| Official Name: | Brightwalton |
| Type: | Village |
| Static Image Name: | Brightwalton Church - geograph.org.uk - 39324.jpg |
| Static Image Caption: | All Saints' parish church |
| Coordinates: | 51.511°N -1.384°W |
| Label Position: | bottom |
| Os Grid Reference: | SU4279 |
| Population: | 366 |
| Population Ref: | (2011 census)[1] |
| Area Total Km2: | 8.45 |
| Civil Parish: | Brightwalton |
| Unitary England: | West Berkshire |
| Lieutenancy England: | Berkshire |
| Region: | South East England |
| Country: | England |
| Constituency Westminster: | Newbury |
| Post Town: | Newbury |
| Postcode District: | RG20 |
| Postcode Area: | RG |
| Dial Code: | 01488 |
| Website: | Brightwalton Web Site |
Brightwalton is a village and civil parish in the Berkshire Downs centred 7miles NNW of Newbury in West Berkshire.
The Church of England parish church of All Saints existed by the time of the Domesday Book of 1086. The building was demolished in 1863 and replaced by a Gothic Revival one designed by G E Street, who was architect to the Diocese of Oxford. Street retained and re-used some 13th century Early English Gothic features from the original building.
The parish has a Church of England primary school.[2] It too was designed by Street and built in 1863.
Bus travel from Newbury is provided by service 107.[3]
In about 1715 the Savo(u)ry family moved to the village from nearby South Moreton. The Savorys were wheelwrights, but William Savory (1768–1824) from a third generation of the family, was apprenticed to David Jones, an apothecary in Newbury, Berkshire. Aged 20, Savory "walked the wards" of St Thomas' Hospital and Guy's Hospital in London. He learned surgery, physic (medicine) and midwifery from the leading practitioners of their day, including the surgeon Henry Cline and physician William Saunders. Some of his student notes and his commonplace book survive.[4] Savory became a member of the Company of Surgeons and initially practiced in Newbury. Following bankruptcy in 1795 he re-settled in Brightwalton, where he remained for the rest of his life, passing the mantle to his son, William Savory (1793–1856) who studied at the London Hospital in Whitechapel.[5]
Sir Samuel Eyre (1638–98), Justice of the King's Bench, lived in the parish, having inherited the manor of Brightwalton in 1694 through his wife Lady Martha Lucy. Their son Robert Eyre, also of Brightwalton, became Lord Chief Justice.
The author Monica Dickens lived in the village in the last years of her life.[6] Prolific children's author Rosemary Hayes went to school locally.
| + 2011 Published Statistics: Population, home ownership and extracts from Physical Environment, surveyed in 2005 | |||||||||||
| Output area | Homes owned outright | Owned with a loan | Socially rented | Privately rented | Other | km2 roads | km2 water | km2 domestic gardens | Usual residents | km2 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Civil parish | 44 | 52 | 19 | 20 | 7 | 0.076 | 0.001 | 0.132 | 366 | 8.45 |
Berkshire
. 1966 . . Harmondsworth . 101–102 .