Hampstead Norris, Berkshire
Historical Description
Hampstead Norris, a village and a parish in Berks. The village stands on an affluent of the river Thames, 3½ miles SE by S from East Ilsley, and 7 NE from Newbury, and has a station on the Didcot and Newbury branch of the G.W.R. It has a post office under Newbury; money order office, East Ilsley; telegraph office, railway station. The parish contains also the hamlets of Hermitage, Little Hungerford, Wellhouse, Bottomstead, World's End, and Eling. Acreage, 6047; population of the civil parish, 1204; of the ecclesiastical, with Langley, 849. The manor belonged once to the family of Norris, and took from them the latter part of its name, but belonged at other times to the families of Cifrewast and Ferrars, and took from them temporarily the names Hampstead Cifrewast and Hampstead Ferrars. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Oxford; net value, £313 with residence. The church is ancient, and has a low tower. The vicarage of Hermitage is a separate benefice. There are Primitive Methodist and Wesleyan chapels.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
| Ancient County | Berkshire | |
| Ecclesiastical parish | Hampstead-Norris St. Mary | |
| Hundred | Faircross | |
| Poor Law union | Wantage |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register dates from the year 1538.
Churches
Church of England
St. Mary (parish church)
The church of St. Mary is an edifice of stone exhibiting a mixture of Norman and Early English architecture and consists of chancel, nave, south porch and a low battlemented western tower containing 7 bells and a clock: there is a trefoiled piscina, supported on a shaft and sedilia formed in the sill of a window: the stair to the rood loft remains: the nave roof is dated 1635: in 1879-80 the church was restored at a cost of £1,531, the walls of the church and tower being carefully repaired, the interior enlarged, a new chancel arch erected and the whole interior re-seated: the old font is of Purbeck stone, ornamented with carved crosses, but is now disused: the original early font was removed in 1780 to the church of Stone, Bucks, and the present font was given when the church was restored: there are 292 sittings.
Methodist
Primitive Methodist Chapel
There is a Primitive Methodist chapel here.
Wesleyan Chapel
There is a Wesleyan chapel here.
Civil Registration
Hampstead Norris was in Wantage Registration District from 1837 to 1974
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Hampstead Norris from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Hampstead-Norris (St. Mary))
- Kelly's Directory of Berkshire, 1915
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Berkshire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Hampstead Norris are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Berkshire papers online:
Visitations Heraldic
The Visitations of Berkshire 1532, 1566, and 1665-6 is available online.