Winkfield (St. Mary)

WINKFIELD (St. Mary), a parish, in the union of Easthampstead, hundred of Ripplesmere, county of Berks, 5½ miles (S. W. by W.) from Windsor; containing 2178 inhabitants. This parish is pleasantly situated on the road from London, through Windsor Forest, to Reading. It comprises 9878a. 18p., and contains the course on which the celebrated Ascot races are held, a beautifully smooth surface, formed by William, Duke of Cumberland, and recently much improved. The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the king's books at £8. 5. 10.; patrons and appropriators, the Dean and Chapter of Salisbury. The great tithes have been commuted for £661, and the vicarial for £390; there is a parsonage-house, and the appropriate and vicarial glebes contain respectively 18¾ and 26½ acres. There is a place of worship for Independents. The Earl of Ranelagh, in 1710, built a chapel on Winkfield Plain, in which service is performed daily, and attached to which is a free school for twenty-two boys, and another for twenty-two girls. In 1715, Thomas Maule, Esq., bequeathed £500 to the establishment; in 1783, Thomas Hatch, who had been educated here, £500; and in 1809, John Tow left £500 four per cent, stock, in augmentation of the income, which altogether amounts to upwards of £350 per annum.