manorialism or "manor system", the method of land ownership (or "tenure") in parts of medieval Europe, notably England *Lord of the manor, the owner of an agreed area of land (or "manor") under manorialism *Man ...

belonged to Capt. Woodley, and great part of the land to Col. Robert Loyd-Lindsay. The

benefice A benefice () or living is a reward received in exchange for services rendered and as a retainer for future services. The Roman Empire used the Latin term as a benefit to an individual from the Empire for services rendered. Its use was adopted by ...

remained in the default form of a rectory, rather than a vicarage, in the diocese of Oxford, worth £722 (). The patron was

Magdalen College, Oxford Magdalen College (, ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by William of Waynflete. Today, it is the fourth wealthiest college, with a financial endowment of £332.1 million as of 2019 and one of the s ...

. There was, by this time, a National School in the village.

Church

The parish Church of St Mary is partly Norman; has an early English style chancel and has an

embattled A battlement in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (i.e., a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at interva ...

tower; it was enlarged and repaired in 1845 and contains an old monument of one of the Hildesleys, the ancient

lords of the manor Lord of the Manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England, referred to the landholder of a rural estate. The lord enjoyed manorial rights (the rights to establish and occupy a residence, known as the manor house and demesne) as well as seignor ...

. The church is a Grade I Listed building.

Notable inhabitants

John Hilsey John Hilsey (a.k.a. Hildesley or Hildesleigh; died 4 August 1539) was an English Dominican, prior provincial of his order, then an agent of Henry VIII and the English Reformation, and Bishop of Rochester. Life According to Anthony Wood, Hilsey ...

, head of a Dominican Order and

bishop of Rochester The Bishop of Rochester is the ordinary of the Church of England's Diocese of Rochester in the Province of Canterbury. The town of Rochester has the bishop's seat, at the Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary, which was foun ...

turned agent of

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...

's dissolution of the monasteries, was born here; *R. Wightwick, the co-founder of

Pembroke College, Oxford Pembroke College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford, is located at Pembroke Square, Oxford. The college was founded in 1624 by King James I of England, using in part the endowment of merchant Thomas Tesdale, and was named after ...

, rector.

Transport

Rail

East Ilsley's nearest station is , providing direct services to the West, West Midlands and London. Historically, the village was served by Compton railway station, which opened in 1882 and closed in 1962, on the Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway.

Buses

East Ilsley is served by buses 6 and 6A from Newbury.

Roads and footpaths

The Ridgeway long-distance footpath passes through a subway below the A34, approximately one mile north of the village.

Racehorse training

Racehorses have been trained at East Ilsley for about 200 years, as an offshoot from the economic centre of training in the United Kingdom and Ireland, ten miles west at Lambourn.

Demography

Of its 216 homes in 2011, the majority in this parish were owner-occupied; just over 10% were socially rented.

Nearest places

Notes

References

External links

Royal Berkshire History: East IlsleyEast and West Ilsley - voluntary-run Communicator (forum) and NewsEast Ilsley History Society
{{authority control Villages in Berkshire West Berkshire District Civil parishes in Berkshire