Welford, Berkshire
| Welford | |
| Berkshire | |
|---|---|
 St Gregory's Church, Welford | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SU4073 |
| Location: | 51°27’22"N, 1°24’43"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 513 (2011) |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | West Berkshire |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Newbury |
Welford is a rural village in Berkshire occupying both sides of the valley of the River Lambourn northwest of Newbury. It forms a strip parish which tapers in the south where it contains a hamlet named Halfway. Welford Park by the village has annual snowdrop displays. The M4 motorway passes by.
Parish church
The parish church is St Gregory. It is one of only two existing round-tower churches in Berkshire, the other being St Mary's at Great Shefford which adjoins the parish to the north-west.
Welford Park house
The history of the manor is long, held by Abingdon Abbey for centuries until the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Overlordship was for some decades after in the hands of the Crown, and was attached to the manor of Benham Lovell, while the overlordship of the vill of Easton, Welford was attached to the manor of East Greenwich. Its history included a share held by Sir Thomas Knyvet(t) and within 20 years sale to Francis Jones (Lord Mayor) in the 1600s who was not related. It descended in the same family to the Mason, Archer and Houblon branches.
The main vestige is the wholly rebuilt manor house at Welford Park, which can be visited for its woodlands and early spring displays of snowdrops, is in the village.[1]
The house was described in a most detailed county history and geography of 1924 as a "large modern red brick building, surrounded by a deer park of 200 acres. It is the property of the lord of the manor, Col. G. B. Archer-Houblon, but...the residence of Major R. P. Cobbold."[1]
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Welford, Berkshire) |
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 'Parishes: Welford', in A History of the County of Berkshire: Volume 4 ed. William Page and P H Ditchfield (London, 1924), pp. 116-125. Accessed 16 December 2014.
