Ogbourne St George

"OGBOURNE ST. GEORGE, a parish in the hundred of Selkley, county Wilts, 4 miles N. of Marlborough, its post town. The village, which is small and irregularly built, is situated on the road from Marlborough to Swindon, and near the river Kennet. There was formerly a Benedictine cell to the Abbey of Bec Herlewin, in Normandy, founded by Maud de Wallingford in 1149, and which became the richest cell to that house in England. It was given to King's College, Cambridge, and the Charter-house. In the neighbourhood are several barrows, and a strong entrenched camp called Barbury Castle, where the Britons were defeated in 556 by the West Saxons with great loss.

A large portion of the Downs which extend into this parish is now in a fair state of cultivation. The inhabitants are chiefly engaged in agriculture. The impropriation belongs to the Dean and Chapter of Windsor. The living is a vicarage* in the diocese of Sarum, value £244, in the patronage of the Dean and Chapter of Windsor. The church, dedicated to St. George, is an ancient structure with a square tower. The parochial charities produce about £11 per annum. The Baptists and Primitive Methodists have each a place of worship."

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) - Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]

Ogbourne St George is 3 miles North of Marlborough. Grid Ref SU203742. Population 548 in 1831, 1,381 in 1951.