Westbrook

The tithing of WESTBROOK in this parish is in the hundred of Kintbury Eagle, having been at an early date attached to the manor of Benham in that hundred. Before the Conquest, under the name of Bochsorne, a variant of Boxford, it was held in alod of King Edward, but after 1066 it was granted to Humphrey Vis de Lou with the adjoining manor of Benham in the parish of Speen. One hide was held of him by Aluric and 2 by Alman. It continued from that time a member of the manor of Benham (q.v.), and their subsequent history is identical. There were two mills at Boxford in the 12th century, but there is now only one, near the church and adjoining the bridge over the river, which is still used as a corn-mill. There was a mill at Westbrook in 1086, which in the 15th century was known as Gosling's Mill, and was held by Robert Curteys as a fulling-mill. It is now represented by the cottages beside the mill-stream below Westbrook Farm. The fishing in the Lambourn River seems always to have belonged to the lords of the different manors in this parish, and when under the award of 1819 the Earl of Craven released such of his rights in the manor of Benham Valence as were situated in the parish of Boxford to John Archer Houblon, who was lord of the two other manors, he reserved the rights of fishing which had hitherto belonged to him.