Brimpton is a mostly rural village and civil parish in West Berkshire, England. Brimpton is centred ESE of the town of Newbury.
Toponymy
One suggested origin of the name of Brimpton comes from "Brynni's Town"; Brynni was an Anglo-Saxon owner of the land. A more likely explanation is that Brimpton stands on a hill, and the name comes from a Saxo-Celtic version of "Hill Town"; the Celtic word for hill being "bryn". This name was probably coined in reference to the Iron Age settlement.
Brimpton has also been recorded as Brinniggetun and Bryningtune (in the 10th century) and Brintone (in the 11th century). More recent alternative names include Brinton, Brimton, Brumton and Brumpton.
Geography
The village occupies a few square miles of land south of the Kennet and Avon Canal and the A4 road, and north of the Enborne which forms the southern then the eastern boundary between slopes of an escarpment where the two parts of the village are concentrated: the nucleus of the village and Brimpton Common. On a lower slope south is Hyde End which has fewer than 12 farmhouses and Victorian cottages. Other villages nearby include Aldermaston and Woolhampton. A newer settlement in the parish, Brimpton Common is on the elevated south bank of the Enborne next to Ashford Hill with Headley in Hampshire.
The east of the village is part of the Wasing Manor Estate in Wasing and the village has a few outlying farms with a large minority of its land made up of the sloped woods including Inwood Copse, Chaplain's Wood and Hyde End Wood. Two woods south of the village are managed for timber: Bannister's Wood and Arundell's Copse, the first of these is at the edge of the flood plain of the Enborne.
Brimpton Pit is a site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).
History
Evidence of Bronze Age inhabitation of Brimpton is in the five round barrows and two bell barrows in the area leading up to the border with Baughurst to the south. Known as "Borson Barrows", the tumuli were referred to in an Anglo-Saxon charter in AD 944. There have also been Iron Age and Roman settlements identified within the parish. The hypocaust of a villa was uncovered in the village, though records of its exact location no longer exist. One possible location is opposite Brimpton House near the parish church. A mediaeval bronze steelyard weight was found in the garden of the old moated house at Brimpton Manor. It also mentions two churches, three mills, and a dairy. John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870–1872) described Brimpton as "a parish in Newbury district, Berks; on the rivers Emborne and Kennet". Wilson noted that the area of the village measured and had property to the value of £3,720 (). The population was 452, divided amongst 101 homes. He described the position of vicar including vicarage, at that time under the patronage of Rev. G B Caffin, as worth £351. He wrote that the church was "good", with charities of £84. Of its history Wilson noted that a preceptory of the Knights Templar (Shalford Preceptory) was established in Brimpton in the 13th century.
At the centre of the village is the war memorial commemorating the twenty two former residents who died in World War I and two who died in World War II.
Social history
The village relied heavily on agriculture which covers most of the district and employed more than half of the working population in the 19th century.
<!--{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Age range !! Count
|-
| 0–4 || 30
|-
| 5–15 || 100
|-
| 16–24 || 49
|-
| 25–44 || 164
|-
| 45–64 || 190
|-
| 65–74 || 42
|-
| 75 and over || 38
|}-->
Religion
There have been at least three churches in Brimpton, two of which are still in use. The main Anglican church is dedicated to St Peter, and is a Grade II listed building. It was built in 1869 in designed in the 14th-century style. The flint building has a tower (with an octagonal shingled spire) and a wooden porch. The roof is tiled.
The chapel of St Leonard, a 14th-century stone building, is located on Manor Farm. It was used as the place of worship of the Shalford Preceptory, a group of Knights Templar (and later Knights Hospitaller) who had formed in the 13th century. By 1614, the chapel had been converted into a barn at Brimpton Court.
Amenities
The village had a charity shop and a pub, The Three Horseshoes. Brimpton has the village church. There is also a Church of England primary school. Brimpton Airfield, a mile east of the village, has a grass runway for light aircraft.
Demography
{| class="wikitable"
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|+ 2011 Published Statistics: Population, home ownership and extracts from Physical Environment, surveyed in 2005