Hurley

Hurley
Berkshire
The Olde Bell at Hurley
Location
Grid reference:	SU826834
Location:	51°32’35"N, -0°48’29"W
Data
Population:	1,854  (2001)
Post town:	Maidenhead
Postcode:	SL6
Dialling code:	01628
Local Government
Council:	Windsor and Maidenhead
Parliamentary constituency:	Maidenhead

Hurley is a small village by the River Thames in Berkshire. Its riverside is agricultural except for Hurley Priory as are the outskirts of the village. The adjoining inn is believed to date to 1135.

A large, rural parish attaches to the village.

The lie of the land

Hurley itself is a linear development perpendicular to and adjoining the River Thames 3 miles northwest of Maidenhead and 4 miles east of Henley-on-Thames, across the river in Oxfordshire. The parish includes the considerable hamlets of Hurley Bottom, Warren Row, Knowl Hill, Burchett's Green and parts of Cockpole Green and Littlewick Green. Hurley Bottom is the top of the village; south up the bank and attached to the village, on the A4130.

Ashley Hill Forest, almost two miles south of the village is close to and almost equidistant between Warren Row, Knowl Hill and Burchett's Green and is the largest woodland. Other than this the parish is mainly agricultural however many farms have spinneys of woodland adjoining.

Historic structures

• By the river is the Scheduled Ancient Monument, Hurley Priory, a partially moated Benedictine priory founded in 1086 as a cell of Westminster Abbey. The priory was dissolved in 1536, but its priory church survives as the current parish church.
• 'The Olde Bell' Inn in Hurley is reputedly the oldest still-working inn in Britain; parts of the inn date to 1135, when it was the hostelry of Hurley Priory.
• The old manor estate of Hall Place (1728) is now the home of Berkshire College of Agriculture.
• The former main priory building became a mansion known as Ladye Place, which stood adjoining the present parish church. It was the home of the Barons Lovelace. It was demolished in 1837 as uninhabitable.
• The Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research (IGER) also had a facility at Hurley until 1992.

Localities

Hurley Bottom

Only one of the buildings at the foot of the hill in the south of the village street is listed. This southerly neighbourhood has the loose name Hurley Bottom but is 30 feet higher than the riverside parts of the village.

Frogmore Court and Frogmore Spinney

Frogmore Spinney forms a riverside Park Homes estate, with fewer than 25 available. The court is now a farmhouse but is a centuries-old building which is listed as such adjoining the river, which in this parish consists of mainly grazing and pasture meadows. Approximately seven detached or semi-detached riverside homes also adjoin the river in this western frontage point, accessed by a separate lane.

Recreation

Hurley is often used as a mooring for river boats, canal boats and motor launches, or by campers. The weir at Hurley Lock is considered the premier venue in the United Kingdom for freestyle kayaking.

Cricket has been played in Hurley for over 100 years. The club currently plays in the Chiltern League on Saturdays and friendly fixtures against local rivals on Sundays. The ground is typified with an Old English plane tree that lies within the boundaries. The clubhouse was rebuilt in the 1970s after fire destroyed the previous wooden one.

In popular culture

• A riverside picnic scene in the James Bond film From Russia with Love was filmed near the village.
• The village is mentioned in the classic comic novel Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K Jerome.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Hurley)

• Hurley Parish
• Royal Berkshire History: Hurley