History

West and East Winterslow are first mentioned in the Doomsday Book, Middle Winterslow being created later. The three settlements were collectively named as ‘Wintreslei’, meaning ‘Winter’s mound’ or ‘burial place’.

The Winterslows developed as separate manors and, by the end of the 19th Century, the three Winterslows were distinctly different, with houses in the three main villages and isolated farm cottages in between. In WWII, around 200 children were evacuated to the villages, and a military camp for American armed forces was built in nearby Bentley Wood. The villages extended after 1964, when new housing estates were built, and the village hall complex was built in 1992.

The parish church of All Saints at West Winterslow dates from the early 12th Century but was rebuilt in 1849-51 using coursed flint. The north aisle was added in the 13th Century and the pulpit is mostly 17th Century. A brick and flint chapel dedicated to St John the Baptist was opened at The Common in 1860 and a Methodist chapel was built at The Common in 1810, although the present building dates from 1865. The Gospel Lifeboat Mission Evangelical church opened at Middle Winterslow in 1891 and was rebuilt in 1979, and Winterslow Baptist Church, at West Winterslow is a tin tabernacle built in 1908.