Hurley, Berkshire Explained

Static Image Name:	Ye Olde Bell - geograph.org.uk - 523364.jpg
Static Image Caption:	The Olde Bell inn, originally the guest house for Hurley priory
Country:	England
Type:	Village and civil parish
Official Name:	Hurley
Population:	1,854
Population Ref:	(2001) 1,923 (2011 Census)^[1]
Coordinates:	51.543°N -0.808°W
Civil Parish:	Hurley
Region:	South East England
Constituency Westminster:	Maidenhead
Post Town:	Maidenhead
Postcode District:	SL6
Postcode Area:	SL
Dial Code:	01628
Os Grid Reference:	SU826834

Hurley is a village and rural civil parish in Berkshire, England. Its riverside is agricultural, except for Hurley Priory, as are the outskirts of the village. The Olde Bell Inn adjoining the priory is believed to date from 1135.

Topography

Hurley is a linear development perpendicular to and adjoining the Upper Thames NW of Maidenhead and ENE of Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire on the A4130. The parish includes the hamlets of Cockpole Green, Warren Row, Knowl Hill, Burchett's Green and part of Littlewick Green. Ashley Hill Forest, almost south of the village, is close to and almost equidistant between Warren Row, Knowl Hill and Burchett's Green and is the largest woodland. Other than this, the parish is mainly agricultural; however, many farms have spinneys of woodland adjoining.

Historic structures

• By the river is Hurley Priory, a partially moated Benedictine priory founded in 1086 as a cell of Westminster Abbey.^[2] The priory was dissolved in 1536, but its priory church survives as the current parish church and is a Scheduled Monument.
• 'The Olde Bell' Inn is reputedly the oldest still-working inn in Britain; parts of the inn date to 1135, when it was the hostelry of the priory.^[3]
• The old manor estate of Hall Place (1728) is now the home of Berkshire College of Agriculture.
• The Manor House in the High Street was used as Station Victor, forming part of Operation Sussex, the running of agents in occupied Europe by the American OSS.^[4]
• The former main priory building became a mansion known as Ladye Place, which stood adjoining the present parish church. It was the home of the Barons Lovelace. It was demolished in 1837 as uninhabitable.
• The Grassland Research Institute (GRI) also had a facility at Hurley until 1992.

Localities

Hurley Bottom

Only one of the buildings at the foot of the hill in the south of the village street is listed. This southerly neighbourhood has the local name of Hurley Bottom but is higher than the riverside parts of the village.

Frogmill Court and Frogmill Spinney

The early 19th-century Frogmill Court is now a farmhouse adjoining the river, which in this parish consists of mainly grazing and pasture meadows. The farmhouse is Grade II listed. Frogmill Spinney forms a riverside park housing estate. Another group of riverside homes are accessed by a separate lane.^[5]

Recreation

Hurley is often used as a mooring for leisure craft and by campers. Cricket has been played in Hurley for over 100 years. The club currently plays in the Chiltern League on Saturdays and friendly fixtures against local rivals on Sundays. The ground has a London plane tree inside the boundary. The clubhouse was rebuilt in the 1970s after fire destroyed the previous wooden one. The Temple Golf Club was founded in 1909 and is recognised for its "picturesque [..] Thames valley views".^[6]

In popular culture

• The composer William Crotch was also an artist, and completed the drawing View from Hurley Bottom on 30 August 1806.^[7]
• The village is mentioned in the 1889 comic novel Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome^[8]
• The village is the setting for "The Invisible Millionaire", a short story in the Saint series by Leslie Charteris.

Public transport

The village is served by a bus route from Maidenhead. Closest railway stations are Marlow, and Henley approximately four miles north east, south east and west respectively.

External links

• Hurley Parish

Notes

1. Web site: Civil Parish population 2011. 30 November 2016. Office for National Statistics . Neighbourhood Statistics.
2. Web site: The Priory of Hurley. British History Online. 24 November 2012.
3. Web site: The Olde Bell. (official website). 24 November 2012.
4. Web site: Village that played secret role in defeating Germany . Henley Standard . 22 January 2023.
5. http://getamap.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/getamap/frames.htm?mapAction=gaz&gazName=g&gazString=SU8283 Grid square map
6. Web site: Temple . Fine Golf . Lorne Smith . 2009. subscription.
7. Web site: Crotch . William . View from Hurley Bottom . Tate Gallery . 22 January 2023.
8. Book: Jerome, Jerome . Three Men in a Boat. 457566372. J.W. Arrowsmith. Bristol. 1889. The village of Hurley, five minutes’ walk from the lock, is as old a little spot as there is on the river, dating, as it does, to quote the quaint phraseology of those dim days, “from the times of King Sebert and King Offa.”..