Aldermaston

From Wikishire
Jump to: navigation, search
Aldermaston
Berkshire
The A340, Aldermaston - geograph.org.uk - 1202526.jpg
The Street, Aldermaston
Location
Grid reference: SU5965
Location: 51°22’59"N, 1°9’-0"W
Data
Population: 1,015  (2011)
Post town: Reading
Postcode: RG7
Dialling code: 0118
Local Government
Council: West Berkshire
Parliamentary
constituency: 		Newbury

Aldermaston is a rural village and parish in Berkshire; a little place which in the 2001 Census had a population of 927, though better known than its size suggests as a result of the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston. The village is on the southern edge of the River Kennet flood plain, near the border with Hampshire.

The village is roughly equidistant from Newbury, Basingstoke and Reading.

Aldermaston may have been inhabited as early as 1690 BC; a number of postholes and remains of cereal grains have been found in the area. Written history of the village is traced back at least as far as the 9th century AD. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle show that the Ealdorman of Berkshire had his country estate in the village. The manor of Aldermaston is documented in the Domesday Book, possibly was established by the early 11th century. The village was given to the Achard family by King Henry I. The parish church, St Mary the Virgin, was built in the 13th century, and some of the original Norman architecture remains in the building's structure.

The last resident Lord of the Manor, Charles Keyser, died in 1929. The manor estate has been subsequently occupied by Associated Electrical Industries, the XIX Tactical Air Command, the Women's Land Army, Collier Macmillan Schools, and Blue Circle Industries. The manor house is now run as a private corporate venue by the Compass Group.

Name

The village of Aldermaston derives its name from the Old English Ealdormannestun, meaning "Ealdorman's Homestead";[1] 'Ealdorman' was the title of the royal governor of the shire and similar officials.

Other documented names include Aldermaston ad Pontem (11th century),[2] Aldremanneston (12th century),[3] Aldremaneston (13th century),[3] Aldermanston and Aldermanneston Achard (14th century),[2][4] and Aldmerston (19th century).[5]

Nuclear Weapons

The name "Aldermaston" is well known in connection with the United Kingdom's nuclear weapons programme, any consequently the marches held to protest against them by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. The Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE), which develops, maintains, and disposes of the UK's nuclear weaponry is in the parish. Built on the site of the former RAF Aldermaston, the plant has been the destination of numerous Aldermaston Marches.

Parish church

The Church of St Mary the Virgin, Aldermaston

The parish church is St Mary The Virgin. It is a 12th-century, Norman-style, church with many alterations from ensuing centuries, particularly in 13th, 14th, 15th and 17th centuries.[6] The 12th-century work is seen in the nave, while the Forster Chapel and chancel are 13th century, the steeple 14th century, and vestry 17th century.[6]

The 17th-century Jacobean pulpit is an unusual heptagonal design.[7] Various additions were made to the structure in the 14th and 15th centuries, primarily to the walls and ogee windows.[6] A scratch dial was added to the south-west buttress in the 14th century.[7]

History

Evidence suggests that Aldermaston was inhabited in the 12th century BC, possibly extending back to 1690 BC.[8] Radiocarbon dating on postholes and pits in the area show activity from 1690 to 1390, 1319 to 1214, and 977 to 899 BC. Wheat and barley grains have been found in these excavations. Tests show that most of the barley was dehulled, but that absence of such debris may mean that the cereal was brought in from other areas.[8]

Middle Ages

Before the Norman conquest in 1066, the land and properties of Aldermaston formed part of the estates of Harold Godwinson, Earl of Wessex, who later became King Harold II,[2] and after the Conquest it passed to the new King.[2]

The Domesday Book of 1086 identifies the existence of a mill, worth twenty shillings, and two fisheries, worth five shillings.[9]

In the 11th century, Henry I gave Aldermaston to Robert Achard (or Hachard[10]) of Sparsholt, Oxfordshire|Sparsholt.[11][12] and In the mid-12th century, the Achard family founded the church of St Mary the Virgin.[13] In 1292, Edward I granted the right for the lord of the manor to hold a market in the village. Another charter was granted by Henry IV, and there is evidence that the market existed until approximately 1900.[2] The Achards also established an annual fair.

Aldermaston was held by the Achard family until the 14th century, when it passed through marriage to Thomas De La Mare of Nunney Castle, Somerset,[12] which family held he manor for 120 years, then passing by marriage to the Forster family. In about 1636, the Forsters built a large manor house to the east of the church. The house incorporated parts of an earlier (15th century) house, including the chimney stacks.[2]

The Forsters' house was fronted by two porches, separated by a central section with seven bays.[14] The porches had ornate Solomonic columns, similar to those at the University Church of St Mary the Virgin in Oxford.[14] The interior of the house featured a number of mythical statues,[15] as well as artwork by Gaspard Dughet, portraits of William Congreve and Godfrey Kneller, and Tintoretto's Esther Before Ahasuerus.[16] The house's Jacobean garden featured patterns of groves and avenues of oak, yew, Spanish chestnut and lime trees.[13] In the early 18th century the Forsters oversaw the building of almshouses in Church Road. Built by R Dixon in 1706, the houses became known as "Dixon's Cottages". In 1752, the estate was inherited by Ralph Congreve.

Victorian era

Aldermaston Manor, built in the 1840s

The Congreve Family owned the estate at the time of the 1830 Swing Riots. The rioters marched across Aldermaston, wrecking twenty-three agricultural machines. Workers were so frightened by the riots that they left their machinery in the open in an attempt to limit additional damage. Around the same time, the River Kennet (along the north side of the estate) was made navigable between Reading and Newbury.[17]

In 1843, the manor house was destroyed by fire, news of which was carried in The Illustrated London News.[13] The estate passed into the Court of Chancery and was purchased by Daniel Higford Davall Burr. In 1848, Burr commissioned the building of a neoclassical mansion to the south west of the original building. Burr saved the 17th-century manor's wooden staircase, though all that remains of the building is a staircase to the cellar. By 1851 the new building was complete, costing £20,000 and having a Tudor-like appearance.[18] Burr held the estate until his death 50 years later, when was inherited by his son, who sold it in 1893.

The buyer was wealthy stockbroker Charles Edward Keyser, who was preoccupied with the idea of keeping the village unchanged—or, as he described it, "unspoilt".[19] He forbade advertisements, opposed all modernisation and refused to allow any expansion by the building of houses. He did, however, commission the building of a parish hall in 1897 and provided the village with a water supply,[1] and the water fountain on the small village green was installed to commemorate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. Keyser oversaw the restoration of the village almshouses in 1906 and 1924, and defrayed the cost of a memorial oak tablet in memory of those killed in First World War: of the 100 men from the village who served in the war, 22 were killed (the highest percentage of town population in the country).[7]

The estate was auctioned off in September 1938 after Keyser's death, and many lots were purchased by their occupiers. The manor house was bought by Associated Electrical Industries (AEI) for £16,000.[20] One of the houses in the village is recorded as having fetched £1,375.[21]

The Second World War and afterwards

During the 1940s RAF Aldermaston was created on the parkland at the southern end of the parish, with XIX Tactical Air Command stationed at the manor house.[22]

After Second World War, the manor was returned to AEI who built the MERLIN reactor on part of the land. The reactor was opened on 6 November 1959 by The Duke of Edinburgh.[23] With the opening of the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment (AWRE) in 1950, Aldermaston became the focus of a number of 'Aldermaston Marches' by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.[24]

Blue Circle Industries acquired the estate in 1985.[25] Allibone was succeeded by Tony Jackson.[26] Blue Circle could not gain planning permission in the grounds of the court, so the MERLIN reactor was demolished to make way for Portland House. With a full redevelopment of Aldermaston Manor, the £14 million office development became Blue Circle's international headquarters and the complex was opened by Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester.[21]

Geography

The Loosey with fountain and well

Aldermaston is part of the Theale Hundred in southern Berkshire, about two miles from the Hampshire border. The village is a mile south of the A4 road that links the parish with Newbury and Reading. The main road in Aldermaston, The Street, is part of the A340 off to Pangbourne and Basingstoke. The course of Ermin Street, the Roman road that linked Calleva Atrebatum (Silchester) with Glevum (Gloucester) via Corinium Dobunnorum (Cirencester) runs south of the village, but none of the road survives in the area.

At the southern end of The Street is a small triangular village green called The Loosey. The Loosey is the site of a Roman well, discovered in 1940 by a cow that almost fell down it.[19] The Loosey was previously home to the village maypole (which was often climbed by Daniel Burr's monkey) and a drinking fountain erected by Charles Keyser to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria.[19] Although no longer in use, the drinking fountain remains intact on the Loosey.

The River Kennet and River Enborne flow through the parish. The confluence of the rivers is approximately half a mile north of the village.[27] The Kennet and Avon Canal forms part of the parish's boundaries with Woolhampton and Padworth.

Sections of Grim's Bank are in the parish. Part of the earthwork in the AWE complex survives at a height of 10 feet and with a ditch 3 feet deep.[28]

Flooding

The flood grilles on Church Road

The geology and location of Aldermaston has resulted in severe flooding on three occasions—1971, 1989, and 2007.[29][30] The flood in 1971 was caused by torrential rain flooding the balancing ponds Atomic Weapons Establishment, which were unable to cope with the rainfall.[30] This happened again in July 1989, when 6 inches of rain was deposited on the village in two hours; feet of water built up from the ponds and broke through a brick wall, flooding the village. The destroyed wall was rebuilt with 17 grilles to avoid another build-up of water.[31] A donation of £10,000 was given to the village by Blue Circle.[32]

In July 2007 a storm coincided with the annual Glade music festival and jeopardised the event.[33] The festival gates were temporarily closed while organisers assessed the flooding, which submerged one of the stages.[34]

The 2007 floods in The Street

The floods hit the Church of England primary school; pupils and staff were evacuated on life rafts;[24][35] pupils and teachers were brought out through windows,[36] 165 in all and taken uphill to the parish hall, where blankets and sleeping bags had been provided.

About the village

The Hind's Head Inn

The local pub is named The Hind's Head in honour of the Forster family crest. Built in the 17th century and originally operating as a coaching inn,[37] the establishment was named The Pack Horse during the De La Mare and Forster lordships and The Congreve Arms throughout the Congreves' ownership.[38][39]

The pub has its own gaol-house, the lock-up, at the rear. Built out of red brick, the small single-storey building has a shallow domed roof. A cell 7½ feet by 6 feet, enclosed by a studded door with a grille,[40] it was last used in 1865 and its drunk inhabitant burnt himself to death trying to keep warm.[21][38]

Another pub in the parish is The Butt Inn, a mile northeast of the village, named after the archery butts that were located in the fields opposite the pub.[41]

Cricket bats

Old Village Farm (on Fishermans Lane) is now the location of a wood yard, used since the 1930s to prepare local willow for the production of cricket bats.[42] The trees are grown at Harbour Hill Copse,[43] where 70 trees are felled annually for this purpose. There are approximately 1000 trees growing at any given time.[44] The workers at the yard cut the wood into approximate bat shapes, then cure the wood in a kiln. The clefts of wood are then shipped to India where the final manufacturing can be undertaken under moisture-controlled conditions.[43]

Atomic Weapons Establishment

Aerial view of the Atomic Weapons Establishment

It is the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE), for which Aldermaston has become known.[45] The establishment, less than a mile south of the village, is where British nuclear warheads are designed and built and where decommissioned and redundant nuclear weapons are dismantled.[45] In April 1958, the first Aldermaston March was held,[46] at which around 3,000 protesters marched from London to Aldermaston over four days, with a total attendance of 12,000 at the establishment's gates.[46]

Sport

Aldermaston Raceway, a banger racing,[47] demolition derby[48] and stock car venue, is located to the south of the village, operated by Malcolm and Gwen Roberts along with their children under the operating name of Fleet Motor Club. The Roberts family relocated here after ceasing operation of their site at Aldershot Raceway, Pegasus Village, Rushmoor Arena, Aldershot in 2007.[47] A course for off-road 4x4 trials is also located in the south of the parish.[49]

Outside links

Commons-logo.svg
 ("Wikimedia Commons" has material
about Aldermaston)

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Aldermaston Parish Council (2007a, p. 1)
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Page & Ditchfield (1923, p. 2)
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Gelling (1973, p. 198)
  4. ↑ National Archives (1339)
  5. ↑ Lewis (1835, p. 49)
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Page & Ditchfield (1923, p. 5)
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Cox (1977, p. 4)
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Cunliffe (2005, p. 37)
  9. ↑ Timmins (2000, p. 6)
  10. ↑ National Archives (1290)
  11. ↑ Camden (1610, p. 63)
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Topographer, The (1789, p. 33)
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Martin et al. (2005, p. 65)
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Mowl & Earnshaw (1995, p. 63)
  15. ↑ Piozzi, Bloom & Bloom (1996, p. 208)
  16. ↑ Knight (1840, p. 104)
  17. ↑ Kennet and Avon Canal Trust (2010)
  18. ↑ Pevsner (1966, p. 45)
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 Timmins (2000, p. 11)
  20. ↑ Scott (2007, p. 1)
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 Martin et al. (2005, p. 66)
  22. ↑ Timmins (2000, p. 14)
  23. ↑ Martin et al. (2005, p. 25)
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 BBC News (2007)
  25. ↑ Aldermaston Parish Council (2007a, p. 15)
  26. ↑ Martin et al. (2005, p. 63)
  27. ↑ West Berkshire Council (2007b, p. 3)
  28. ↑ Aldermaston Parish Council (2007b)
  29. ↑ Newbury Today (2008a)
  30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 Martin et al. (2005, p. 85)
  31. ↑ Martin et al. (2005, p. 88)
  32. ↑ Martin et al. (2005, p. 89)
  33. ↑ Newbury Today (2007b)
  34. ↑ Virtual Festivals (2007)
  35. ↑ Independent (2007)
  36. ↑ White (2007)
  37. ↑ Reader's Digest Association (1990, p. 18)
  38. ↑ 38.0 38.1 Aldermaston Parish Council (2007a, p. 3)
  39. ↑ Ingram, Ingram & Ridley (1976, p. 48)
  40. ↑ Heritage Open Days (2010a)
  41. ↑ Wordsworth Reference (2006, p. 68)
  42. ↑ Aldermaston Parish Council (2006, p. 5)
  43. ↑ 43.0 43.1 Aldermaston Parish Council (2010b)
  44. ↑ Padworth Parish Council (2010)
  45. ↑ 45.0 45.1 BBC News (2000)
  46. ↑ 46.0 46.1 Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (2008)
  47. ↑ 47.0 47.1 Newbury Today (2011)
  48. ↑ Kusi Obodum (2011)
  49. ↑ Burnham Offroaders (2009)
Retrieved from "https://wikishire.co.uk/w/index.php?title=Aldermaston&oldid=61833"