Holyport
Village
Village green, Holyport
Holyport Location within Berkshire
OS grid reference	SU895775
Unitary authority	Windsor and Maidenhead
Ceremonial county	Berkshire
Region	South East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	MAIDENHEAD
Postcode district	SL6
Dialling code	01628
Police	Thames Valley
Fire	Royal Berkshire
Ambulance	South Central
UK Parliament	Windsor

Holyport (pronounced Hollyport) is a suburban village in the civil parish of Bray (where at the 2011 Census the population was included), about 2 mi (3.2 km) south of Maidenhead town centre in the English county of Berkshire.

Etymology

The name 'Holyport' originates from Old English horig + port meaning 'muddy market-town', although a local folk etymology holds that the village was a stopping-off point for pilgrims travelling from Canterbury to St David's.^[1][2] The first element had become 'Holy-' by the end of the 14th Century.^[2]

Amenities

The village has a butcher, a newsagent, a grocery, a small café and a hairdresser as well as the post office and a doctor's surgery. Holyport has four public houses - The George, The Belgian Arms, The White Hart and The Jolly Gardener. 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. Holyport has a nature reserve on the edge of the village, Bray Pit.^[3] Local residents banded together and in 2018 the incumbent Prime Minister Theresa May unveiled a defibrillator located at the local community centre with a second defibrillator located outside the local doctor's surgery.^[4]

There is also a village hall, Holyport Memorial Hall,^[5] tennis court, children's playground and playing field, all of which are owned and managed by the Holyport Community Trust, a Charitable Incorporated Organisation. The playground was rebuilt in 2022 following a year long fund raising exercise and officially opened on 21st Oct 2022^[6] by Theresa May and Paralympian, Jeanette Chippington

Notable residents and visitors

Holyport has one of the world's few real tennis courts (Royal County of Berkshire Real Tennis Club), where Prince Edward first met his wife-to-be, Sophie Rhys-Jones. Holyport was the home of the stables of Horace Smith, later known as Smith's Stables, where Queen Elizabeth II rode with her sister Princess Margaret in their younger years.^[7]

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. 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. Holyport was the final residence of veteran BBC TV presenter Frank Bough until his death in 2020, and for many years the former actor Tom Adams, who died in 2014, was spotted frequently in the village pubs. Stirling Moss, the racing driver, lived in the village, and was a member of the Bray and Holyport Scout Group.

Sport and leisure

The village's soccer team Holyport F.C. plays in the Hellenic Football League.^[8] Its cricket club plays in the Chilterns Cricket League on Saturdays and in friendlies against local clubs on Sundays. The Holyport Village Fair is held on the village green on one Saturday in June every year. This fair has been running since 1946 and draws large crowds from the surrounding area - 2020 was believed to be the first year since the fair's inception that it did not take place.

References

Media related to Holyport at Wikimedia Commons