Sulhamstead

Sulhamstead
Berkshire
St.Mary's Church, Sulhamstead Abbots
Location
Grid reference:	SU6369
Location:	51°24’47"N, 1°5’24"W
Data
Population:	1,471  (2011)
Post town:	Reading
Postcode:	RG7
Dialling code:	0118
Local Government
Council:	West Berkshire
Parliamentary constituency:	Wokingham

Sulhamstead is a village in Berkshire standing on the south side of the (Old) Bath Road, the A4, between Reading, its nearest town and Thatcham. It has several small clusters of homes and there is a great deal of woodland in the parish.

The main points of interest in the village are its parish church, St Mary's, and a shop and visitor centre by the Kennet & Avon Canal.

Thames Valley Police have their main Training Centre at Sulhamstead House.

Geography

Sulhamstead Tyle Mill wharf

This is a dispersed village with five separated clusters of homes. The greatest of these is linear, on Sulhamstead Hill (road) from the top of the hill by Ufton Church down one mile to the water meadows by the Kennet and the Bath Road (A4). Three further developed points are diminutive Sulhamstead Abbots, Whitehouse Green and Sulhamstead Bannister. Lastly the north-western corner of Burghfield Common village is in the far south, the remainder of the village part of Burghfield.

Sulhamstead Bannister forms the narrowly buffered halves: "Upper End" and "Lower End". Upper End is between Wokefield and Grazeley, although this has since been absorbed into Wokefield civil parish. The core of its village was around the old demolished church, where the inventor Samuel Morland's father was once the vicar.

Before 1782, Sulhamstead consisted of two parishes, Sulhamstead Abbots and Sulhamstead Bannister, approximate to the boundaries of the manors of the same name before mediæval and later subdivision.

History

The name 'Sulhamstead' means 'Narrow Valley Homestead'.

There is supposed to have been a Danish Camp of some sort there during the troubled times just before and during King Alfred's reign.

Ban(n)ister was the name of the Lords of the Manor from the early 12th century. They were still holding lands here three hundred years later, and had another important manor in Finchampstead. The Upper End was, however, often called Meales and Meales Farm, a reputed manor, stands next to the site of the Church of St. Michael from which its name derives.

A congregational chapel was built in 1881 in place of an older chapel. The inclosure of the two parishes of Sulhamstead Abbots and Sulhamstead Bannister was made by Act of Parliament, effective 1817.

Grazeley was a tithing in the parish of Sulhamstead Abbots containing of 519 acres. In 1854, when the manorial estate of Grazeley was advertised for sale, it was inclosed in a ring fence and apparently included the whole tithing.

Landmarks

Sulhamstead Tyle Mill Lock

Sulhamstead House

Main article: Sulhamstead House

Sulhamstead House, commonly known as the White House, was the manor house of Sulhamstead Abbots. It was built by Daniel May, son of the Basingstoke brewer, Charles May, in 1744, becoming home to his sister's descendants, the Thoyts family. The house was largely rebuilt in 1800 for William Thoyts, the High Sheriff of Berkshire. It was the childhood home of his great granddaughter, Berkshire historian and palaeographer, Emma Elizabeth Thoyts (1860–1949). It refurbishment was paid for in 1910 by William G Watson, created a baronet as "Sir William Watson of Sulhamstead". The baronetcy is now extinct. In 1949, the house became the headquarters of the Berkshire Constabulary. Since their merger into Thames Valley Police, it has functioned as that force's training centre and houses the Thames Valley Police Museum. It is a Grade II listed building.

Folly Farm

This has much of a small timber-framed cottage dated to around 1650 which was gradually enlarged into a farm house and now survives as the north-east part of the house. The house was transformed in 1906 by frequent designer of Arts and Crafts architecture, Lutyens, into a country home for H H Cochrane. It was extended, by Lutyens, for Zachery Merton, six years later. It is one of Lutyens' best-known house designs. Lutyens collaborated with Gertrude Jekyll to make the diverse, multi-level garden. Folly Farm is Grade I listed, being the highest category, as is an exceptional example of the continuation of classical and Arts and Craft architecture.

Other buildings

Church of St Mary

The church of St Mary (formerly St Bartholomew) dates from the 13th century and is Grade I listed.

The active village hall for Sulhamstead and Ufton is halfway down the road Sulhamstead Hill, built in 1927.

Sulhamstead Lock, Tyle Mill and Tyle Mill Lock on the Kennet & Avon Canal have a wharf, lock and swing bridge. The singer-songwriter Kate Bush live in a large canalside home for several years until 2004.

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  Sulhamstead Tyle Mill swing bridge road traffic
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  Sulhamstead Tyle Mill swing bridge opening
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  Sulhamstead Tyle Mill swing bridge canal traffic

Omer's Gully

Omer's Gully Wood is next to the northwest corner of more populous Burghfield Common village. The most part is owned by the Englefield (Manor) Estate and the remainder by the Local Authority. The wood covers nine acres. The woodland has been well coppiced for firewood in the past. 86 different plant species and 46 different birds have been found and it is a recorded habitat for mammals including foxes, deer, badgers, squirrels and rabbits. The woodland links up with other woodland by Omers Brook, such as Clayhill Copse to the north east as part of a larger natural woodland covered habitat.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Sulhamstead)