Leckhampstead is a village and civil parish in West Berkshire, England in the North Wessex Downs. A road and boundary stone in Leckhampstead, the Hangman's Stone and Hangman's Stone Lane, are named after a tale of a man who roped and carried a stolen sheep from a farm in Leckhampstead around his neck, but which strangled him after he stopped and slept. After a long hiatus the area returned to full village status in 1864. Its hamlet of Hill Green has six listed buildings and the amenities of the village include a public house, church and village hall. The associated hamlet of Leckhampstead Thicket has a high proportion of its buildings that are thatched cottages and has a Primitive Methodist chapel, dated 1874. Geography The village is in the North Wessex Downs, a few miles north of the M4 motorway. The main residential area is a linear development, the B4494 road, between Newbury () and Wantage (), passes within of its eastern edge. Most of the land is agricultural with a few woodlands, particularly along the northern border where elevation exceeds above sea level. There are several winterbournes in this area. The land being on the chalk downs, most of the natural drainage is subterranean, which is borne out by the land survey by the Office of National Statistics having been unable to identify any water at the surface. History Sarsen stones and Bronze Age features, are in the bounds of Leckhampstead at Hill Green and a flint arrowhead of this period has been found. A small round barrow is in the south-east. Roman finds include a 2nd-century earring and Samian ware. A church, dedicated in 1050, for most of its existence, a chapel under the vicar of Chieveley has been recorded about east of the present church, on the site of Chapel Farm. Therefore, until 1835, when it gained a civil parish council this area was administratively part of the parish of Chieveley. Ecclesiastical affairs having been divorced from the state at the local level about this time, in 1884, Leckhampstead ecclesiastical parish was recreated, twenty years after a new church for Leckhampstead was dedicated to replace its ruined chapel. The Domesday Book of 1086 records that Lecanestede was held by Abingdon Abbey. The date that Leckhampstead became a property of Abingdon Abbey is uncertain. It is mentioned in a charter, dated to 811 CE, in which King Coenwulf