Brightwalton is a village and civil parish in the Berkshire Downs centred NNW of Newbury in West Berkshire.

Parish church

The

Church of England parish church A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ca ...

of All Saints existed by the time of the Domesday Book of 1086. The building was demolished in 1863 and replaced by a

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

one designed by

G E Street George Edmund Street (20 June 1824 – 18 December 1881), also known as G. E. Street, was an English architect, born at Woodford in Essex. Stylistically, Street was a leading practitioner of the Victorian Gothic Revival. Though mainly an eccle ...

, who was architect to the Diocese of Oxford. Street retained and re-used some 13th century Early English Gothic features from the original building.

School

The parish has a Church of England primary school. It too was designed by Street and built in 1863.

Transport

Bus travel from Newbury is provided by service 107.

Notable residents

In about 1715 the Savo(u)ry family moved to the village from nearby South Moreton. The Savorys were wheelwrights, but William Savory (1768–1824) from a third generation of the family, was apprenticed to David Jones, an apothecary in

Newbury, Berkshire Newbury is a market town in the county of Berkshire, England, and is home to the administrative headquarters of West Berkshire Council. The town centre around its large market square retains a rare medieval Cloth Hall, an adjoining half timbere ...

. Aged 20, Savory "walked the wards" of

St Thomas' Hospital St Thomas' Hospital is a large NHS teaching hospital in Central London, England. It is one of the institutions that compose the King's Health Partners, an academic health science centre. Administratively part of the Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foun ...

and Guy's Hospital in London. He learned surgery, physic (medicine) and midwifery from the leading practitioners of their day, including the surgeon

Henry Cline Henry Cline (1750–1827) was an English surgeon and president of the Royal College of Surgeons. He was also a political radical, associated with leading supporters of the French Revolution, a farmer, and a Fellow of the Royal Society. Life ...

and physician William Saunders. Some of his student notes and his commonplace book survive. Savory became a member of the

Company of Surgeons The Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCS England) is an independent professional body and registered charity that promotes and advances standards of surgery, surgical care for patients, and regulates surgery and dentistry in England and Wa ...

and initially practiced in Newbury. Following bankruptcy in 1795 he re-settled in Brightwalton, where he remained for the rest of his life, passing the mantle to his son, William Savory (1793–1856) who studied at the London Hospital in Whitechapel. Sir Samuel Eyre (1638–98), Justice of the

King's Bench The King's Bench (), or, during the reign of a female monarch, the Queen's Bench ('), refers to several contemporary and historical courts in some Commonwealth jurisdictions. * Court of King's Bench (England), a historic court court of commo ...

, lived in the parish, having inherited the manor of Brightwalton in 1694 through his wife Lady Martha Lucy. Their son Robert Eyre, also of Brightwalton, became Lord Chief Justice. The author Monica Dickens lived in the village in the last years of her life."Latest wills", '' The Times'' page 14, 13 August 1993 Prolific children's author

Rosemary Hayes Rosemary Hayes (born 10 December 1942) is a British author who has written around 50 books for children aimed at ages from seven years to teenagers. She has edited many more. She worked for Cambridge University Press and then set up her own publ ...

went to school locally.

Demography

References

Sources

* *

External links

{{authority control Villages in Berkshire Civil parishes in Berkshire West Berkshire District