Kingston Lisle, Berkshire

Description
Kingston Lisle, a village and chapelry in Sparsholt parish, Berks. The village stands near the Ridge Way, and near the Wilts and Berks Canal, 2 1/2 miles SE from Uffington Junction station on the G.W.R., and 5 1/2 W of Wantage, and has a post office under Wantage; money order and telegraph office, Uffington. The chapelry contains also the hamlet of Fawler, where in former times stood a church dedicated to St James the Great. Population of ecclesiastical district, 255. The manor belongs to the Earl of Craven. Kingston Lisle House is a large mansion standing in a well-timbered park of about 120 acres. The Blowing Stone, near the village, measures about 3 1/2 feet in breadth, 2 in width, and 3 in height, is pierced on each side with holes, and, on being lustily blown into at one of the holes, emits a sound which can be heard, it is said, at a distance of 6 miles. It is a kind of red sandstone, and is traditionally said to have formerly been used for giving alarm on the approach of an enemy. The chapelry is annexed to the vicarage of Sparsholt, in the diocese of Oxford. The chapel, an ancient and interesting building of stone, partly Norman, was restored in 1883, and is dedicated to St John the Baptist. It contains some interesting frescoes of the fourteenth century. There is an endowed Baptist chapel.