Brimpton Common
| Brimpton Common | |
| Berkshire | |
|---|---|
 Brimpton Common Road | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SU568631 |
| Location: | 51°21’52"N, 1°11’4"W |
| Data | |
| Post town: | Reading |
| Postcode: | RG7 |
| Dialling code: | 0118 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | West Berkshire |
Brimpton Common is a village in Berkshire, and part of Brimpton Parish, which is within the Benefice of Aldermaston and Woolhampton in the Diocese of Oxford. Brimpton is a little to the north-west. Tadley is uncomfortably close to the east of Brimpton Common.
It has a population of just under 150. The majority of the housing stock is detached with generous size plots. There is a mixture of late 19th century estate and farm-workers' homes (some terraced or semi-detached), plus a post-war ribbon development of larger homes along Brimpton Lane, The Byway and Kingsclere Road.
History
Brimpton Common is the most westerly of a series of former mediæval hamlets bearing the name of "Common" found to the south of three rivers between Newbury and Reading: the River Enborne, River Kennet and River Thames. The other villages of the group are Tadley Common, Silchester Common, Mortimer Common, Wokefield Common and Burghfield Common.
Business
There are no shops in Brimpton Common, but the local employment includes: AWE Blacknest, a major centre for international seismological research; Lakeside Garden Centre,[1] The Pineapple Public House[2] plus a few small businesses surrounding AWE Blacknest.
The Pineapple is 900 years old and the establishment is mentioned in the Domesday Book, if not by that name. It was frequently used by shepherds and drovers as an overnight stop. The name is derived from the pine forest that once surrounded the area, a pine apple being a local name for a pine cone. The furniture inside the pub is noteworthy. It was made by a local craftsman using only a chainsaw and chisel and carved from the last of the English elm. For many years up to the 1990s its local worthies included “Cowboy Roy” (who lived in a wild-west mock-up in nearby Haughurst Hill) and Gerry the Poacher, and their portraits once hung on either side of the fireplace in the public bar.
Fame and infamy
Though this is a small place, it has had some notable residents beyond Cowboy Roy and Gerry the Poacher:
- Ruth Ellis: the last woman to be hanged in the United Kingdom, who grew up in Brimpton Common, just along the road from The Pineapple, and attended Brimpton Primary School. Her family moved to London when she was 15 years old.
- Victor Gollancz, the left-wing publisher owned Lane End in the 1940s and for a number of years it subsequently became the weekend retreat of the then Minister of Health Aneurin Bevan.
- Ron Goodwin, British composer and conductor, lived at Blacknest Cottage, Brimpton Common, Berkshire, where he died on 8 January 2003, aged 77.
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Brimpton Common) |
References
- ↑ "Garden Supplies in Tadley near Newbury | Lakeside Garden Centre". Lakesidegardencentretadley.co.uk. 2012-10-18. http://www.lakesidegardencentretadley.co.uk/. Retrieved 2013-02-26.
- ↑ "Pineapple, Brimpton Common, Berkshire, RG7 4RN - pub details#". Beerintheevening.com. http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/46/4606/Pineapple/Brimpton_Common. Retrieved 2013-02-26.