Ashmansworth is a village and civil parish in the Basingstoke and Deane district of the English county of Hampshire. Geography The village is about south west of Newbury in Berkshire, and north east from Andover in Hampshire, just south west of the top of a ridge line running south. The ridge overlooks Highclere Castle and Newbury, with views over large areas of Berkshire and North Hampshire. With heights between 235 and 240 metres above sea-level, Ashmansworth is the highest village in Hampshire and a spot height of is at the top of the ridge on the north east side of the village makes it one of the highest points in Hampshire. It lies within the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), and the area is popular with walkers, cyclists and horse riders. The village is at the junction of five minor roads about 1 km west of the A343 between Newbury and Andover. Access has not always been as good as today. The hamlet of Crux Easton lies around 1 mile south east from Ashmansworth. History St James' Church St James' Church, Ashmansworth, is believed to have been built around the middle of the 12th century, to which date the nave belongs. The chancel dates from the end of the same century. Windows have been inserted at various dates and the east wall was rebuilt in 1745. Wall paintings, mainly discovered in the 1800s and early 1900s, depict the life of Jesus, and probably date from the 1200s to the 1600s. The village church is dedicated to Saint James the Great. It is now a Grade I listed building. Origins of Ashmansworth Excavations in Church Farm indicate part of the hamlet was occupied in the Iron Age. The hamlet is also located in close proximity to the Oxdrove prehistoric route. Some Roman pottery fragments have also been discovered in Ashmansworth. Ashmansworth was granted as part of Whitchurch to the church of Winchester, some time in the 10th Century. The first reference to Ashmansworth is in a charter dated 909, in which Edward the Elder returned the hamlet to the community. In 934, King Æthelstan (referring to the hamlet as ‘Aescmaeres’) directed that some of the land was to be put under the management of the bishop. It remained in possession of the bishopric until 1649. Obadiah Sedgwick (and, from 1654, his son, Obadiah) was the lord of