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About Leckhampstead
Leckhampstead is approximately eight miles north west of Newbury, just west of the B4494 road which runs from Newbury to Wantage, and lies in the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The village is a mixture of modern and more traditional thatched houses with around 300 inhabitants and is mainly open fields and coppices with few roads. It is in three parts - the main, middle part of Leckhampstead, the smaller part to the west, Leckhampstead Thicket, and the hamlet of Hill Green which lies to the east of the B4494.
A Brief History of Leckhampstead
Hill Green was the original Leckhampstead until the time of the plague when this settlement was so devastated that the few remaining inhabitants decided to move to the other side of the valley (now with the B4494 running through it) to the high ground. The chapel (dating from around 1050) remained at Chapel Farm until 1859 when the present church dedicated to St James the Less was built. It houses the Saxon font, the Jacobean pulpit and altar rails, the single church bell (1350) and also the porch timbers from the original chapel and the church itself has an interesting brick work design.
The War Memorial is surrounded by naval chains and 4" shell cases and the clock on the Memorial has hands made from First World War bayonets, hours made of .303 cartridges and minutes made from .303 bullets.
In the Census of 1881 there were 311 people living in the Parish with almost all the adults working in the Parish, whereas today, although the number of people in the Parish is much the same, very few actually work there.
