Arborfield

Arborfield
Berkshire
St Bartholomew's parish church
Location
Grid reference:	SU7567
Location:	51°24’4"N, -0°54’58"W
Data
Post town:	Reading
Postcode:	RG2
Dialling code:	0118
Local Government
Council:	Wokingham
Parliamentary constituency:	Wokingham
Website:	Arborfield Village

Arborfield is a village in Berkshire about 4½ miles southeast of Reading and 4 miles west of Wokingham. Its sister village, Arborfield Cross, is half a mile away and the two villages have become collectively known as 'Arborfield', with no signs marking their boundary.

The village is on the A327 road linking Reading with Farnborough.

Arborfield is also known for the Army base of Arborfield Garrison about a mile the other side of Arborfield Cross.

Churches

The present Church of England parish church is St Bartholomew, a Gothic Revival building designed by J Picton and built in 1863.

The new building replaces an older St Bartholomew's church that had been built in the 13th century and altered probably early in the 18th century. When the new church was consecrated the roof of the old one was removed and later layers of plaster stripped from the interior walls, revealing Mediæval wall paintings of "figure subjects and geometrical and masonry patterns" that "covered the walls". These have now been lost and the church ruins have greatly deteriorated.

The army garrison has its own garrison church, a 20th-century building dedicated to Saint Eligius.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Arborfield)

• Arborfield Community

References

• A History of the County of Berkshire, Volume 3 – Victoria County History
• Pevsner, Nikolaus (1960). Buckinghamshire. The Buildings of England. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. p. 66. ISBN 0-14-071019-1.