Beech Hill
| Beech Hill | |
| Berkshire | |
|---|---|
 St.Mary the Virgin Church | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SU696644 |
| Location: | 51°22’28"N, 0°59’57"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 311 (2001) |
| Post town: | Reading |
| Postcode: | RG7 |
| Dialling code: | 0118 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | West Berkshire |
Beech Hill is a village in Berkshire, in the southwest of the county, close to the Hampshire border. The Foudry Brook, a tributary of the Kennet, runs through the north of the parish. The Great Western railway line, between Reading and Basingstoke, takes the same route.
The Church of England parish church is St Mary The Virgin. The church was built in 1867.
History
The 'Camlet Way', the Roman road which runs southwest from Verulamium (St Albans), joins the 'Devil's Highway' at Fair Cross on Beech Hill's southern border and continues on westward to Calleva Atrebatum (Silchester).
Beech Hill appears not to be a plain description of the village, though it would certainly serve as such, but is from the family of De La Beche, usually resident at Aldworth, but who also had a home at Beaumys Castle, just over the parish boundary in Swallowfield.
On the Beech Hill side is 'The Priory', a 17th-century house on the site of Stratfield Saye Priory, founded on the site of an old hermitage in 1170. It only lasted 200 years. Beech Hill House, of 1720, stands on the eastern side of the village and Trunkwell House on the west. Originally the Tudor home of the Noyes family, the current country house at Trunkwell was built in 1878 for a successful local business family and is now a well-known restaurant and conference venue. It is associated with the local pub, The Elm Tree Inn.
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Beech Hill) |
