The White Hart is marked and named on an 1823 map, though it surely dates back much earlier. Most villages had an alehouse from the sixteenth century. The present-day building has internal features suggesting at least 200/300 years of history. It was called the Old White Hart until very recently, and for at least 100 years doubled as coroner's court, timber saleroom, auction house and general meeting place before the village acquired its own hall in 1933. Even as recently as the early 1980s some of the Craven Estate auctions were held here. It was also the official meeting place of the Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes, a friendly society with customs similar to freemasonry. A special viewing hatch in the door for inspecting would-be entrants can still be seen from the inside. Well into this century a room called "the office" was used twice a year for tenant farmers and cottagers to come and pay their rents to the estate steward, who sat at a huge table said to have been made from wood salvaged from the burnt mansion. The pub was the centre of village social life, most notably the annual Fawn Supper, which would be held after a cull of the park deer. The Fawn Supper tradition started in the 1830s, and died out in the early twentieth century, when it was replaced by harvest suppers arranged with the farmers. Another Victorian tradition was the annual visit of the White Hart Club to the big house for hospitality.
The 1840 tithe map schedule and 1841 census list the publican as George Sarjent. He also acted as enumerator for the census. His son Augustus became the village stock castrator. The publican in 1854 was Thomas Hedges from Oxfordshire, who also trained and broke horses, and farmed 70 acres which came with the pub lease. Thomas Hedges is buried in the churchyard. There was a substantial stableyard attached to the inn for many years, and when run by Arthur Hedges, son of Thomas, the White Hart employed its own ostler.
The tenancy changed hands frequently during the second half of the nineteenth century. Charles Hayward had taken over as publican by 1868, Peter Wernham by 1871. The 1881 census lists William Collins from Newbury as innkeeper, changing by 1891 to James Isaac from Thatcham with his wife Annie from Gloucestershire, and their teenage daughters Clara and Beatrice, plus toddler son Winchcombe. James Minchinton brewed and pulled the pints in 1895, and a photograph of his family used to hang in the bar. James Perkins was publican in 1903. At that time the building across the road (now a garage) was a nine-pin bowling alley. Sadly, it fell into disrepair, and part of it had to be knocked down.
The Craven Estate leased the White Hart to the South Berks Brewery in 1910, though previously beer had always been made on the premises. The copper was removed in 1910 when John Coleman took over, perhaps a wise move on the brewery's part since John Coleman was a licensed brewer himself. At that date the Coleman family became tenants, running the pub until the 1950s, when it was sold by the Craven Estate. At this point the pub still had 16 acres of its original 70-acre land-holding -- two meadows which now belong to Elm Farm and some land beyond Ash Tree Corner. Until mains water came to the village during the war, water for the inn was drawn from a huge well where now is a paved terrace. When repairs had to be made to it a man would be lowered down in a bo'sun's chair. The White Hart had the distinction of having the only flush toilet in the village before the war. Water to supply it was pumped from the well to a rooftop cistern. It was also the first building in the village to be connected to mains electricity in the early 1950s. The Colemans, father and son Edwin, ran the White Hart until the 1950s.
Hamstead School and the Village Hall
Hamstead Marshall acquired a school some time before 1840, almost certainly on the site of the present village hall. It was probably built at the same time as the house now known as Hall Cottage, which used to be the teacher's house. Although the present hall appears semi-detached with Hall Cottage, it can be seen that the brickwork does not match, and that they were built at different times. The present occupants of Hall Cottage have no firm information re the date of their cottage, but confirm that there is evidence on their side of communicating doors between the school/hall and the cottage.The first school was church-maintained through the Rev C. A. Johnson, who was rector of Enborne and Hamstead Marshall and a kinsman of the Craven family who owned the land. The schoolmistress in the mid-nineteenth century was Mrs. Shuttle, wife of one of estate workers, James Shuttle. She held the post for many years, and could manage the girls and the duller village boys, but any boys who were exceptionally unruly or bright were packed off to Stockcross school where there was a master to deal with them. Presumably they walked the three miles each way.
In 1870 the Education Act provided for the setting up of non-denominational schools in every community, to be run under the supervision of School Boards. Church-maintained schools such as the Hamstead Marshall one had to meet the criteria of the Act in order to avoid being taken over. Hamstead Marshall school was considered to be inadequate because the walls were too thin and the sanitary arrangements were sub-standard. Additionally, an inspection in July 1894 criticised the educational standards of the infant class.
Plans were drawn up by the architect J. H. Money to upgrade the fabric of the building, but they were rejected by the authorities, who wanted a completed rebuild at an estimated cost of £300. Under the management of the Rev. Charles Blois Johnson, nephew of the school's founder, fund-raising efforts were set in motion to stave off the threat of takeover by a School Board. It was a close-run thing; an announcement in the Newbury Weekly News (NWN) of 16th May 1895 gave three months' notice of a board to be formed for Hamstead Marshall. However, Mrs. Isabelle Bishop, wife of the tenant of Hamstead Park, came to the rescue with support for the new building, and in December 1895 the foundation stone (initialled IJB) was laid in the presence of the Rural Dean. Building, according to plans drawn up by J. H. Money, was undertaken by contractors D. Pope & Co of East Woodhay.
The Post Office Directory of 1892 says that Hamstead School was built for 70 pupils, but had an average attendance of 36. The schoolmistress by then was Miss Goddard. From 1893 onwards the teacher was no longer paid by the rector, but was a charge on the rates. She was therefore no longer appointed by the rector, but by the ratepayers.In 1898 the new school was inspected, and certified as an efficient elementary school. According to the NWN of the time "well-wishers of Christian education will rejoice that another of our church schools has been rescued from a School Board".
In 1899 the schoolmistress was Miss Annie Colton, and the new school was described as built for 40 children, but still with an average attendance of 36. Other mistresses included Mrs Annie Chisel in 1903 (possibly Annie Colton married), Mrs Walter Punter from 1911 until at least 1922, and Miss Edith Dingwall by 1924. She was joined by her sister Isobel.
School Boards were abolished in 1902, when elementary schools came under the management of local authorities. Hamstead Marshall school continued to educate the children of the parish until the early 1930s, when the last schoolmistresses, Edith and Isobel Dingwall, retired. They continued to live next-door until their deaths.
The school building itself was made over in trust to the village as a hall under a 50-year lease drawn up by the Craven estate. When this lease expired in 1985 the estate itself was already under the auctioneer's hammer following the premature death of the seventh earl. There were moves to buy the hall freehold for the village, and indeed the Craven family were said to have wanted to give it to the village for next to nothing. However matters were by then in the hands of trustees, who had a legal obligation to get the best deal they could for the estate, and the asking price was therefore £32,000.
The freehold was bought on 4th Dec 1986 by a combination of county council grant (£11,750), district council grant (£19,750) and a mortgage taken out by the parish council (£2,320) from the Public Loans Board. Shortly afterwards the recreation ground alongside was bought from Elm Farm for £1,600, which came from the Tent Fund. This is now part and parcel of the village hall charity.
The Berkshire Record Office in Reading still holds some log books of Hamstead School.