Holyport
Coordinates: 51°29′20″N 0°42′36″W / 51.489°N 0.710°W
Holyport (pronounced Hollyport) is a village in the civil parish of Bray, about 2 miles south of Maidenhead in the English county of Berkshire.
Amenities
Despite its size, Holyport possesses a small retail area. The village features a butcher, a newsagent ('The Corner Shop'), a grocery, a chemist and a hairdresser as well as the (award-winning) post office and a doctor's surgery.
In addition to its shops, Holyport boasts four public houses - The George, The Belgian Arms, The White Hart and The Jolly Gardener. Each of these has been established for many years. Also in the village are Holyport Church of England Primary School , Holyport College and Holyport Cricket Club. An hourly bus service operated by Courtney Coaches connects the village to Windsor and Maidenhead.
Notable residents and visitors
Holyport is not as well known as its neighbour, Bray. However it has a few claims to fame of its own. It has one of the world's few real tennis courts (Royal County of Berkshire Real Tennis Club), where The Prince Edward first met his wife-to-be, Sophie Rhys-Jones. Holyport was the home of the prestigious stables of Horace Smith, later known as Smith's Stables, where Elizabeth II rode with her sister The Princess Margaret in their younger years.[1] There, using a pair of gates set in the middle of a field, the two young princesses learned to open and close gates whilst on horseback. Monty Python filmed a Maypole dance-related sketch on the green, the film Happy Is The Bride was shot here and in Bray and Joan Collins filmed an advertisement in Holyport some years back. It is the current residence of veteran BBC TV presenter, Frank Bough, and for many years former actor Tom Adams was spotted frequently in the village pubs. Stirling Moss, the famous racing driver, lived in the village, and was a member of the Bray and Holyport Scout Group. The movie, One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing, was partly filmed in Holyport. A scene from the 1995 Mr Bean episode, entitled 'Tee off Mr Bean', was filmed on Holyport Green.
Name
The name Holyport is from the Old English horig + port, meaning 'muddy or dirty market-town'. The first element had become 'holy' by the end of the 14th century.[2]
Sport and leisure
The village has a Non-league Football team Holyport F.C. who play in the Hellenic football league. On the first Saturday in June each year, the Village Green is transformed for the Holyport Village Fair, a true English village fair for the whole family, including canines. This fair has been running since 1946 and draws large crowds from the surrounding area.
References
- ↑ In pics: the BBC in Berkshire (1952-10-13). "Berkshire - History - In pics: the BBC in Berkshire". BBC. Retrieved 2010-11-27.
- ↑ Mills, A.D: A Dictionary of English Place-Names, page 177. Oxford University Press, 1991.
External links
Media related to Holyport at Wikimedia Commons