Lambourn, Berkshire

Description
Lambourn or Chipping Lambourn, a small town, a township, and a parish in Berks. The town stands on the river Lambourn, 2 1/2 miles from the boundary with Wilts, and 7 N by W of Hungerford station on the G.W.R., and has a post, money order, and telegraph office (R.S.O.) The town dates from a remote period, contains an ancient market cross and many neat modern houses, is a seat of petty sessions, and has a police station, a church and a chapel of ease at Upper Lambourn, Wesleyan and Primitive Methodist chapels, an endowed hospital for ten poor men, with an income of £179, five small almshouses, and other charities. The church is cruciform and large, variously Norman, Early English, and Perpendicular, has a massive square embattled tower surmounted by four octagonal turrets, was extensively restored in 1849; in 1863 the chancel was restored, and the tower and part of the church in 1892. A handsome lych gate was erected in 1892. The church contains some beautiful memorial windows, an altar-tomb with an effigy in copper of John Estbury (1485), an alabaster tomb of Sir Thomas Essex and his wife (1558), and several other interesting brasses and monuments. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Oxford; net value, £125 with residence. Patron, the Bishop of Oxford. Formerly the town had a weekly market, which was held on Friday, and a fair, which was held in February on the festival of St Matthew, but both have become obsolete. Two fairs, however, are still held on 2 Oct. and 4 Dec. for sheep, horses, and cattle. The township includes the town, and also is sometimes called Chipping Lambourn. The parish contains also the tithings of Upper Lambourn, Blagrave, Hadley, and Rockhampton. Acreage, 14, 873; population of the civil parish, 2238; of the ecclesiastical, 1571. Eastbury is an ecclesiastical parish formed out of the civil parish of Lambourn in 1867. It is 1 1/2 mile SE from Lambourn. Population, 277. The church is a building of flint in the Early English style, and the living is a vicarage of the gross yearly value of £132, in the gift of the Bishop of Oxford. Woodlands St Mary is an ecclesiastical parish formed out of the civil parish of Lambourn in 1838. Population, 390. The church, erected in 1852, is a building of flint and stone in the Early English style. The living is a vicarage of the gross value of £186 with residence. The manor was given by Alfred to his nephew Alfrith, passed to the families of Fitzwarren and De Essex, and belongs now to the Earl of Craven. Lambourn Place is a fine modern mansion in the Elizabethan style containing a magnificent collection of armour, an ancient wassail bowl, and some valuable paintings and curiosities. A large proportion of the surface consists of chalk downs; many barrows are here, the Ridge Way passes along the N, and the remarkable antiquities called the White Horse and the Blowing Stone are in the vicinity of that way. On the downs the business of horse training is carried on, and coursing meetings are held every February and October.