HAMSTEAD MARSHALL gazetteer A-Z guide to houses, roads and places in Hamstead Marshall

names	numbers
Several houses have had their names changed in recent years. Entries in the gazetteer use the current names, but there are also references from familiar old names. Click below to find the gazetteer page of your choice.	Hamstead's house numbers defy all logic - they are the despair of delivery services. Duplication is caused by parallel but separate numbering sequences for the older estate cottages, Ash Tree Grove, Elm Farm Cottages and Hamstead Mill. Below is a definitive guide to the fiendish system, including some history for those houses without names, and which are not listed under the A - Z sequence.
A - F	Nos. 1 - 8 = the former council houses in Kintbury Road, 1,2,3,4 dating from 1928, and 5,6,7,8 from 1955. Their addresses are generally given as "No X, The Village, Hamstead Marshall". But some of these numbers are duplicated elswhere: 2 is also the number of the Old Post Office. 5 also used to apply to one of the two cottages now combined into Holtwood Cottage. 7 and 8 also refer to the old and formerly semi-detached cottage opposite Salters (pictured left in 1977), also on the Kintbury Road. This cottage is marked on the Rocque map of 1761 and on the 1775 survey map. The tenants in 1840 were Joseph Green and John Hockley, a brickmaker. No.7 was put up for auction by the Craven Estate in 1977, and is now much extended. No. 8 was where John Parr the photographer lived from the beginning of this century until the Second World War. He took many local photographs and published them as postcards. He had two daughters at the school, and he was parish clerk for Enborne in 1911. No. 8 was vacated a few years ago and was bought by the owner of no.7. The following numbered houses are listed in the A-Z Gazetteer under their names: 9 and 10 = Salters 12 = Lamellion 14 = Midsummer Cottage 17 = Gully Cottage 18 = Clareville Cottage Nos. 23, 24, 25 form a terrace (pictured left in the 1980s) on Chapel Corner, marked on the 1775 survey map. At that time they were held by Jonathan Tub. Ann Plumb occupied no. 23 in 1840, she having been a prolific producer of fatherless children around 1800. The Rolfe family lived in no. 23 in 1922, and shortly afterwards the Dixons. It was put up for auction by the Craven Estate in 1977. No. 24 was held by William Fisher in 1924, then the Durbridge family, and later by May Pocock née Burton. After she died in 1987, aged 96, it was put up for auction. In 1840 no. 25 was held by Moses Martin, a carter from Wiltshire, with his wife Charlotte and children Maria and Thomas. They eventually moved to Brixton. The Taylor family occupied the house in the 1930s, and it was sold at auction by the Craven Estate in 1977. The following numbered houses are listed in the A-Z Gazetteer under their names: 27 = Hawthorne Cottage 41 = Craven Keep 43 = Harvest Cottage 44 = Dairy Cottage 48 = Hillside Cottage 50/51 = Craven Lodge 53 = Parterre
G - H
I - N
O - Z
the changing parish boundary
Hamstead Marshall was for centuries defined by its boundary as a church parish. When civil parishes were introduced in the late nineteenth century the two were identical for some decades. Changes were made in 1991: on the western side Hamstead's boundary now runs neatly up Old Lane rather than zig-zagging across fields as it had done for centuries. Thus Barrs Farm is now included in the parish, but Hamstead Holt Farm and the houses on the west of Old Lane have been expelled into Kintbury. The northern boundary used to follow the most northerly stream of the river, but lately is shown on Ordnance Survey maps following the railway. Marsh Benham Farm has thus become part of Hamstead rather than Speen.

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