DIRECTORY.] BERKSHIRE. HAMPSTEAD NORRlS. S3

Craven for services which he had rendered to ihis exiled The Earl of Craven is lord of the manor and principal master during the protectorate of Cromwell and the landowner. The soil is light and gravelly and some por~ losses which he had sustained by confisca!ion. The earl­ tion stiff clay; subsoil, clay and sand. The chief crops dom expired on the death of the earl, gth April, 1697, are Wheat, barley, oats &c. The area is I,824 acres of but was revived (18th June, 1801) in the perso'n of land and 28 of water; assessable value, £t,673; the popu- William, seventh Baron Craven. The house built by lation in I89I was 219. . Sir T. Parry having been pulled down, Sir Balthazar Ger­ Parish C~erk, J ames Hall. 1 . bier kt. began a stately pi:e of bui:.ding after the model of the castle of Heidelberg, which was finished in 1665, Post Office. James Hall, sub-postmaster. Letters ar- but this house was almost wholly destroyed by fire in 1718. rive from Newbury at 8.5 a.m.; dispatched at 5.10 The present mansion, erected by the Earl of Crave'n p.m. The nearest telegraph & money order office is about 1720, !has been from time to time en·arged: the at Kintbury, 3 miles distant deer park extends over more than 400 acres, with a School (mixed), built in I896, for 40 children; average series of sma:J lakes across it: it ·belongs to .the Earl of attendance, 36; Miss .Annie Colt on, mistress Craven, but is in the occupation of \lames Bishap esq. Carrier to Newbury. James Miles, tues. thurs. & sat Bishop James, Hampstead park Burton Walt.J.carpenter&wheelwright Minchinton James, White Hart P.H Joyce Thoma.s, Red Hill house Bushnell James, boot & shoe maker Punter Frederick, plumber &:; glazier Lamb Misses Dodd Harvey, farmer Smith Benjamin, miller COMMERCIAL. G()ddard Hy. farmer, Watermans £rm Taylor William, farmer Burton James, su!b-rugent to the Ear:i Goddard John (Mrs.), farmer Thatcher Riohard, farmer, Holt wood 1 of Craven Miles James, carrier Tha.teher William Richard, farmer ' . HAMPSTEAD NORRIS (or Hamgstead Norreys) is the parish remains of ske~etons and spear-heads have. a village a'nd extensive parish with a. station on the Did- been found, which seem io indicate that it was a place c-d some years ago at a. deanery of Wallingford, arohdeaconry of Berks and dio- depth of four or five feet below the surface, and consisted, ces-e of Oxford. The parish was enc~osed by Act of of balks of rough oak timber, about 18 feet in length,. Parliament in 1771. 'IIhe church of St. Mary is an edi- supported by vertical posts ·at their extremities, and fice of stone exhibiting a mixture of Norman and Early by a stouter one in the centre, also IB feet long; English architecture and consists of chancel, nave, south altogether, more than two waggon loads of oak timber · porch and a low battlemented western tower containing were taken out and the solid earth or clay was fou'nd to 7 bells and a clock: there is a trefoiled piscina, supported be at a depth of about 7 feet; it is inferred that this on a shaft and sedilia formed in the si:l of a window; structure may have been the platform of an ancient the stair to the rood loft remains and in the porch is a dwe:ling. This manor was held by th-e family of Norris, stoup; the nave roof is dated I635: in I879-8o the or Norreys, in :the reign of Henry VII.; the place had churdh was restored at a cost of £1,531: the walls of been previously known as Hampstead Cifrewart, from a the church and tower !being carefu~ly repaired, the in- family O'f the latter name, who possessed it m the time terior enlarged, a new chancel arch erected and the of Henry Ill. and then as Hampstead Ferrars for a like whole interior re-seated: the font is of Purbeck stone,orna- reason. Lord Wantage V.C., K.C.B. and Lionel Dewe mented with carved crosses: the original early font was Lowsley esq. who are lords of the manor, James Dewe, removed in I78o to the church of Stone, Bucks: there are and Wm. Dewe esqrs. and G. W. Palmer esq. M.P. are the 292 sittings, 282 being free; the remaining 10 are appro- principal landowners. The soil is stony, clay and gravel; priated. The register dates from the year 1538. The subsoil, chalk. The chief crops are wheat, barley and living is a vicarage, yearly value £210, with I35 acres of oats. The parish contains the ecc~esiastical parish of glebe and residence, in the gift of Lionel Dewe Lowsley Hermitage, 3 miles south; and the hamlets of Little esq. and held sinre 1897 by the Rev. Horace Adiel :U:rws- Hungerford, 2! south; Bottomstead, It west; Eling, ley M . .A.. of Wadham College, Oxford. There are I south; Langley Hall, 2! west; Wor~d's End, 3 west; Wesleyan and Primitive Methodist chapels here. and We:l House, 3 south. The population of Hampstead· The charities amount to £21 yearly, which is Norris, Hermitage and the hamlets in 1891 was 1,204; distributed in clothing. About three miles to the the area is 6,042 acres; rateable value, £3,960. south of Hampstead Norris and near the hamlet of Parish Clerk and Sexton, Eli Quelch. Well House is a hill fortress called Grimsbury Castle, Post Offiee. Hubert James Wright, sub-postmaster. remarkab~e for its strength, the extreme beauty of its 1 Letters arrive from Newbury at 8.25 & II.I5 a.m. (cal- situation and the skill displayed in its construction; the lers only); dispatched at 10.35 a.m. & 6.30 p.m.; sun- rampart is of circular form having two entrances, one days, arrive 8.25 a.m.; dispatched 11 a.m. Postal on the north and the other o'n the south side, the former orders are issued here, but not paid. Yattendon is the being reached by a narrow sunken road ; the fortifica- nearest money order office. The telegraph office at the tions on this side, consisting of a deep ditch and ltlny station is for collection only ; the nearest for delivery bank, are of a formidable character and opposite the en- is at Yattendon, 2 miles distant t.rance is a mou'nd, perhaps used for reconnaissance; the School (mixed), erected in 184:; & enlarged in 1899, for fortress is nearly inaccessible on the northern and western zoo children; average attendance. 150; Miss Isabel sides, being defended by morasses, and before the Furmage, mistress ; Miss Mary Bartlett, infants' mist country was drained the who:e of the valley must have Police Constable, Richard Oollins been under water, as is evident from the peat deposit: Carriers to within the Tamparts on 'the right side by the south-east :Kewbury George Fulker, tues. thurs. & sat. 9.30 a.m,.; corner, is a beautiful spring of excei:.ent water, which is Thomas Jeffery, tues. & thurs never known to be dry; the adjoining iha.mlet derives its Reading-George FulkeT & Thomas Jeffery, sat name from this spring. The Pang stream also rises in Railway Station, Thomas TayloT, station master this parish. About 1833, in a field on Well House Farm Hermitage is an ecclesiastical parish formed out of and about ha:f a mHe from this spot the Temains of a this civil parish and will be found under a separate Roma'n villa were discovered; in several other parts of heading. Dames Mrs. Langley house Burgess Eli Jameiil, grocer Fulker George, carrier De Vetrie George T. Dennis, Eling Bushell George, White Hart P.H. & Hathrill Charles, beer retailer Honor Levi whiting manufacturer Hazell George, carpenter Lowsley Rev .Horace Adiel M.A. Vicrge Butler Louisa. (Mrs.), farmer, World's Herman Waiter, grocer & baker Lowsley Mrs. Manor h011se End (letters via Beedon) Honour Levi, farmer, Townsend farm Lowsley Lionel Dewe, Manor house Ohapman Willia.m Henry, farmer, Bot- Huggins Samuel, Railway hotel Wells Thomas George, Parsonage ho hampstead farm Lowsley Luke (Mrs.), farmer & land- Clark John, boot & shoe make.T owner, Manor farm COMMERCIAL. Deacon John, coal dealer Morton Geo. (Mrs.),farmer&bricklayer Barlow Hy.hurd:e mkr.&t,imber