Riseley is a village in the
English county of
Berkshire
Berkshire ( ; abbreviated ), officially the Royal County of Berkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Oxfordshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the north-east, Greater London ...
, adjacent to the border with
Hampshire
Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...
. It is located around south of
Reading
Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of symbols, often specifically those of a written language, by means of Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch.
For educators and researchers, reading is a multifacete ...
and north-east of
Basingstoke
Basingstoke ( ) is a town in Hampshire, situated in south-central England across a valley at the source of the River Loddon on the western edge of the North Downs. It is the largest settlement in Hampshire without city status in the United King ...
, and is bypassed to the west by the
A33 road. For local government purposes, the village is today within the
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...
of
Swallowfield
Swallowfield is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Wokingham, Wokingham district, in Berkshire, England, about south of Reading, Berkshire, Reading, and north of the county boundary with Hampshire. The civil parish of Swallowfield al ...
, which in turn is within the
unitary authority
A unitary authority is a type of local government, local authority in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Unitary authorities are responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are ...
of
Wokingham
Wokingham ( ) is a market town and civil parish in Berkshire, England. It is the main administrative centre of the wider Borough of Wokingham. At the 2021 census the parish had a population of 38,284 and the wider built-up area had a populati ...
. Before 1844, Riseley was part of a detached portion, or
exclave
An enclave is a territory that is entirely surrounded by the territory of only one other state or entity. An enclave can be an independent territory or part of a larger one. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is s ...
, of the county of
Wiltshire
Wiltshire (; abbreviated to Wilts) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to ...
, some 30 miles to the west. The
Counties Act of that year resulted in its transfer to Berkshire.
[''Counties (Detached Parts) Act 1844'', 7 & 8 Vict. c. 61, London] Riseley lies on the line of the
Roman Road
Roman roads ( ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Republic and the Roman Em ...
,
Devil's Highway
[Hampshire Field Club and Archeological Society, Papers and Proceedings. Vol.VII, Part I. Printed 1914. H.M. Gilbert and Son, 24 Above Bar, Southampton and at Winchester. Sketch Map opposite page 24]
References
Villages in Berkshire
Swallowfield
{{Berkshire-geo-stub