Enborne

Enborne
St Michael's Church, Enborne
Enborne  Enborne shown within Berkshire
Area	8.85 km2 (3.42 sq mi)
Population	735 (2011 census)
– density	83/km2 (210/sq mi)
OS grid reference	SU4365
Unitary authority	West Berkshire
Ceremonial county	Berkshire
Region	South East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	NEWBURY
Postcode district	RG20
Dialling code	01635
Police	Thames Valley
Fire	Royal Berkshire
Ambulance	South Central
EU Parliament	South East England
UK Parliament	Berkshire
List of places UK England Berkshire

Enborne is a village and civil parish, in West Berkshire, England that bounds to the east, across a road buffer Newbury. The River Enborne shares its name, although it does not run through the village; rather, it runs through and rises near the nearby village of Enborne Row. Enborne is a civil and an ecclesiastical parish in the ceremonial and historic county of Berkshire. It lost some of its eastern land to Newbury's 20th century expansion. The village name has had many variant spellings in the past, including Anebourne in 1086, and Enbourne, Enborn, Enbourn in the last 200 years.

Settlements

The parish lies immediately west of Newbury in West Berkshire, and contains the settlements of Redhill, Crockham Heath, Skinner's Green, Enborne Row and Wash Water. There is no main population centre; the settlements are scattered.

Boundaries

The River Enborne marks the southern boundary of the parish, where Berkshire joins Hampshire. The northern boundary is the railway line. Newbury lies to the east, and the parish of Hamstead Marshall to the west. The Kennet & Avon Canal passes across the northern end of the parish, together with the River Kennet.

Agriculture

The parish has always been, and still is, mostly agricultural in character, with substantial woodland and private parkland. However, in recent years, many of Enborne's former farmsteads have been redeveloped into housing.

Transport

Enborne is served by service 13 from Hungerford to Newbury. Enborne has never had a railway station but the now-closed Woodhay was closer than Newbury's, 2 miles (3.2 km) away today. From the 1880s to the 1960s Enborne Junction marked the forking off of the Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway from the Berkshire and Hampshire Line of the Great Western Railway. The now-disused DN&SR line became much of the Newbury bypass (A34) which being a dual carriageway is wider. The large environmental protection Newbury By-pass protest against its building in the late 1990s was technically in the parish.

Notable buildings

Enborne's parish church is of 12th-century origin, dedicated to St Michael and All Angels. There is a Church of England primary school, founded in the 1820s. There is also a pub, the Craven Arms, which certainly dates back to the early 18th century and probably much earlier.

Traditional legal practices

Enborne historically adhered to an unusual legal practice. The rights to copyhold land inheritance from a husband were forfeited if his widow remarried or was unchaste. However, the steward of the manor was obliged to reinstate the rights if she rode into the manor court, backwards on a black ram, whilst at the same time reciting a particular set of bizarre lines ending in a request for their restoration.

Demography

2011 Published Statistics: Population, home ownership and extracts from Physical Environment, surveyed in 2005

Output area	Homes owned outright	Owned with a loan	Socially rented	Privately rented	Other	Usual residents	km²
Civil parish	94	105	25	33	2	735	8.85

External links

• http://www.berksfhs.org.uk/cms/Berkshire-Places/enborne.html

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