| Official Name: | East Ilsley |
| Static Image Name: | East Ilsley, Berkshire.jpg |
| Static Image Caption: | East Ilsley's village pond and small green with homes |
| Label Position: | bottom |
| Coordinates: | 51.515°N -1.254°W |
| Os Grid Reference: | SU4981 |
| Population: | 538 |
| Population Ref: | (2011 census)[1] |
| Area Total Km2: | 15.02 |
| Region: | South East England |
| Country: | England |
| Postcode District: | RG20 |
| Postcode Area: | RG |
| Dial Code: | 01635 |
East Ilsley is a village and civil parish in the Berkshire Downs in West Berkshire, north of Newbury. The village is centred immediately east of the A34 dual carriageway which passes the length of the village from north to south. It has the vast majority of its buildings in a traditional clustered centre.
The parish was anciently called Hildersley, from Hildeslei in the Domesday Book,[2] and is recorded in a medieval inscription in the church. West Ilsley was a hamlet in Ilsley. Ilsley has been attributed by antiquaries as a leading contender for the uncertain site of the Battle of Ashdown (Alfred the Great's victory against the Danes). Ilsley incidentally means "battle clearing".[3]
In 1620 East Ilsley was granted a charter to hold a sheep fair, or market, in the village, however the fair had been informally held from the reign of Henry II. This became the second largest sheep fair in the country, after Smithfield, throughout the 19th century.[4] [5]
Shepherds and drovers would drive their sheep to the village, and stay overnight in one of at least 9 public houses until the fair in the morning.[6] The chief fair took place annually on 1 August, with 80,000 sheep penned daily.[7] By 1909 this had reduced to about 10,000 due to the agricultural depression.
Its real property, farms and homes, was worth £4,490 and its population in the United Kingdom Census 1871 was 746. It had 130 houses. This capital was remarked in a contemporary description as owned by a few. The manor belonged to Capt. Woodley, and great part of the land to Col. Robert Loyd-Lindsay. The benefice remained in the default form of a rectory, rather than a vicarage, in the diocese of Oxford, worth £722 . The patron was Magdalen College, Oxford. There was, by this time, a National School in the village.[5]
The parish Church of St Mary is partly Norman; has an early English style chancel and has an embattled tower; it was enlarged and repaired in 1845 and contains an old monument of one of the Hildesleys, the ancient lords of the manor. The church is a Grade I listed building.
East Ilsley's nearest station is, providing direct services to the West, West Midlands and London. Historically, the village was served by Compton railway station, which opened in 1882 and closed in 1962, on the Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway.
East Ilsley is served by buses 6 and 6A from Newbury.[8]
The Ridgeway long-distance footpath passes through a subway below the A34, approximately one mile north of the village.
Racehorses have been trained at East Ilsley for about 200 years, as an offshoot from the economic centre of training in the United Kingdom and Ireland, ten miles west at Lambourn. Hugh Morrison trains racehorses at Summerdown, East Ilsley.
At Keats Gore, a mansion near East Ilsley, the celebrated racehorse Eclipse was foaled in 1764, and afterwards trained. He was later moved to Cannons Park near Edgware.
Of its 216 homes in 2011, the majority in this parish were owner-occupied; just over 10% were socially rented.
| + 2011 Census Key Statistics | ||||||||||||
| Output area | Population | Homes | Owned outright | Owned with a loan | Privately rented | Socially rented | Other | km2! | km2 Greenspace | km2 gardens | km2 road | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| East Ilsley (civil parish) | 538 | 216 | 65 | 85 | 28 | 29 | 9 | 12.6 | 12.1 | 0.1 | 0.2 |