Burghfield

Burghfield
Berkshire
The Rising Sun, Burghfield Common, in 2005
Location
Grid reference:	SU6668
Location:	51°24’40"N, 1°2’31"W
Data
Population:	5,894  (2001)
Post town:	Reading
Postcode:	RG7
Dialling code:	0118
Local Government
Council:	West Berkshire
Parliamentary constituency:	Wokingham

Burghfield is a village in the middle of Berkshire, about four miles south of Reading. The parish includes two separate villages – Burghfield Common and Burghfield Village – and several small hamlets, including Burghfield Bridge, Burghfield Hill, Pingewood, Trash Green, Whitehouse Green and Sheffield Bottom.

The village can trace its history back to before the Domesday Book and its name is believed to be from the Old English beorg feld, meaning "Hill Field".

Since the 1980s the population of Burghfield has nearly doubled with the construction of many new housing estates, and Burghfield has become a popular commuter village for the nearby towns, Reading, Newbury and Basingstoke.

Around the village

The areas around Pingewood, in the north of the parish, are divided by the M4 motorway, and have also been dramatically altered by gravel extraction in the mid to late 20th century, leading to the loss of many farms and cottages within the hamlet. Some of the pits were left to fill with water, and are now artificial lakes mostly used for various water sports, fishing, and other leisure activities. They are also a haven for migrating geese, water fowl and other wildlife. Other pits have been used for landfill waste.

Horsehill Lake, Sheffield Bottom

'The Newt Pond' off of Goring Lane, Burghfield Common and Wokefield Common borders

A view across the Burghfield Sailing club lake

The main villages and hamlets of Burghfield parish lie along Burghfield Road, the major road out of Reading, in order: Burghfield Bridge (by the bridge over the River Kennet; then Burghfield Village south of the M4 motorway; then Burghfield Hill; and finally Burghfield Common. The south-eastern part of Burghfield Common is known as Great Auclum.

In the north of the parish, the Kennet River valley, is surrounded by a number of man made lakes, marshland and willow scrub, with old water meadows and osier beds to the north of the river. Elsewhere is pasture. The parish is criss-crossed by a number of footpaths and bridleways across the fields and open spaces as well as through the woods.

Gravel extraction

Since 1938 there has been much gravel extraction in the north of the parish, especially at Pingewood, which has led to the loss of many farms and cottages within the hamlet. In recent years the empty pits have been used for landfill waste. A number of earlier pits have been left to fill with water, and this has provided for various water sports, fishing and other leisure activities, as well as supporting a large populations of waterfowl.

Wildlife

The parish includes a number of important areas for local wildlife, in particular in the extensive wetland area in the Kennet Valley which has been created by gravel extraction. The flooded gravel pits are a haven for a wide range of water birds and other bird species; nightingales, red kites, kestrels, buzzards and peregrine falcons are seen here.

Hosehill Lake

In Sheffield Bottom, Hosehill Lake, a flooded gravel pit falling also within Sulhamstead parish, is listed as a nature reserve, and is managed by Berkshire Countryside Service alongside the Theale Area Bird Conservation Group. The lake is bounded by a footpath, of approximately one mile, with several seating and bird viewing areas. The main entrance to the reserve is opposite the Fox and Hounds Pub, Sunnyside, on Station Road, Sheffield Bottom (Theale). The site is important for its wildlife and habitats. It hosts a wide variety of water fowl in the winter, and nightingales join the butterflies and dragonflies in the spring.

Pubs

The Hatch Gate Inn, Burghfield

There are several public houses in Burghfield. The Hatch Gate and The Six Bells sit opposite each other in Burghfield Village, either side of the main Burghfield (Reading) Road. In Burghfield Common there is The Bantam, and formerly The Rising Sun which closed in 2011. In Sheffield Bottom is the Fox and Hounds. At Burghfield Bridge is the Cunning Man, which was built at the start of the 21st century and replaced an older pub with the same name.

There is a hotel, Roselawn Hotel, formerly a large Victorian farmhouse, located near the bottom of the Reading Road on Burghfield Hill.

History

Bronze Age and Iron Age

There are a number of Bronze Age sites within the parish, though much has been destroyed by gravel pit workings in Pingewood, for example possible Bronze Age barrows and ditches once sat where the Burghfield sailing club now sails, There have also been numerous finds of Bronze Age spearheads, and an axe head and a sword in the Pingewood and River Kennet area.

Of Iron Age history there is only a ditch and some pits in Burghfield near Amners Farm at SU679689.

Romans

There are many indications of Roman settlement in the parish. The first is a possible prehistoric or Roman settlement and field system near the river Kennett, to the west of Burghfield Mill, but now lost to gravel pits. The earthworks were visible from aerial photographs, and formed a system of fragmented conjoined rectilinear enclosures. An incomplete rectangular enclosure, measuring 12m across, could be the remains of a building. The cropmarks extend over an area measuring approximately 750 yards by 500 yards. It is possible that some of the cropmarks may relate to much later features, possibly Mediæval or Post mediæval field boundaries. In Pingewood, at Berrys Lane and Searle's Farm Lane, there are signs of a possible Roman road flanked by possible field systems and/or settlements, which are/were visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs. It may be part of the Roman road from Silchester to Verulamium.

There have been finds of Roman coins, pottery, and other artefacts in the region.

Middle Ages

From the Middle Ages the lands of the village were divided between three manors, named Burghfield Regis, Burghfield Abbas and Sheffield (or Soefeld).

There is evidence that early Burghfield was divided into two equal manors at an early date and it is accordingly referenced twice in the Domesday Book as follows, showing that a manor was held by Ralph de Mortimer and another by Henry of Ferrers. Both of the manors belonging to Queen Emma until her death in 1052.

Sheffield Manor (originally Sewelle) was located at what is now Sheffield Bottom, at the junction of Jaques's Lane and Station Road. The manor of Sheffield was granted by the Count of Évreux to St Martin-de-Noyon, Charleval, in circa 1086, as an alien Benedictine cell. Reading Abbey gained possession in 1270. Although known locally as the Priory, it was only a manor and later a grange with a chapel and mill.

Early Modern Period

The Williams family bought all three manors after the Dissolution of the Monasteries After the death of John Williams, 1st Baron Williams of Thame (1500 – 14 October 1559) the manors of Burghfield were left to his daughter Margery and her husband, Sir Henry Norreys. In 1560 they bestowed Burghfield Regis (now Burghfield Manor) and Burghfield Abbas (now Amners Court) on Margery's cousin, Nicholas Williams, and retained Sheffield Manor.

Moatlands Farm was apparently a moated house. It stood just south of Burghfield Mill, where the gravel pits are now. In the 18th century, it was the home of the May family.

Searle's Farm is an ancient Tudor building marooned in the middle of the gravel pits in northern Burghfield. One particular room in the house is said to be haunted. Apparently an unmarried serving girl, having discovered she was pregnant, committed suicide by throwing herself from the window during the 19th century. The young girl is said to appear in a flowing white dress at the window, staring out over the surrounding countryside.

The Old Manor at Whitehouse Green is a small manor house built in 1685 and converted to a domestic dwelling house in the 20th Century. It is built of brick with vitreous headers and with an old tile gabled roof. It is a scheduled national monument number 543101.

Burghfield Bridge was rebuilt in stone circa 1770. It is a scheduled national monument no. 241548

Old well in Burghfield Common

18th and 19th centuries

Sir Gilbert Blane (1749–1834), a physician who instituted health reform in the Royal Navy, had a country house at Culverlands near Burghfield. The house was enlarged in 1879 and was later occupied by Sir Charles Wyndham Murray MP. It is described as a plain plastered building with a balustraded parapet and slate roofs.

There is an old well with an Oak framed shelter situated in Burghfield Common in the corner of a small village green, known locally as The Wells, in Bunces Lane and at the Junction with Springwood Lane. The shelter bears the engraved inscription: "In memory of Queen Victoria (1819–1901) in the year of the coronation of her son Edward VII 1902"

Second World War

Pillbox at Garston Lock, Kennet and Avon Canal, near Burghfield

In the early part of the Second World War, several wartime installations and anti-invasion measures were installed across the parish. There was a Royal Ordnance Explosives Filling Factory (no.18), in production from 1942, ad which was refitted in 1953 for production of missiles. It is still in use today. ROF Burghfield was linked by rail to the Reading to Basingstoke Line and the embankment for this link was still visible in the 1960s.

Theale airfield, a military airfield opened in 1941 and closed in 1948.

A heavy anti-aircraft battery was emplaced at Amner's Farm (no trace remains) and a searchlight battery, no. 508 36, at Searls Farm. Ten pillboxes were set up nearby and an anti-tank ditch was dug at Burghfield. A fortified house, Iverne House (100 yards south of Burghfield Bridge) was originally a stable and converted into a two-storey shell-proof infantry strongpoint around 1941/42. There are gun ports clearly visible from the main Burghfield Road. The building was converted to a private dwelling in 1994.

After the War

Great Auclum at Burghfield Common was the site of the Great Auclum National Speed Hill Climb track. First used competitively in 1949, it closed in 1974 and is now a housing estate.

Churches

• Church of England: St Mary's
• Methodist: Burghfield Common Methodist Church
• Roman Catholic: St Oswalds

St.Mary's Church

The parish church is St Mary's It was built in the 12th century, but early in the Victorian era it was completely demolished and replaced by a Norman revival building designed by J B Clacy]] of Reading and completed in 1843. The original church had a stepped wooden tower, and the building is depicted in one of the stained glass windows.

The parish church contains a number of church monuments]] from the old St Mary's, including the alabaster effigy of Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury]] the father of Warwick the Kingmaker. Neville fought for the Yorkists and was executed after the Battle of Wakefield in 1460. Buried first at Pontefract, his son transferred his body to the family mausoleum at Bisham Priory and erected this effigy as part of his monument there. It is not clear why it was brought to Burghfield after the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The effigy of a lady alongside him wears a headdress which is not thought to be of the right date to be his wife, but she may be one of the earlier Countesses of Salisbury buried at Bisham.

Other monuments from the old St. Mary's that survive in the 1843 building include a damaged early 14th century effigy of a knight, and two other recumbent stone effigies that have been defaced. There is also a memorial brass to Nicholas Williams (died 1568) and his two wives.

Around the village

River Kennet Mills

There were originally two mills on the River Kennet attributed to the parish, although slight changes to parish boundaries in modern times means that one mill has been lost.

Burghfield Mill is a disused water mill to the west of Burghfield Bridge, now converted to residential apartments. The original mill of Burghfield was split in two equal portions, each attached to one of the Burghfield Manors.

Sheffield Manor was served by its own Mill further upstream, and now falling within the neighbouring Theale parish. In 1811 the Sheffield Mills were paper-mills, but burnt down in 1877. The mill was afterwards bought by James Dewe of Burghfield Mill, who thus secured the water rights.

Downstream of Burghfield lies Southecote Mill, within Southecote parish. Upstream from Sheffield lies Tyle Mill, within Sulhamstead parish.

War memorials

There are a number of war memorials in the parish, which commemorate the local lives lost in the two great wars:

• At St.Mary's Church, Burghfield, memorial no.7784. A stone cross 5m high listing the names of 37 men who gave their lives in the First World War. The monument was designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield, and was laid down in 1920.
• At Sulhamstead House, memorial no.7785. A plaque within the Thames Valley Police training college, listing the names of 12 men who died in the first world war, and 8 men who lost their lives in the second world war.

Military establishments

• An Atomic Weapons Establishment is located in the parish. Previously a Royal Ordnance Explosives Filling Factory, (see "History" above), it is now known as AWE Burghfield, it is responsible for the final assembly of Trident mounted nuclear warheads, their in-service maintenance and their eventual decommissioning.
• There was a WRNS establishment at Burghfield, named HMS Dauntless, from 1947 to 1981.

Big Society

Sports

Burghfield Sailing Club

Burghfield Bowls Club

• Burghfield Air cadets (2402 (Burghfield) Squadron Air Training Corps).
• Burghfield Bowls Club
• Burghfield Community Sports Association
• Burghfield CSA Football Club
• Burghfield Football Club
• Burghfield Golf Course
• Burghfield Island Boat Club
• Burghfield Sailing Club – one of the largest inland sailing clubs in the United Kingdom
• Burghfield Squash Club
• Willink Leisure Centre & Physicals Fitness Club (indoor swimming pool, outdoor sports area, sports hall and gymnasium)

Others

• Burghfield and District Horticultural Society
• Burghfield Camera Club
• Burghfield Common Library
• Burghfield Scouts
• Burghfield Toy Library
• Burghfield Women's Institute.
• Burghfield Youth Club.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Burghfield)

• Burghfield Parish Council
• Royal Berkshire History: Burghfield
• Burghfield Common
• Burghfield

References

• Brodie, Antonia; Felstead, Alison; Franklin, Jonathan et al., eds (2001). Directory of British Architects 1834–1914, A–K. London & New York: Continuum. p. 375. ISBN 0-8264-5513-1. 
• Page, W.H.; Ditchfield, P.H., eds (1923). "Burghfield". A History of the County of Berkshire, Volume 3. Victoria County History. pp. 399–404. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=43233. Retrieved 19 September 2010. 
• Pevsner, Nikolaus (1966). Berkshire. The Buildings of England. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. p. 107.