There are two churches here, St Martin's which has a tower is situated at East Woodhay and at Woolton Hill is St Thomas's. There seem to be no records of when St Martins was built, but in 1136 it was recorded by Wodehaye as 'of considerable rectories' and contributed a sum of 100 shillings to the hospital at St Cross.

Thomas Ken is listed as a rector here from 1669-1672 and he became the Bishop of Bath and Wells.

A date is know for the construction of St Thomas's at Woolton Hill, 1849, and this has a tower that is topped by a spire. Most of the housing in the village was for estate workers but today it consists of private dwellings, a police station used to sit next to the post office and there was a Working Mens Club here as well and in 1911 a church hall was built.

But the people of the village still have their pubs, in fact there are two at Woolton Hill and Hillingdon House has now been converted into a nursing home.

Gainsborough which was once a stud farm called Harwood had many well know racehorses stabled here but today  with the rise in population a lot of hew housing has been added, and where there was once a blacksmiths at East End this has gone with the onslaught of progress, both East and North End post office and stores have also gone and the nearest post office is at Woolton Hill, and a small bakery at Ball Hill still serves the community.

The plague of 1328 - 1350 which became known as the Black Death devastated the southern end of the county and the death toll was as high as about fifty percent of the population. One of those badly hit were the clergy and a lot of churches had no priest. This was mainly due to the fact that when somebody died the first person who was asked to attend was a priest. Inkpen lost about 27% of its population and though no records are kept of East Woodhay or Wooton Hill it is estimated that this would be about the same in effect of casualty numbers. There was a Bishop's Palace at Heath End but again there are no records describing its existence.

It is know though that during the English Civil war Oliver Cromwell once stayed overnight at the Stargroves just before the Battle of Newbury and that Newbury Museum have a bowl which it is said he used.

Most villages have their own eccentrics and legends and the one that stirs interest is....

MOTHER RUSSELL'S POST
Mother Russell has never officially documented as a witch, but she certainly appeared to possess magical powers. In the same village where she lived was a 'stripper', that is one who made his living by stripping the bark from felled trees, one of the perks of his trade was to keep strips of wood for his own usage.

But when working on a tree outside of Mother Russell's cottage she asked if she could also collect some of the chippings. But she was not happy with those that had been given her and she insisted that she collected some more herself. The stripper argued with her and said that this was not to be, but she ignored him and carried on collecting them. Again the stripper warned her that enough was enough and she turned and gave him a hard look. And from that day on his health started to decline and it was reported that although he was never actually ill, he was always felling a bit down.

Six months later he happened to bump into the old lady who asked after his health, and was informed that he was 'very middling' so she told him to cheer up and he would feel better in a few days, and so it was to be. But if she was a witch or not there is some doubt but it seemed her mind was disturbed for a few months later she took her own life at a house in Up Somborne and was buried at a nearby crossroads with a stake through her heart.

Transcribed from an article by Paul Grantham
Unconsecrated burials of Britain
copyright©Paul Grantham