East Woodhay

The Manor of East Woodhay was the property of the See of Winchester to which it had been given by Alwara and confirmed by Edward I in 1284. East Woodhay was included in the sale of the bishop's lands in 1648, the manor "with the courts leet and courts baron belonging" were purchased by James Storey and the manor house and land by John Goddard and Tichborne Long. On the restoration of Charles II the manor was restored to the bishopric. Eventually the whole was acquired by the Earl of Carnarvon.

Four rectors of East Woodhay later became bishops and two are commemorated in the church windows, Bishop Ken and William of Wykeham, the latter holding in his hand a model of Winchester Cathedral.

In early times Welsh cattle-drovers arrived at East Woodhay on their way eastwards and rested their cattle and sheep. Here the beasts were 'cleated' or shod with iron shoes for the remainder of their journey, which would be on gravel roads instead of grassy ox droves.

The village in fact has always looked to Berkshire. WI members of 50 years ago recalled how men and women would walk to Newbury after work for sacks of flour, and on Thursdays, can of barm (yeast froth) would be brought back and sold at twopence a can. So even in the thirties, long before sliced loaves in plastic wrapping, home-made bread was nostalgically rated higher than the shop variery.

Another memory is of frameworks for crinolines being made of brambles. The throns were removed, the brambles left for 48 hours and then split in half lengthways to be bent into hoops. An old inhabitant of East Woodhay is recorded as commenting that "Some girls would have them very large - sometimes so big that they could hardly get through the carriage doors, and had to tilt them up sideways".

Hazel was, of course, one of the more conventional raw materials provided by the wooded slopes of the surrounding countryside. Hurdle-making from coppices was common, but there was also a sawpit dealing with heavy lumber. Among its products were railway sleepers for the London and SouthWestern's "new" line from Basingstoke to Whitchurch, Andover, Salisbury and the West.

From 1891 to 1960, East Woodhay had its own station on the Didcot, Newbury and Southampton line. Its promoters kept running out of money and the original plan for connecting with the main line at Whitchurch and building a terminus of its own at Southampton never materialised. But for a time it made possible a day out at Winchester (the DNS station was called Cheesehill, later Chesil), and at the beginning of the 20th century ther was even a through train to Glasgow!