East Ilsley is a village and civil parish in the English county of Berkshire.
It is situated at grid reference SU492811 in West Berkshire, north of Newbury very close to the A34 road which bypasses the village.
In 1620 East Ilsley was granted a charter to hold a sheep market in the village, this became the second largest sheep market, after Smithfield, London.
There is also a West Ilsley nearby.
Either West Ilsley or East Ilsley may have been the site of the Battle of Ashdown (Alfred the Great's victory against the Danes), the etymology of the name Ilsley is that it may be derived from Hilde-Laege which means "Place of Conflict."
Racehorses have been trained at East Ilsley for about 200 years .
Famous quotes containing the word east:
“It is the business of thought to define things, to find the boundaries; thought, indeed, is a ceaseless process of definition. It is the business of Art to give things shape. Anyone who takes no delight in the firm outline of an object, or in its essential character, has no artistic sense.... He cannot even be nourished by Art. Like Ephraim, he feeds upon the East wind, which has no boundaries.”
—Vance Palmer (1885–1959)