Winkfield, Berkshire
Historical Description
Winkfield, a village and a very large parish in Berkshire. The village stands 3½ miles N of Ascot station on the L. & S.W.R., and 5 SW of Windsor, and has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Windsor. The parish, which is more than 8 miles across, contains Ascot Side, Cranbourne, Winkfield Row, and a portion of Bracknell and Braywood; it comprises 10,278 acres; population of the civil parish, 4005; of the ecclesiastical parish of Winkfield St Mary, 999. The manor belongs to the Ferard family. There are many fine country seats in this parish, among which are Ascot Place, a mansion standing in a park of 300 acres; New Lodge, a spacious mansion of stone in the Tudor style; Foliejon Park, a mansion standing in a fine undulating park of about 550 acres; Tower Hill, Grove Lodge, Somerton Lode, and Brock Hill House. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Oxford; gross value, £428 with residence, in the gift of the Bishop of Oxford. The church is an edifice of stone and conglomerate, the E end of which is faced with flint in the Decorated style, consisting of chancel, nave, S porch, organ chamber, side chapel and vestries, and an embattled western tower. There is a Primitive Methodist chapel.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
| Ancient County | Wiltshire | |
| Ancient County | Berkshire | |
| Ecclesiastical parish | Winkfield St. Mary | |
| Hundred | Ripplesmere | |
| Hundred | Bradford | |
| Poor Law union | Bradford | |
| Poor Law union | Easthampstead |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The register now in existence dates from 1720 only.
Churches
Church of England
St. Mary (parish church)
The church of St. Mary is a plain building of stone and conglomerate, faced with flint, in the Decorated style, and consists of chancel, nave, south porch, organ chamber, side chapel and vestries, and an embattled western tower containing 6 bells and a clock: the nave is divided in the centre by solid oak pillars, placed there in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, on one of which appears a date with a crowned rose and her initials; one of these decayed and was replaced by Queen Victoria with oak from Windsor Forest, and a half pillar of oak at the west end was replaced by King Edward VII. in 1909: the carved stone reredos represents the Lord's Supper, and several of the windows are stained: there are monuments to the Metcalfe and Blane families, to Anne (Towry), wife of Edward, 1st Baron Ellenborough and Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench; she died 16th August, 1843; to Admiral Sir Henry King; and Admiral the Hon. Sir Henry Keppel G.C.B., O.M. d. 17 Jan. 1904; there is also a brass, with an effigy to Thomas Montague, yeoman of the guard, ob. 1630, representing him in the act of distributing bread: the church was restored in 1858, 1888 and 1891, at a cost of over £2,000, and affords 400 sittings.
St. Mary the Less, Winkfield Row
At Winkfield Row is St. Mary the Less, a chapel of ease, a building of iron, erected in 1901.
Civil Registration
Winkfield was in Easthampstead Registration District from 1837 to 1937 and Windsor Registration District from 1937 to 1967
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Winkfield from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Winkfield (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 Winkfield 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.