Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for BINFIELD

BINFIELD, a small village and a parish in Easthampstead district, Berks. The village stands in Windsor forest, 2½ miles N of Bracknell r. station, and 3½ NE of Wokingham; and has a post office under Bracknell. The parish comprises 3,207 acres. Real property, £7,341. Pop., 1,371. Houses, 270. The property is much subdivided. Binfield House, Binfield Park, and Pope's Wood are chief residences. The last was the early home of the poet Pope; who described it as

My paternal cell,
A little house, with trees a row,
And, like its master, very low.

The present house is mainly reconstruction and enlargement; but includes the room which is believed to have been the poet's study. Here Pope wrote great part of his early poems; and in the adjoining grounds stood a tree, now destroyed, bearing the inscription by Lord Lyttleton, "Here Pope sung." The Roman road, called the Devil's highway, passed near the village; and an entrenchment there bears the name of Cæsar's camp. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Oxford. Value, £628.* Patron, the Lord Chancellor. The old church was of the time of Edward III.; had a picturesque square tower, was restored and enlarged in 1848, and further enlarged in 1859. The new church was built in 1867, and is in the early English style. There are a national school, and charities £82.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a small village and a parish"   (ADL Feature Type: "populated places")
Administrative units: Binfield CP/AP       Easthampstead RegD/PLU       Berkshire AncC
Place: Binfield

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