Enborne is a village and civil parish, in West Berkshire, England that bounds to the east, across a road bufferNewbury. The River Enborne shares its name, although it does not run through the village; rather, it runs through and rises near the nearby village of Enborne Row. Enborne is a civil and an ecclesiastical parish in the ceremonial and historic county of Berkshire. It lost some of its eastern land to Newbury's 20th century expansion. The village name has had many variant spellings in the past, including Anebourne in 1086, and Enbourne, Enborn, Enbourn in the last 200 years.
Settlements
The parish lies immediately west of Newbury in West Berkshire, and contains the settlements of Redhill, Crockham Heath, Skinner's Green, Enborne Row and Wash Water. There is no main population centre; the settlements are scattered.
Boundaries
The River Enborne marks the southern boundary of the parish, where Berkshire joins Hampshire. The northern boundary is the railway line. Newbury lies to the east, and the parish of Hamstead Marshall to the west. The Kennet & Avon Canal passes across the northern end of the parish, together with the River Kennet.
Agriculture
The parish has always been, and still is, mostly agricultural in character, with substantial woodland and private parkland. However, in recent years, many of Enborne's former farmsteads have been redeveloped into housing.
Early records show that the at one time up to at least 16 acre Reddings copse in East Enborne was held by the family of the barons de Pinkney and was granted by them to William de Clervaux or Nicholas Aufryke. By the middle of the thirteenth century De Clervaux had granted his lands in East Enborne to the Prior of Sandleford, who also acquired the lands held by Aufryke. Reddings copse belonged to one or other of these. Sandleford Priory had it until the priory's property was taken over by the Dean and Canons of Windsor of St George's Chapel in the fifteenth century. Various records of the sale of woods or lease of Readings Coppice survive which indicate tenants between 1585 and 1748. In the nineteenth century a railway in a deep cutting was built through its heart and in 1996 the by then disused railway was replaced by a wider four-lane motorway with lay-bys.
19 February 1585. Sale by the Dean and Canons of Windsor, to Thomas Dannett of Boveney, Buckinghamshire, esquire, and John Kempe of Est Enborne , yeoman, for £33 6s 8d, of 16 acres in Readinges Coppice, to cut and carry away before 1 July 1586, and leave what the law requires.
4 November 1618. Lease by the Dean and Canons of Windsor, to John Dean of Sandleford, Berkshire, gentleman, of Readings coppice and a close lately planted with underwood, for 21 years at £4. With Bond for £30 to hold the Dean and Canons of Windsor harmless against Robert Deale of Henwick, Berkshire, Elizabeth his wife and John Deale junior, his son. Another bond for £20. Counterpart. Witnesses: Robert Boswell, William Brofarton.
16 March 1624. Renewal of lease of Readings Coppice, by the Dean and Canons of Windsor, to John Dean of Sandleford, Berkshire, gentleman, of Readings coppice and a close lately planted with underwood, for 21 years at £4. Witnesses: William Here, John Combes.
28 July 1663. Lease by the Dean and Canons of Windsor, to John Seely of Newbery , Berkshire, woolen draper, of Readings coppice and a close lately planted with underwood. Witnesses: Francis Ridley, William Isaacks, Thomas Monck.
10 May 1670. Renewal of lease of Readings Coppice by the Dean and Canons of Windsor, to John Seely of Newbery , Berkshire, woolen draper, of Readings coppice and a close lately planted with underwood.
18 December 1685. Lease of Readings Coppice by the Dean and Canons of Windsor, to Eleanor Seely of Greenham, Berkshire, widow, of Readings coppice and a close lately planted with underwood. Endorsed with her surrender 23 June 1690 for a new lease to John Edmunds of Newbury, gentleman. Counterpart. Witnesses to lease: Ellenor Sealy, William Baron, Joseph Guy, William Shower. Witnesses to the endorsement: Seth Lyferd, No. Starling, John Foster, Thomas Jemmell.
12 July 1705 Lease of Readings Coppice by the Dean and Canons of Windsor, to Benjamin Edmunds of the City of London, merchant. Counterpart. Witnesses: Benjamin Avery, Richard Avery, Richard Holmes junior.
25 May 1720. Lease of Readings Coppice by the Dean and Canons of Windsor, to Jane Edmonds of Clapham, Surrey, widow, sole executrix of Benjamin Edmunds, for £4, no beasts or cattle to be put in but calves and colts only. Counterpart. Witnesses: John Godwin, John Perry.
6 March 1748. Renewal of lease of Readings Coppice by the Dean and Canons of Windsor, to Jane Edmonds, widow. Counterpart. Witnesses: George North, at Merchant Taylors' Hall, London, William Bateson, his clerk.
Report from Mr Chamber as to Sandelford , let to Mr Montague, Overtons and Reading Coppice to Mrs Edmonds, and Court lands in Enborne, and copyhold land in Pamber called Hop gillons.
Transport
Enborne is served by service 13 from Hungerford to Newbury. Enborne has never had a railway station but the now-closed Woodhay was closer than Newbury's, away today. From the 1880s to the 1960s Enborne Junction marked the forking off of the Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway from the Berkshire and Hampshire Line of the Great Western Railway. The now-disused DN&SR line became much of the Newbury bypass which being a dual carriageway is wider. The large environmental protection Newbury By-pass protest against its building in the late 1990s was technically in the parish.
Robin Hood, William Robehod, and or aka Robert le Fevre, from Enborne in Berkshire. Hood was indicted for various things, 1261–62, took flight, outlawed, and his chattels taken without warrant by the prior of Sandleford. Easter 1262 the prior was excused a fine by the king for having confiscated Hood's chattels.
One of the Henry III rolls of Easter 1262, reads: This is an early example of the name Robin Hood being used for outlaws, presumably in imitation of the famous man of legend.
Traditional legal practices
Enborne historically adhered to an unusual legal practice. The rights to copyhold land inheritance from a husband were forfeited if his widow remarried or was unchaste. However, the steward of the manor was obliged to reinstate the rights if she rode into the manor court, backwards on a black ram, whilst at the same time reciting a particular set of bizarre lines ending in a request for their restoration.
