Compton, Berkshire

East Ilsley is a village and civil parish in the Berkshire Downs in West Berkshire, north of Newbury. The village is centred immediately east of the A34 dual carriageway which passes the length of the village from north to south. It has the vast majority of its buildings in a traditional clustered centre.

The Downs School is a comprehensive secondary school in the village of Compton, Berkshire, England. It is a state school run by West Berkshire Education Authority.

Compton railway station was a station on the Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway in England. Compton was the largest station between Newbury, Berkshire and Didcot, Oxfordshire, serving the villages of Compton, East Ilsley and Aldworth. The station closed in 1962.

Perborough Castle is the site of an Iron Age univallate hillfort located at Compton in Berkshire. The site covers approximately 14 acres (5.7 ha), and lies on the chalky downs of West Berkshire. Archaeological evidence, from excavations in 1838, suggest that it was a lightly defended and perhaps a seasonally occupied site, containing no more than a few grain storage pits and slag pits, the extent of these being the obvious sign of continued occupation.The Compton area had a sizeable community in the bronze-age and there are many other banks and field systems evident in the surrounding downs. Today, the earthwork ditches and ramparts are not well defined, whether this was the original design, or more the result of deterioration over time is not clear, since the site is currently farmland and has been heavily ploughed.

Churn railway station was a station on the Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway in England. It served Churn Down, a remote part of the Berkshire Downs. The nearest village was Blewbury, two miles north, which was already served by Upton and Blewbury railway station, the previous station on the line.

Hampstead Norris railway station was a station on the Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway in England. It served the village of Hampstead Norreys in Berkshire (note spelling differentiation). The station closed in 1962.

Ashridge Wood is a 15.9-hectare (39-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest south-west of Compton in Berkshire. It is in the North Wessex Downs, which is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.The wood is a surviving section of a once larger ancient coppiced woodland, although part was planted with conifers during the 20th century. It has many flowering woodland plants, including an abundance of Spiked Star-of-Bethlehem Ornithogalum pyrenaicum.A visit by the Reading & District Natural History Society in June 2009 identified 34 species of flowering plants, 7 different lichens on Ash trees within the wood, and 22 species of insects.

Hampstead Norreys (alternatively spelt Hampstead Norris as it is pronounced) is a village and civil parish in Berkshire, England. It is centred on the River Pang, north of Newbury. As well as the nucleus of Hampstead Norreys, the parish includes the hamlets of Bothampstead, Eling and Wyld Court. The village was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Hanstede.

Hampstead Norreys Castle was a Norman castle in the village of Hampstead Norreys, Berkshire, England.

The Battle of Ashdown was a West Saxon victory over a Danish Viking army on about 8 January 871. The location of Ashdown is not known, but may be Kingstanding Hill in Berkshire. Other writers place the battle near Starveall, a short distance north of the village of Aldworth and south east of Lowbury Hill.The West Saxons were led by King Æthelred and his younger brother, the future King Alfred the Great, while the Viking commanders were Bagsecg and Halfdan. The battle is described in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and Asser's Life of King Alfred.

Eling is a hamlet in the civil parish of Hampstead Norreys in the English county of Berkshire. The settlement lies next to the M4 motorway, and is located approximately 5 miles (8.0 km) north-east of Newbury. The Eling estate was owned by Gerald Palmer and is now administered by a charitable trust.

Bothampstead is a hamlet in the English county of Berkshire, and within the civil parish of Hampstead Norreys. It consists of several houses and a farm. The word Bothampstead means - of 2 parts. Therefore, there is an upper and lower Bothampstead containing a few houses respectively. The manor of Bodenhampstead was owned in succession by the De la Beches and the Langfords, and later by the families of Norris and Bertie. Subsequent owners included the Gallinis, Mathews and Pocock families. In the 19th Century Mr I.H Pocock sold the manor to George Palmer, MP for Reading.The Malthouse, Bothampstead was the site of Music Camp, an influential annual gathering of amateur musicians who tackled challenging repertoire with the aid of many professional (or future professional) musicians - including Dennis Brain, Colin Davis, John Gardner, Peter Pears and many more. It was founded by the physicist Bernard Robinson in 1935. Two camps of 10 days each summer took place there most years before the event moved to Pigotts in Speen, Buckinghamshire in 1966. His son Nicholas Wheeler Robinson (1937-2022), was a teacher who carried on Music Camp activities in Buckinghamshire. Nick Robinson wrote a memoir of his father's life.