At the beginning of the 19th century the area was just rough heathland, with just a track linking ancient Moordown Village to Horseshoe Common.

Around 1850, wealthy Scottish philanthropists Georgina and Mary Talbot [4] saw the plight of local workers and set about trying to improve their lives by purchasing land along the road and building four artisan cottages and sinking wells to provide fresh water.

Winton Recreation Ground is the only significant green space in an area of approximately one square mile, serving a population of 4750 people.

The facilities available at the ground include Richmond Park Bowls Club, tennis courts, cycle track, children's playground, playgroups play building and a cricket pitch.

[10] In 1978 it changed hands but the cinema took a downturn in the 1980s due to lack of maintenance and it ended its life in 1989 when it was demolished to build a pub.

Evidence of the name dates to 1871, soon after Winton was formed, when Henry Vatcher a carter living with his wife two children and two lodgers, gives Peter's Hill as his address on the census.

It was built on land provided by landowner Lord Leven with financial support from Scottish-American philanthropist Andrew Carnegie.

It was one of the first public libraries in the country to allow open access to the shelves; and it was here that Flora Thompson read the literature on which she based her literary career culminating in her autobiographical trilogy Lark Rise to Candleford.