| Barkham | |
|
Barkham
Barkham shown within Berkshire |
|
| Population | 3,511 (2001 census)[1] |
|---|---|
| OS grid reference | SU7867 |
| Parish | Barkham |
| Unitary authority | Wokingham |
| Ceremonial county | Berkshire |
| Region | South East |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Wokingham |
| Postcode district | RG40/41 |
| Dialling code | 0118 |
| Police | Thames Valley |
| Fire | Royal Berkshire |
| Ambulance | South Central |
| EU Parliament | South East England |
| UK Parliament | Wokingham |
| Website | Barkham |
| List of places: UK • England • Berkshire | |
Barkham is a village and civil parish about 2 miles (3 km) south-west of the centre of Wokingham in Berkshire.
Contents |
The old part of Barkham is the small settlement by the parish church at grid reference SU781666 and close to Barkham Street. However most of the population lives in the north-east of the parish, around the post office, or in the Arborfield Garrison, which is largely in Barkham, as is the REME Museum of Technology. It is a rural parish, mostly consisting of dairy farmland and woods, despite being surrounded by the town of Wokingham and the large villages of Winnersh, Arborfield Cross and Finchampstead.
The toponym "Barkham" is derived from the Old English bercheham[2] meaning "birch home" referring to the birch trees on the edge of Windsor Forest.[3] The name evolved via forms including Berkham' in the 14th century and Barcombe in the 18th century.[2]
In King Edward III's reign the income from Barkham Manor helped to pay for the rebuilding of Windsor Castle and, not long afterwards, timber from Barkham was sent to make the roof of Westminster Abbey.[3]
For many centuries the manor house was a secondary home of the Bullock family.[3] The Bull Inn public house in Barkham is named in reference to their surname.[3] The Bullocks had inherited the manor from the family of William Neville, a 13th century valet to Saint Thomas Cantilupe, the Bishop of Hereford and Chancellor of England, from whom the manor was originally bought.[3]
The present manor house is a late 18th century[2] Georgian building of two wings of differing dates.[4] Barkham had two moated farm-houses.[2] One of these survives, having been divided into two cottages.[2]
Another prominent farming family, that of Ball, is erroneously said to be that of George Washington's mother, Mary Ball Washington. They lived in the parish from the late 15th to the mid-17th century, but William Ball, the man once thought to have emigrated to Virginia and become Mary's great grandfather, actually died in London and his family lived in the East Berkshire area for at least two more generations.[3]
An open field system of farming prevailed in the parish until early in the 19th century. Parliament passed the Inclosure Act for Barkham in 1813, but it was not implemented until 1821.[2]
The earliest known record of the Church of England parish church of Saint James[5] dates from 1220.[2] However, the present church building was built in 1860-61[4] or 1862.[2] It was designed in a 13th century Gothic Revival style[2] by the architects J.B. Clacy and Son[4] of Reading.[6] The chancel and transepts were added[4] or rebuilt[2] in 1887. The bell-tower has a ring of four bells cast in 1863 by John Warner and Sons[7] of Cripplegate in the City of London.[8]
Rev. David Davies (1741–1819) was Rector of Barkham from 1782 until his death in 1819.[2] He studied the condition of the labouring poor, recorded statistics of their wages, cost of food, etc. in various districts of England and Scotland.[2] He published his findings in 1785 in the form of a book called Cases of Labourers in Husbandry Stated and Considered.[2]
Rev. Peter Ditchfield, FSA (1854–1930) was Rector of Barkham from 1886 until his death.[9] He was a Freemason, historian and prolific author. With William Page he co-edited three Berkshire volumes of the Victoria County History, which were published in 1907, 1923 and 1924.
|
|||||||||||