Woolton Hill is a village in

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

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

East Woodhay East Woodhay is a village and civil parish in Hampshire, England. The village is approximately south-west of Newbury in Berkshire. At the 2011 census the parish had a population of 2,914. The parish contains a number of villages and hamlets, ...

. The village lies approximately south-west of the centre of Newbury and encompasses the hamlet of Broad Layings on its northern edge.

History

The area was farmland, woodland and scattered houses until the mid-18th century, when the new church was built (as a 'daughter church' to the much older ecclesiastical parish of

). The village grew rapidly during and since the 1950s and is now larger (in population terms) than the neighbouring and contiguous village of Highclere. Due to the village's proximity to the

A34 road The A34 is a major road in England. It runs from the A33 and M3 at Winchester in Hampshire, to the A6 and A6042 in Salford, close to Manchester City Centre. It forms a large part of the major trunk route from Southampton, via Oxford, to B ...

it was the scene of many demonstrations during "the third battle of Newbury" when the

Newbury bypass The Newbury bypass, officially known as The Winchester-Preston Trunk Road (A34) (Newbury Bypass), is a stretch of dual carriageway road which bypasses the town of Newbury in Berkshire, England. It is located to the west of the town and forms p ...

was being built in the 1990s.

Transport

There are bus services to Newbury and

Andover Andover may refer to: Places Australia *Andover, Tasmania Canada * Andover Parish, New Brunswick * Perth-Andover, New Brunswick United Kingdom * Andover, Hampshire, England ** RAF Andover, a former Royal Air Force station United States * Andove ...

. Woodhay railway station used to serve the village 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 ...

until the line's closure in the 1960s. The disused railway line became, in part, the route for the A34 Newbury bypass.

Governance

The village is within the

and the East Woodhay

ward Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...

Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council 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 Southam ...

. The borough council is a

non-metropolitan district Non-metropolitan districts, or colloquially "shire districts", are a type of Districts of England, local government district in England. As created, they are sub-divisions of non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties (colloquially ''shi ...

Hampshire County Council Hampshire County Council (HCC) is an English council that governs eleven of the thirteen districts geographically located within the ceremonial county of Hampshire. As one of twenty-four county councils in England, it acts as the upper tier of ...

Amenities

The village has St Thomas' CofE Infant School and Woolton Hill Junior School. To the east/north-east of the village is an area of woodland known as "The Chase" which is managed by the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

. The Chase was significantly altered in 2010–2011, to return it to a nature reserve as per its original gift terms. A local watercourse runs through The Chase and has been dammed to form a small lake in the north-eastern end. There is an asphalted car-park. The chase is bounded by the A34 (

) to the north-east.

Landmarks

Gainsborough Stud Gainsborough Stud is a stud farm based in Woolton Hill, Hampshire, outside Newbury. It is owned by United Arab Emirates-based international racing operation Godolphin. It was established in 1910 to stand the racehorse Gainsborough and sold in ...

, owned by

Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum ( ar, محمد بن راشد آل مكتوم, links=no; ; born 15 July 1949) is the vice president, prime minister, and minister of defence of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as well as the ruler of Dubai ...

(ruler of Dubai) is in Woolton Hill. The stud's land covers a large area in the village.

References

External links

Woolton Hill community

East Woodhay parish council
{{authority control Basingstoke and Deane Villages in Hampshire