| Ashford Hill |
| When driving midway between Newbury and Basingstoke
why not take
a left turn near Kingsclere and you will find the village of Ashford
Hill. The rather large church of St Paul dates back to 1824 with a
school following shortly afterwards. But Ashford Hill was a village in
the early part of the 17th century. Brook and Woodhouse Farms were built
before the enclosure of the common and two of the old cottages can be
seen still standing. The old church which used to stand on a hill was
destroyed by a fire. Council houses started to be constructed here in 1927 and a few years later the ones near the school were built. A bridge was constructed over the river to replace the ford but a second arch was added a hundred years later A dressmaker of Queen Victoria by the name of Mr Creessor settle in the village and it was here on land he purchased that he built Holt End House. The land used to belong to the village blacksmith a Mr Hopkins, and he assisted by his wife ran the post office. Raymond Hopkins took this over on the death of his father and carried on until horses were replaced with mechanical means, though the forge was the first place that had a petrol pump in the village Holt End House was then purchased by a Mr Driver who is said to have owned the first motor car in the village so the link with the forge continued. On Thursdays the local carried would carry passengers and collected orders from the nearby market and set up a thriving business with the local tradesmen in Newbury. It is believed his name was Piper. There was great panic after WWII, when it was rumoured that the village would be flooded when it became a huge reservoir with a dam across the valley, but this was soon abandoned. A Brickworks was also here, long before the village owned by the Goddards of Brimpton who also possessed the quaintly named Pineapple Farm and Ashford Hill Farm. Farmers in the area included Robert Mundy at Malt house, with his son Bert lived at Dairy House and Ted at Gary Lodge. The last of the Mundy family in the village was Thomas the son of Ted Mundy who died during the 1980s.
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