Hampstead Norreys (alternatively spelt ''Hampstead Norris'' as it is pronounced) is a village and

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 below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Ber ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. It is centred on the small tributary the River Pang, north of Newbury.

Amenities

Hampstead Norreys was awarded

's best-kept village in 1979. As well as the

nucleus Nucleus ( : nuclei) is a Latin word for the seed inside a fruit. It most often refers to: * Atomic nucleus, the very dense central region of an atom *Cell nucleus, a central organelle of a eukaryotic cell, containing most of the cell's DNA Nucl ...

of Hampstead Norreys, the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or ...

includes the

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

s or localities of Bothampstead, Eling and Wyld Court. Hampstead Norreys has a large recreational field, Dean Meadow, that is used for fetes and parties and by the village

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

and

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

teams. The school also uses the field for activities. In March 2011, a community shop was opened in the village, run by local volunteers. Shares in the shop were sold to village residents. It was the first community shop to be opened in a

West Berkshire West Berkshire is a local government district in Berkshire, England, administered from Newbury by West Berkshire Council. History The district of Newbury was formed on 1 April 1974, as a merger of the borough of Newbury, Bradfield Rural Dist ...

village since the 1990s.

The Living Rainforest

Wyld Court is home to

The Living Rainforest The Living Rainforest is an indoor greenhouse tropical rainforest located in Hampstead Norreys in Berkshire, England. It is an ecological centre, educational centre and visitor attraction consisting of three glasshouses, operated and run by the ...

, an indoor glass house

tropical rainforest Tropical rainforests are rainforests that occur in areas of tropical rainforest climate in which there is no dry season – all months have an average precipitation of at least 60 mm – and may also be referred to as ''lowland equator ...

with plants, animals and

butterflies Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group comprises ...

. It is an ecological centre, an educational centre and a visitor attraction.

Historic buildings

The village was recorded in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

as ''Hanstede''. The village is noted for its Norman

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...

and the remains of a Norman

motte-and-bailey castle A motte-and-bailey castle is a European fortification with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised area of ground called a motte, accompanied by a walled courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade. Relatively easy t ...

in the nearby woods.

Aviation

World War II

The village was close to the wartime

airfield An aerodrome (Commonwealth English) or airdrome (American English) is a location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve air cargo, passengers, or neither, and regardless of whether it is for publ ...

of RAF Hampstead Norris, an

RAF Bomber Command RAF Bomber Command controlled the Royal Air Force's bomber forces from 1936 to 1968. Along with the United States Army Air Forces, it played the central role in the strategic bombing of Germany in World War II. From 1942 onward, the British bo ...

Operational Training Unit (OTU) station. The airfield was host to a small number of squadrons of

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by ...

bombers. The site was bombed on 16 September 1940 by the

Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German '' Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the '' Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabt ...

in the

Battle of Britain The Battle of Britain, also known as the Air Battle for England (german: die Luftschlacht um England), was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defende ...

. In 1945, the station was used by squadrons of

Mosquito Mosquitoes (or mosquitos) are members of a group of almost 3,600 species of small flies within the family Culicidae (from the Latin ''culex'' meaning " gnat"). The word "mosquito" (formed by ''mosca'' and diminutive ''-ito'') is Spanish for "li ...

fighter bombers and became an ammunition storage depot as part of the Bramley Central Ammunition Depot near

Basingstoke Basingstoke ( ) is the largest town in the county of Hampshire. It is situated in south-central England and lies across a valley at the source of the River Loddon, at the far western edge of The North Downs. It is located north-east of Southa ...

after its closure in 1946. Little of the wartime station now remains. There are four remaining pillboxes around where the airfield was and a few air raid shelters in the woods. Part of the bomb storage site remains.

Today

The site still maintains a modern link with aviation with a farm strip used by a Tiger Moth biplane. It is now known as Haw Farm, part of the Yattendon Estate. An impression of the old runway layout of RAF Hampstead Norris can still be seen from the air. On the edge of the airfield perimeter track is a light beacon and an important

VOR VOR or vor may refer to: Organizations * Vale of Rheidol Railway in Wales * Voice of Russia, a radio broadcaster * Volvo Ocean Race, a yacht race Science, technology and medicine * VHF omnidirectional range, a radio navigation aid used in ...

beacon known as Compton (CPT), named after the nearby village, which is used as a primary navigational aid for airway routes between European airports such as (

Heathrow Heathrow Airport (), called ''London Airport'' until 1966 and now known as London Heathrow , is a major international airport in London, England. It is the largest of the six international airports in the London airport system (the others bei ...

) and North America.

Education

Hampstead Norreys has a small rural

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...

which has served the community for over 150 years.

Transport

From 18 February 2013, Buses 6 and 6A from Newbury serve the village.

Newbury railway station Newbury railway station is located in the centre of the town of Newbury, Berkshire, Newbury, in the English county of Berkshire. The station is from the zero point at . It is served by stopping services between and Newbury and , and by faster ...

has regular and fast services to east and west. Hampstead Norris railway station was a minor halt on the

Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway The Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway (DN&SR) was a cross-country railway running north–south between Didcot, Newbury and Winchester. Its promoters intended an independent route to Southampton and envisaged heavy traffic from the Midl ...

for about half a century until 1962.

Sport and leisure

The Dean Field is the local park in Hampstead Norreys. It contains a

and

pitch and a children's play area. On the north side of the field is Hampstead Norreys

Village Hall A village hall is a public building in a village used for various things such as: United Kingdom In the United Kingdom, a village hall is usually a building which contains at least one large room (plus kitchen and toilets), is owned by a local ...

. It is considerably larger than the village halls in surrounding villages. On the south side is Eling estate, a large wooded area (consisting of Park Wood, Westbrook Copse, Down Wood and Elingpark Copse) backed by a path which is what remains of the old

running between Hermitage and Compton, the two nearest villages.

Demography

References

External links

Hampstead Norreys Parish CouncilHampstead Norreys Primary SchoolA Church Near you: St Mary the Virgin, Hampstead NorreysThe Living Rainforest
(previousl

the

The White Hart - village pub
{{authority control Villages in Berkshire West Berkshire District Civil parishes in Berkshire