Woolhampton is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

West Berkshire West Berkshire is a unitary authority in the ceremonial county of Berkshire, England. It is administered from Newbury by West Berkshire Council. History The district of Newbury was formed on 1 April 1974, as a merger of the borough of Newbur ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. The village straddles the Bath Road between the towns of

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of symbols, often specifically those of a written language, by means of Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifacete ...

, to the east, and Newbury, to the west.

Geography

The village homes are clustered on the northern side of the

plain In geography, a plain, commonly known as flatland, is a flat expanse of land that generally does not change much in elevation, and is primarily treeless. Plains occur as lowlands along valleys or at the base of mountains, as coastal plains, and ...

of the

River Kennet The Kennet is a tributary of the River Thames in Southern England. Most of the river is straddled by the North Wessex Downs AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty). The lower reaches have been made navigable as the Kennet Navigation, which � ...

, with the Berkshire Downs rising through the fields and woods of the village northwards.Ordnance Survey (2006). ''OS Explorer Map 158 - Newbury & Hungerford''. . On the higher land some half mile to the north of the village is the adjacent settlement of Upper Woolhampton, which contains both the parish church and the village school. The A4 forms the main street of the village. An unclassified road runs to the south, towards the village of Brimpton. This crosses the railway line by the station on a level crossing, followed shortly afterwards by a

swing bridge A swing bridge (or swing span bridge) is a movable bridge that can be rotated horizontally around a vertical axis. It has as its primary structural support a vertical locating pin and support ring, usually at or near to its center of gravit ...

across the river and canal which share a common channel at this point. Woolhampton Lock lies just to the west. Two other unclassified roads leave the village to the north, climbing into the Berkshire Downs.

Transport

Three major transport routes, the Bath Road, the

Kennet and Avon Canal The Kennet and Avon Canal is a waterway in southern England with an overall length of , made up of two lengths of Navigability, navigable river linked by a canal. The name is used to refer to the entire length of the navigation rather than sol ...

and the

Reading to Taunton line Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of symbols, often specifically those of a written language, by means of sight or touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word r ...

pass through the village. Woolhampton is served by

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

in the village. The railway station was originally known as Woolhampton but, according to local legend, was renamed Midgham railway station, after the village of Midgham, west-north-west, in order to avoid possible confusion with the similarly named (the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a History of rail transport in Great Britain, British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, ...

had stations in both places).

Amenities

Because of its location on the Bath Road, Woolhampton was well known for its

coaching inn The coaching inn (also coaching house or staging inn) was a vital part of Europe's inland transport infrastructure until the development of the railway, providing a resting point ( layover) for people and horses. The inn served the needs of t ...

s. Only one of these, the Angel, survives on the main road, after the Falmouth Arms closed in 2014 and was converted to residential property. A second pub, the Rowbarge, is, as its name suggests, situated alongside the Kennet and Avon Canal next to the swing bridge. The

war memorial A war memorial is a building, monument, statue, or other edifice to celebrate a war or victory, or (predominating in modern times) to commemorate those who died or were injured in a war. Symbolism Historical usage It has ...

in Woolhampton was designed by Sir

Robert Lorimer Sir Robert Stodart Lorimer, Order of the British Empire, KBE (4 November 1864 – 13 September 1929) was a prolific Scotland, Scottish architect and furniture designer noted for his sensitive restorations of historic houses and castles, f ...

in 1920. The Woolhampton Reed Bed, a

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain, or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland, is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle ...

, lies alongside the

within the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

and to the south east of the village. The dense

reed bed A reedbed or reed bed is a natural habitat found in floodplains, waterlogged depressions and estuaries. Reedbeds are part of a succession from young reeds colonising open water or wet ground through a gradation of increasingly dry ground. As ...

, with smaller areas of tall

fen A fen is a type of peat-accumulating wetland fed by mineral-rich ground or surface water. It is one of the main types of wetland along with marshes, swamps, and bogs. Bogs and fens, both peat-forming ecosystems, are also known as mires ...

and carr wetlands, is notable for its nesting

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped') which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines generally have an anisodactyl arrangement of their ...

bird populations and for the diversity of insects it supports.

Governance

The civil parish of Woolhampton also includes the adjacent settlement of Upper Woolhampton and the rural areas to the north, east and south of the village. It has a parish council, and also lies in the West Berkshire unitary authority district and the Newbury

parliamentary constituency An electoral (congressional, legislative, etc.) district, sometimes called a constituency, riding, or ward, is a geographical portion of a political unit, such as a country, state or province, city, or administrative region, created to provi ...

Demography

Nearest places

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Berkshire Civil parishes in Berkshire West Berkshire District Kennet and Avon Canal