Aldermaston
Encyclopedia
Aldermaston is a rural village, civil parish and electoral ward
in Berkshire
, South-East England. In the 2001 United Kingdom Census, the parish had a population of 927. The village is on the southern edge of the River Kennet
flood plain, near the Hampshire
county boundary. It is equidistant from Newbury
, Basingstoke
and Reading
and 45 miles (72.4 km) west of London
.
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
s show that the Ealdorman
of Berkshire had his country estate in the village. The manor of Aldermaston was established by the early 11th century, when the village was given to the Achard
family by Henry I
; the manor is documented in the Domesday survey. The village church
was established 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
.
The name "Aldermaston" is synonymous with the UK's nuclear weapons programme
, as well as 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
. Until 2006, the village was home to the Aldermaston Pottery
, which was established by Alan Caiger-Smith
and Geoffrey Eastop
in 1955.
on postholes and pits in the area show activity from 1690–1390, 1319–1214, and 977–899 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.
, the land and properties of Aldermaston formed part of the estates of Harold Godwinson
, the Earl of Wessex
, who later became King Harold II of England. Harold's assessment of Aldermaston valued the village's 15 hides
at £20 a year. As with much of the land seized by William the Conqueror after his arrival in England in 1066, Aldermaston was held in demesne
. His Domesday Survey of 1086 identified the existence of a mill, worth twenty shillings, and two fisheries, worth five shillings. During the rest of William's reign, and that of his son William Rufus, Aldermaston was owned by the Crown.
The history of the Lords of the Manor of Aldermaston Court
can be traced to Achard D'Aldermaston, who was born in 1036. Six families have had lordship of the Aldermaston estate. In the 11th century, Henry I
gave Aldermaston to Robert Achard (or Hachard) of Sparsholt
. In the mid-12th century, the Achard family founded the church of St Mary the Virgin. 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
, with evidence that the market existed until approximately 1900. The Achards also established an annual fair to observe the feast of St. Thomas the Martyr
on 7 July.
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
. The De La Mare family governed Aldermaston for approximately 120 years, until Elizabeth de la Mare – whose male relatives predeceased her – married into 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. The Forsters' house was fronted by two porches, separated by a central section with seven bays
. The porches had ornate Solomonic column
s, similar to those at the University Church of St Mary the Virgin
in Oxford. The interior of the house featured a number of mythical statues, as well as artwork by Gaspard Dughet
, portraits of William Congreve
and Godfrey Kneller
, and Tintoretto
's Esther
Before Ahasuerus
. The house's Jacobean
garden featured patterns of groves and avenues of oak
, yew
, Spanish chestnut and lime trees. In the early 18th century the Forsters oversaw the building of almshouse
s in Church Road. Built by R Dixon in 1706, the houses became known as "Dixon's Cottages". The manor passed through the Forster family until 1752, when the Forster lineage ended and the estate was inherited by Ralph Congreve, the husband of the last Forster's grand-niece.
inherited the manor. 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.
In 1843, the manor house was destroyed by fire, news of which was carried in The Illustrated London News. 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 (which is now home to a colony of bat
s). By 1851 the new building was complete, costing £20,000 and having a Tudor-like appearance. 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". 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, 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 World War I
. Of the 100 men from the village who served in the war, 22 were killed (the highest percentage of town population in the country). The tablet bears the name of each man lost in action.
During Keyser's lordship, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales
listed Adminston as a possible name for the village. On his death in 1929, his wife, Mary, continued to occupy the house until she died in 1938. The estate was auctioned off in September 1938, and many lots were purchased by their occupiers. The manor house was bought by Associated Electrical Industries
(AEI) for £16,000. One of the houses in the village is recorded as having fetched £1,375. As AEI's chairman, Felix Pole
became the de jure
Lord of the Manor upon their purchase of Aldermaston Court.
was created on the parkland at the southern end of the parish, with XIX Tactical Air Command
stationed at the manor house. After World War II
, 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 Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
. With the opening of the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment (AWRE) in 1950, Aldermaston became synonymous with a number of CND marches
.
In 1953, Pole stepped down as Lord of the Manor and was succeeded by AEI's senior representative, Thomas Allibone
. Allibone held the position for 32 years, until Blue Circle Industries
acquired the estate in 1985. Allibone was succeeded by Tony Jackson. 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
.
– or Alderman
– was a person of extreme importance, equating to the modern-day Lord-Lieutenant of the County. Although his country estate was in Aldermaston, he would have spent most of the time in the original county town of Wallingford. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
states that the first known Ealdorman of Berkshire, Aethelwulf, fought the Danes with Ethelred of Wessex
at the nearby Battle of Englefield
in 871.
Other documented names include Aldermaston ad Pontem (11th century), Aldremanneston (12th century), Aldremaneston (13th century), Aldermanston and Aldermanneston Achard (14th century), and Aldmerston (19th century).
Poor Law Union
and Sanitary District
, and the registration sub-districts of Mortimer (late 19th century) and Bucklebury (early 20th century). It was later an ecclesiastical parish.
Aldermaston is now a civil parish with an elected parish council. It is in the area of West Berkshire
unitary authority
. The electoral ward
of Aldermaston includes the neighbouring parishes of Wasing
, Brimpton
, Midgham
, and Woolhampton
. The ward is the smallest in West Berkshire
by population. The ward's councillor
is Irene Neill, who represents the Conservative Party
.
Aldermaston is under the catchment of Thames Valley Police
and is covered by the Brimpton Neighbourhood Policing Team. In a meeting with Aldermaston Parish Council, the police reported that 57 criminal offences were reported to have taken place in the parish between 2009 and 2010. Of this, the majority was theft from non-dwelling properties. Vehicle crime had dropped by 57% on the previous year but violent crime
had risen from four to six incidents. Five of these crimes were reported to be domestic violence
. There have been no reported cases of robbery
in Aldermaston since 2006.
Aldermaston is in West Berkshire, about 2 miles (3.2 km) from the Hampshire boundary. The village is 1 miles (1.6 km) 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 road
and links the village with 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. 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. 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 0.6 mile (0.965604 km) north of the village. 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 3.3 metres (10.8 ft) and with a ditch 0.9 metres (3 ft) deep.
The soil in the parish is high in clay
. Due to the parish's location within the Kennet Valley there is a high concentration of alluvium
, with the content largely determined by the London Clay
Formation, the Bagshot Formation, and the Bracklesham Beds
.
The geology and location of Aldermaston has resulted in severe flooding on three occasions – 1971, 1989, and 2007. The flood in 1971 was caused by torrential rain flooding the balancing ponds Atomic Weapons Establishment
, which were unable to cope with the rainfall. This happened again in July 1989, when 6 inches (152.4 mm) of rain was deposited on the village in two hours. Five 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. A donation of £10,000 was given to the village by Blue Circle.
In July 2007, torrential rain flooded the village and local primary school, and the event made national news. The storm coincided with the annual Glade music festival
and jeopardised the event. The festival gates were temporarily closed while organisers assessed the flooding, which submerged one of the stages. The festival's car park was incapacitated, with thousands of revellers stranded in the village and surrounding lanes.
The floods also hit the Church of England primary school, with the Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service
evacuating pupils and staff from the school in life rafts. The evacuation used four rafts, rescuing pupils and teachers from the school through windows. The 165 people (140 pupils and 25 members of staff) were taken uphill to the parish hall, where blankets and sleeping bags had been provided.
Ian Henderson, a police constable at Thames Valley Police
stated that the emergency services were "really stretched because of what happened over the county and the Glade event", that "the [A340] junction was two or three foot under water", and predicted that "a lot of householders [would be] homeless."
or "labourers and servants". 20% were middle class
("middling sorts"), 10% were upper class
("employers and professionals") and 2% were unclassified.
In 1887 the population of the parish was 528. By 1896, the population had grown to 585. The population fluctuated steadily around 550 until the 1950s and 1960s, when a population explosion resulted in the 1961 UK census reporting 2,186 residents in the parish. This coincides with the opening of the Atomic Weapons Establishment in the early 1950s, and the majority of this figure counts residents in the parts of Tadley
within the parish of Aldermaston – between 1901 and 1961, 368 houses were built in the parish.
A number of parish border changes occurred in the first half of the 20th century, including the net loss of 307 acres (124.2 ha) to Beenham and Woolhampton on 1 April 1934 alone. By 2001, the parish population had reduced to 927.
The 2001 United Kingdom Census identified that 99.3% of householders in the parish as white
. In 2005 30% of parish residents lived in the village. Of the 70% outside the village, 30% lived at Aldermaston Wharf, 20% in the local mobile home parks, 10% in the Falcon Fields development and 10% in "other outlying areas". Falcon Fields is a housing development on the southern border of the parish, completed in the early 2000s. Ravenswing and Pinelands are mobile home
parks near the Hampshire border. Raghill is a industrial area to the east of the parish, which has some light residential developments.
The average age of residents in the parish is approximately 50 with 31.5% of residents in the 45–64 age group. The average age of residents of Aldermaston Wharf is 30.7, and in the mobile home parks the average age is 53.9. Of these, 53.3% were female. This is in contrast with the 2001 census data, which showed that 49.8% were female.
In 2005, 3% of the parish population were unemployed and 25% were retired. The retirement figure increased in the Pinelands and Ravenswing areas, with a statistic of 42%. Most residents' places of work are in surrounding towns, with their location in the parish largely dictating where to look for work. The 2005 survey identified that residents in the south of the parish (Falcon Fields and Ravenswing/Pinelands) travel towards Tadley and Basingstoke whereas those further north in the parish tend to find work in Reading, Newbury and London.
. The schoolmaster (either Mr Wheeler or his successor, John Stair) was the original cultivator, but the pear (a cultivar
of the European Pear
) was named after Richard Williams of Turnham Green
, who grew several grafts of the original tree. On 5 December 1956, a plaque commemorating the tree was unveiled on the wall of the village school.
Locally-farmed wheat was milled at Aldermaston Mill until the 1920s. In existence at the time of the Domesday survey, the mill was previously called the "Kingsmill", and at one time supplied flour
to Huntley & Palmers
in Reading. Now known as The Old Mill, it was owned by Wasing's Mount family throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. William Mount let the mill to Francis Webb (1797–1811), Mr Sherwood (1811–1820), Mr King (1820–1824), Mr Waldren (1824–1828), Mr Mathews (1828–1848), and William Gilchrist (1848–1856). Gilchrist (Mathews' business partner) bought the mill from Mount in 1856 using money inherited from his brother's death the previous year. Owning it outright for approximately a year, he drowned in the River Kennet in 1857 after visiting the Angel public house in Woolhampton. Joseph Crockett purchased the mill in an auction the same year, before it was acquired by a Richard Sisling of Godalming
in 1858. In approximately 1860, the mill was purchased by the Kersley family. Between then and 1885, it was operated by Anthony Kersley, a miller and maltster who employed "six men and a boy, a carter, several domestic servants and a governess". Kersley's son, also named Anthony, ran the mill until 1895. That year, Walter Parson bought the mill and operated it until approximately 1897. Charles Keyser subsequently oversaw restoration on the mill building which "had been untenanted for upwards of three years". He let the mill out to a Mr Iremonger from 1901. Iremonger used the mill until the late 1920s, shortly before Keyser's death. After Keyser had died and the Aldermaston estate had been divided and sold, his widow, Mary, approached Evelyn Arlott to run the mill as a tea room and guesthouse. The Arlott family purchased the mill in approximately 1939, after the death of Mary Keyser.
In 1939, there were seven farms on the Aldermaston estate – Forsters Farm, Village Farm, Church Farm, Upper Church Farm, Raghill Farm, Park Farm, and Soke Farm. These accounted for approximately 75% of the estate's land. Aside from these, there were six smallholding
s within the parish but outside the land owned by the court. These were Springhill Farm, Court Farm, Strawberry Farm, Circus Farm, Ravenswing Farm, and Frouds Farm.
Of these, Church Farm and Forster's Farm remain in operation. Upper Church Farm was originally known as Harry's Farm, after a William Harry who died in 1544.
, the establishment was named The Pack Horse during the De La Mare and Forster lordships and The Congreve Arms throughout the Congreves' ownership.
The building has a large black and gold clock set into the gable
, and a small bellturret upon which is a gilt
fox-shaped weather vane
. The bell was intended to be rung as an air-raid siren
during the Second World War. In the early 19th century the pub's signboard carried the arms of the Congreve family, as well as branding for a company named "Adams". In the British Parliamentary Papers of 1817, the Committee on the State of the Police in the Metropolis reported evidence of a John Adams – a Reading-based distiller and hop merchant
, who competed for business against Simonds' Brewery
. By 1850, the pub brewed beer on-site; a brewery was built as an out-building behind the main pub building. John Knight produced beer at the pub for 40 years, selling it for 2d
. The brewery building is still in existence, with the wooden louvres
still operational. The building is now the pub's kitchen. In the 1970s, the pub was owned by Whitbread
. In the mid-1990s the pub was taken over by Gales Brewery
(having previously been a free house), later becoming tied to Fuller's Brewery on their acquisition of Gales in 2006. In the 1970s, the pub was home to the Kennet Folk Club.
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. The inside of the lock-up measures approximately 7.5 feet (2.3 m) by 6 feet (1.8 m), and is enclosed by a studded door with a grille. It was last used in 1865 and its drunk inhabitant burnt himself to death trying to keep warm. The lock-up was designated as a Grade II listed building in April 1967. On 11 September 2010 the lock-up was opened to the public as part of the Heritage Open Days scheme.
Another pub in the parish, The Butt Inn, is located approximately 1.25 miles (2 km) north-east of the village. The pub is named after the archery butts
that were located in the fields opposite the pub.
The Aldermaston Brewery
was established at Aldermaston Wharf
in 1770, and was demolished in the 1950s. It was replaced with a cable factory, which was demolished in 1990.
for the production of cricket bat
s. The trees are grown at Harbour Hill Copse, where 70 trees are felled annually for this purpose. There are approximately 1000 trees growing at any given time. The workers at the yard cut the wood into approximate bat shaps, 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.
The yard would take on three up-coming cricketers for the winter, in the hope that the hard work would "toughen them up" to get them picked for the England cricket team. One year the yard had help from Frank Tyson
, Alan Moss
, and Peter Loader
. The following year they hosted three Davids – David Kaufman, David Spragbury, and David Gibson
.
The wood yard was featured on A Question of Sport
, when cricketer Graham Gooch
took part in the programme's "Mystery Guest" round. Gooch endorsed the bats made from Aldermaston willow, which were sold by Surridge. When he scored 333 runs against India at Lord's in the 1990 test season
, the Turbo 333 bat, made from Aldermaston wood, was launched in his honour.
In the 1960s, Blue Peter
aired a short documentary on the cricket bat production entitled "The Life of a Cricket Bat". It was presented by Christopher Trace
.
was established on the main street by studio potter
s Alan Caiger-Smith
and Geoffrey Eastop
. The pottery was renowned for tin-glazed
and porcelain
wares, which used scrap wood from the Village Farm woodyard to fire the kiln.
The pottery closed in 2006. It had previously scaled back its output in 1993 due to Caiger-Smith's partial retirement after the 1992 recession.
(AWE), for which Aldermaston has become known, is less than 1 miles (1.6 km) south of the village. The establishment is where the UK designs and manufacture Trident missiles, and where decommissioned and redundant nuclear weapons are dismantled. In April 1958, the first Aldermaston March was held. The march saw around 3,000 protesters march from London to Aldermaston over four days, with a total attendance of 12,000 at the establishment's gates. The 50th anniversary of the event was marked on 24 March 2008 with the "Bomb Stops Here" protest, attended by Vivienne Westwood
and CND president Walter Wolfgang
. The 2008 demonstration was the biggest protest staged by CND in ten years.
Until 2005, AWE discharged "pre-treated waste water" into the River Thames at Pangbourne
via an 11.8 miles (19 km) pipeline which runs under roads and fields within the parish. A water processing facility was installed on-site in 2006, though the Pangbourne Pipeline remains in situ.
and is now operated by the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust
. The reserve contains specimens of trees such as alder
, cherry
, hawthorn, oak
, and willow
. Examples of reed
s present include typha latifolia
, phragmites australis, mentha aquatica, and lythrum salicaria. Numerous species of bird nest in the reserve, including the common teal
, shoveler
, warbler
, kingfisher
, water rail
, and nightingale
.
Britain's first roadside petrol filling station was opened by The AA
on the Bath Road near Aldermaston on 2 March 1919. The following year, one villager requested that a pump be installed by his house. "Chuffer" Ford, who lived in The Forge with his wife Olive, was told by Keyser that it must be "behind a wall and recessed". A hole was cut in the brick wall beside Ford's yard to house the Shell
-branded pump. The location of this pump is marked by a square hole in the present wall. Ford's business offered other motoring services, with signage reading "vacuum
, oil
, and cycles
".
There is a number of small businesses in the village, including a hairdressing salon, a software development
company and the village shop. In the 1970s the hairdressers was a music shop, which was opened by Terry Wogan
. Before this it was a cooperative
village stores started by Charles Keyser.
There are two business park
s in the parish – Calleva Business Park (on the Berkshire/Hampshire border) and Youngs Industrial Estate (on Paices Hill). The latter opened in the early 1980s, and is the location of Paices Wood Country Parkland, a wildlife project sponsored by English Nature
.
In 2007 Aldermaston won the Business Category Award in the regional final of the Calor Village of the Year
competition. The judges stated that the village "has a very successful business community" and that "local businesses are well-supported by villagers and in return these businesses support village activities". In addition to the business award, the village was announced as the Overall Winner of the Calor "Berkshire Village of the Year" competition in 2006, as well as category winners in the "Building Community Life", "Business", "Young People" and "ICT" categories.
Most of the houses in the village are Grade II listed buildings, and many were built using local red and blue bricks. In total, 51 structures in the parish are listed – including gatepiers, greenhouse
s, a tomb
, railing
s and a wall, the village telephone box and Aldermaston Lock
.
candle an inch below the wick, is held in the parish hall. The lot is the lease of Church Acre, a plot 2 acre (0.809372 ha) in area that was granted to the church in 1815 after the Inclosures Act. The proceedings are overseen by the vicar and churchwardens, who drink rum punch throughout the auction. Traditionally, the churchwardens smoked clay pipes during the event.
The parish hall often holds other events, such as plays produced by the village's own amateur dramatics society. The society, known as The Aldermaston Players, have staged fundraising events in the village 1966. In 1976, the parish hall hosted an episode of the BBC's Any Questions?
.
The village, along with the neighbouring parish of Wasing, holds an annual produce show
at The Old Mill. The show, which was previously held behind the Hind's Head pub, hosts produce competitions in approximately 100 classes. In the 1990s, a team of gardeners formed from the produce show entered the Chelsea Flower Show
. They won a silver gilt in the Best Courtyard Garden Award in two consecutive years, for gardens named "Calma" and "Time Lords".
Since 1957 there has been an annual performance of the York Nativity Play from the 15th century York Mystery Cycle. The play follows a script by E. Martin Browne
with carols by William Byrd
, Johannes Eccard, and Michael Praetorius
. The performances are at the Church of St Mary the Virgin in early December, and the actors are local people who have appeared in the play for many years. In 1964, the play was recorded and broadcasted by the BBC Home Service
under the title of Star Over Aldermaston. One member of the production team was David Shute
.
Aldermaston was mentioned in Plum Pie
(1966) by P. G. Wodehouse
– "Every now and then we march from Aldermaston, protesting like a ton of bricks... And then we sit a good deal."
Aldermaston was the original location of The Glade
Festival. The 2007 event was jeopardised by torrential rains and flooding but cautiously went ahead. In 2009, the festival moved from the area and was held near Winchester
. Since 2006, the village has held a blues
festival known as "Blues on the Meadow".
The parish of Aldermaston forms a group with the local parishes of Wasing
and Brimpton
. The three share a monthly Parish Magazine featuring stories from churches, organisations, schools, businesses and various miscellany.
Aldermaston railway station
is in Aldermaston Wharf
, 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from the village itself. The station is managed by National Rail
and served by First Great Western
services between and .
The village is on the A340 road
, and has nearby access to the A4 road and the M4 motorway
. Newbury Buses route 104 serves the village, with services terminating in Newbury, Calcot and Reading. The 2005 Parish Plan identified a need for a relief road near the village. A report was presented in 2009 evaluating the problems caused by HGV traffic through the village, and described solutions which included support from Newbury MP
Richard Benyon
.
The nearest operating airstrip, Brimpton Airfield
, is less than 1 miles (1.6 km) west of the village, within AWE's restricted airspace
. RAF Aldermaston
ceased to operate as a civilian airport in 1950.
The village is 1.5 miles (2.4 km) south-east of the Reading Marine Company's headquarters on the Kennet and Avon Canal
, which provides waterway links to London (via the Thames) and Bristol
(via the River Avon).
.
The Cedars is a private school
opened in 1992 in the former buildings of the Church of England school. The school has approximately 40 pupils enrolled.
Alder Bridge Steiner School, although located in Aldermaston Wharf, is within the parish of Padworth. Padworth College
is situated on the border of Aldermaston and Padworth parishes.
The Church of England parish church
of Saint Mary the Virgin
and was built in the mid 12th century. The Norman
building was altered throughout the following millennium, particularly in 13th, 14th, 15th and 17th centuries. The 12th-century building now comprises the current nave
, with additions seen in the Forster Chapel and chancel
(13th century), the steeple
(14th century), and vestry (17th century). The 17th-century Jacobean
pulpit
is an unusual heptagonal design. Various additions were made to the structure in the 14th and 15th centuries, primarily to the walls and ogee
windows. A scratch dial
was added to the south-west buttress
in the 14th century.
The church features architecture by Edward Doran Webb
and stained glass
by Charles Eamer Kempe
. The Forster Chapel, a lady chapel
added to the south face in the 13th century, contains the alabaster
effigial monument
of Sir George Forster and his wife Elizabeth which was built in 1530. Evidence suggests that the chapel may originally have been a chantry
dedicated to St Nicholas. The roundel windows in the north wall date from the 13th century and are the oldest glass in Berkshire.
The tower has a peal
of eight bells dating from 1681 to 1900. The current organ, which has 16 stops
, was installed in 1880.
Individuals buried in the churchyard include squires Charles Keyser (1847–1929) and Daniel Burr (c.1811–1885), schoolmaster John Stair (c.1745–1820), and Maria Hale (1791–1879).
team, Aldermaston Village CC, play at nearby Wasing Park. The club, which first played in 1786 as "The Gentlemen of Aldermaston", originally played at a pitch at Aldermaston Court. The ground was lost when the airfield was built. Sir William Mount, 2nd Baronet
, the grandfather of British Prime Minister David Cameron
, allowed a cricket pitch to be established on a portion of his Wasing estate. The original football club played next to the cricket pitch. The club's strip was sponsored by Mr. George L Heighton, the proprietor of the village shop.
Aldermaston Rugby Club and A.F.C. Aldermaston
both play their home games at the Recreational Society at AWE. Tadley RFC is in the parish, about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from the village.
Aldermaston Raceway, a banger racing
and demolition derby
venue, is located to the south of the village. A course for off-road 4x4 trials
is also located in the south of the parish.
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Berkshire
Berkshire is a historic county in the South of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1957, and...
, South-East England. In the 2001 United Kingdom Census, the parish had a population of 927. The village is on the southern edge of the River Kennet
River Kennet
The Kennet is a river in the south of England, and a tributary of the River Thames. The lower reaches of the river are navigable to river craft and are known as the Kennet Navigation, which, together with the Avon Navigation, the Kennet and Avon Canal and the Thames, links the cities of Bristol...
flood plain, near the Hampshire
Hampshire
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...
county boundary. It is equidistant from Newbury
Newbury, Berkshire
Newbury is a civil parish and the principal town in the west of the county of Berkshire in England. It is situated on the River Kennet and the Kennet and Avon Canal, and has a town centre containing many 17th century buildings. Newbury is best known for its racecourse and the adjoining former USAF...
, Basingstoke
Basingstoke
Basingstoke is a town in northeast Hampshire, in south central England. It lies across a valley at the source of the River Loddon. It is southwest of London, northeast of Southampton, southwest of Reading and northeast of the county town, Winchester. In 2008 it had an estimated population of...
and Reading
Reading, Berkshire
Reading is a large town and unitary authority area in England. It is located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the River Thames and River Kennet, and on both the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 motorway, some west of London....
and 45 miles (72.4 km) west of London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
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
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a collection of annals in Old English chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the Chronicle was created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alfred the Great...
s show that the Ealdorman
Ealdorman
An ealdorman is the term used for a high-ranking royal official and prior magistrate of an Anglo-Saxon shire or group of shires from about the ninth century to the time of King Cnut...
of Berkshire had his country estate in the village. The manor of Aldermaston was established by the early 11th century, when the village was given to the Achard
Achard
Achard is a surname, and may refer to:* Achard of St. Victor , French bishop* Albert Achard , French World War I flying ace* Antoine Achard , Swiss Protestant minister* Count Achard of Lecce, Norman count of Lecce...
family by Henry I
Henry I of England
Henry I was the fourth son of William I of England. He succeeded his elder brother William II as King of England in 1100 and defeated his eldest brother, Robert Curthose, to become Duke of Normandy in 1106...
; the manor is documented in the Domesday survey. The village church
Church of St Mary the Virgin, Aldermaston
The Church of St Mary the Virgin, Aldermaston is the Church of England parish church of Aldermaston in Berkshire. The church, which is dedicated to St Mary, dates from the mid-12th century and has examples of Norman and Jacobean architecture...
was established in the 13th century, and some of the original Norman architecture
Norman architecture
About|Romanesque architecture, primarily English|other buildings in Normandy|Architecture of Normandy.File:Durham Cathedral. Nave by James Valentine c.1890.jpg|thumb|200px|The nave of Durham Cathedral demonstrates the characteristic round arched style, though use of shallow pointed arches above the...
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
Associated Electrical Industries
Associated Electrical Industries was a British holding company formed in 1928 through the merger of the British Thomson-Houston Company and Metropolitan-Vickers electrical engineering companies...
, the XIX Tactical Air Command
XIX Tactical Air Command
The XIX Tactical Air Command is an inactive United States Air Force unit. The unit's last assignment was with the Ninth Air Force based at Biggs Field, Texas...
, the Women's Land Army
Women's Land Army
The Women's Land Army was a British civilian organisation created during the First and Second World Wars to work in agriculture replacing men called up to the military. Women who worked for the WLA were commonly known as Land Girls...
, Collier Macmillan Schools, and Blue Circle Industries
Blue Circle Industries
Blue Circle Industries was a British public company manufacturing cement. It was founded in 1900, and was bought out by the French company Lafarge in 2001.-History:...
. The manor house is now run as a private corporate venue by the Compass Group
Compass Group
Compass Group plc is a global contract foodservice and support services company headquartered near London, United Kingdom. It is the largest contract foodservice company in the world and has operations in over 50 countries...
.
The name "Aldermaston" is synonymous with the UK's nuclear weapons programme
Nuclear weapons and the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom was the third country to test an independently developed nuclear weapon, in October 1952. It is one of the five "Nuclear Weapons States" under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which the UK ratified in 1968...
, as well as the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament is an anti-nuclear organisation that advocates unilateral nuclear disarmament by the United Kingdom, international nuclear disarmament and tighter international arms regulation through agreements such as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty...
. The Atomic Weapons Establishment
Atomic Weapons Establishment
The Atomic Weapons Establishment is responsible for the design, manufacture and support of warheads for the United Kingdom's nuclear deterrent. AWE plc is responsible for the day-to-day operations of AWE...
(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
RAF Aldermaston
RAF Aldermaston was a World War II airfield. It was used by the Royal Air Force and the United States Army Eighth and Ninth Air Force as a troop carrier group base, and was assigned USAAF station No 467.-Origins:...
, the plant has been the destination of numerous Aldermaston Marches
Aldermaston Marches
The Aldermaston marches were protest demonstrations organised by the British anti-war Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in the 1950s and 1960s. They took place on Easter weekend between the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston in Berkshire, England, and London, over a distance of...
. Until 2006, the village was home to the Aldermaston Pottery
Aldermaston Pottery
Aldermaston Pottery was a pottery located in the Berkshire village of Aldermaston. It was founded in 1955 by Alan Caiger-Smith and was known for its tin-glaze pottery and particularly its lustre ware...
, which was established by Alan Caiger-Smith
Alan Caiger-Smith
Alan Caiger-Smith MBE is a British studio potter and writer on pottery.- Life and work :He was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He studied at the Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts and read history at King's College, Cambridge...
and Geoffrey Eastop
Geoffrey Eastop
Geoffrey Eastop is an English potter.Eastop was born in London, where he studied at Goldsmiths' College. He also studied at the Academie Ranson, Paris....
in 1955.
History
Evidence suggests that Aldermaston was inhabited in the 12th century BC, possibly extending back to 1690 BC. Radiocarbon datingRadiocarbon dating
Radiocarbon dating is a radiometric dating method that uses the naturally occurring radioisotope carbon-14 to estimate the age of carbon-bearing materials up to about 58,000 to 62,000 years. Raw, i.e. uncalibrated, radiocarbon ages are usually reported in radiocarbon years "Before Present" ,...
on postholes and pits in the area show activity from 1690–1390, 1319–1214, and 977–899 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.
Middle ages
Before the 1066 Norman conquest of EnglandNorman conquest of England
The Norman conquest of England began on 28 September 1066 with the invasion of England by William, Duke of Normandy. William became known as William the Conqueror after his victory at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066, defeating King Harold II of England...
, the land and properties of Aldermaston formed part of the estates of Harold Godwinson
Harold Godwinson
Harold Godwinson was the last Anglo-Saxon King of England.It could be argued that Edgar the Atheling, who was proclaimed as king by the witan but never crowned, was really the last Anglo-Saxon king...
, the Earl of Wessex
Earl of Wessex
The title Earl of Wessex has been created twice in British history, once in the pre-Conquest Anglo-Saxon nobility of England and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom...
, who later became King Harold II of England. Harold's assessment of Aldermaston valued the village's 15 hides
Hide (unit)
The hide was originally an amount of land sufficient to support a household, but later in Anglo-Saxon England became a unit used in assessing land for liability to "geld", or land tax. The geld would be collected at a stated rate per hide...
at £20 a year. As with much of the land seized by William the Conqueror after his arrival in England in 1066, Aldermaston was held in demesne
Demesne
In the feudal system the demesne was all the land, not necessarily all contiguous to the manor house, which was retained by a lord of the manor for his own use and support, under his own management, as distinguished from land sub-enfeoffed by him to others as sub-tenants...
. His Domesday Survey of 1086 identified the existence of a mill, worth twenty shillings, and two fisheries, worth five shillings. During the rest of William's reign, and that of his son William Rufus, Aldermaston was owned by the Crown.
The history of the Lords of the Manor of Aldermaston Court
Aldermaston Court
Aldermaston Court is a country house built in the Victorian era with incorporations from an earlier house, located in the village of Aldermaston in the English county of Berkshire...
can be traced to Achard D'Aldermaston, who was born in 1036. Six families have had lordship of the Aldermaston estate. In the 11th century, Henry I
Henry I of England
Henry I was the fourth son of William I of England. He succeeded his elder brother William II as King of England in 1100 and defeated his eldest brother, Robert Curthose, to become Duke of Normandy in 1106...
gave Aldermaston to Robert Achard (or Hachard) of Sparsholt
Sparsholt, Oxfordshire
Sparsholt is a village and civil parish about west of the market town of Wantage in the Vale of White Horse. The village is a spring line settlement at the foot of the Berkshire Downs escarpment. The parish includes the hamlet of Westcot about west of the village...
. In the mid-12th century, the Achard family founded the church of St Mary the Virgin. 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
Henry IV of England
Henry IV was King of England and Lord of Ireland . He was the ninth King of England of the House of Plantagenet and also asserted his grandfather's claim to the title King of France. He was born at Bolingbroke Castle in Lincolnshire, hence his other name, Henry Bolingbroke...
, with evidence that the market existed until approximately 1900. The Achards also established an annual fair to observe the feast of St. Thomas the Martyr
Thomas More
Sir Thomas More , also known by Catholics as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman and noted Renaissance humanist. He was an important councillor to Henry VIII of England and, for three years toward the end of his life, Lord Chancellor...
on 7 July.
Aldermaston was held by the Achard family until the 14th century, when it passed through marriage to Thomas De La Mare of Nunney Castle
Nunney Castle
Nunney Castle is a castle in Nunney, Somerset, England. Built in the late 14th century by Sir John Delamare on the profits of his involvement in the Hundred Years War, the moated castle's architectural style, possibly influenced by the design of French castles, has provoked considerable academic...
, Somerset
Somerset
The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...
. The De La Mare family governed Aldermaston for approximately 120 years, until Elizabeth de la Mare – whose male relatives predeceased her – married into the Forster family. In about 1636, the Forsters built a large manor house
Manor house
A manor house is a country house that historically formed the administrative centre of a manor, the lowest unit of territorial organisation in the feudal system in Europe. The term is applied to country houses that belonged to the gentry and other grand stately homes...
to the east of the church. The house incorporated parts of an earlier (15th century) house, including the chimney stacks. The Forsters' house was fronted by two porches, separated by a central section with seven bays
Bay (architecture)
A bay is a unit of form in architecture. This unit is defined as the zone between the outer edges of an engaged column, pilaster, or post; or within a window frame, doorframe, or vertical 'bas relief' wall form.-Defining elements:...
. The porches had ornate Solomonic column
Solomonic column
The Solomonic column, also called Barley-sugar column, is a helical column, characterized by a spiraling twisting shaft like a corkscrew...
s, similar to those at the University Church of St Mary the Virgin
University Church of St Mary the Virgin
The University Church of St Mary the Virgin is the largest of Oxford's parish churches and the centre from which the University of Oxford grew...
in Oxford. The interior of the house featured a number of mythical statues, as well as artwork by Gaspard Dughet
Gaspard Dughet
Gaspard Dughet , also known as Gaspard Poussin, was a French painter born in Rome.A pupil of Nicolas Poussin, Gaspard Dughet was the brother of Poussin's wife...
, portraits of William Congreve
William Congreve
William Congreve was an English playwright and poet.-Early life:Congreve was born in Bardsey, West Yorkshire, England . His parents were William Congreve and his wife, Mary ; a sister was buried in London in 1672...
and Godfrey Kneller
Godfrey Kneller
Sir Godfrey Kneller, 1st Baronet was the leading portrait painter in England during the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and was court painter to British monarchs from Charles II to George I...
, and Tintoretto
Tintoretto
Tintoretto , real name Jacopo Comin, was a Venetian painter and a notable exponent of the Renaissance school. For his phenomenal energy in painting he was termed Il Furioso...
's Esther
Esther
Esther , born Hadassah, is the eponymous heroine of the Biblical Book of Esther.According to the Bible, she was a Jewish queen of the Persian king Ahasuerus...
Before Ahasuerus
Ahasuerus
Ahasuerus is a name used several times in the Hebrew Bible, as well as related legends and Apocrypha. This name is applied in the Hebrew Scriptures to three rulers...
. The house's Jacobean
Jacobean era
The Jacobean era refers to the period in English and Scottish history that coincides with the reign of King James VI of Scotland, who also inherited the crown of England in 1603 as James I...
garden featured patterns of groves and avenues of oak
Oak
An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...
, yew
Taxus baccata
Taxus baccata is a conifer native to western, central and southern Europe, northwest Africa, northern Iran and southwest Asia. It is the tree originally known as yew, though with other related trees becoming known, it may be now known as the English yew, or European yew.-Description:It is a small-...
, Spanish chestnut and lime trees. In the early 18th century the Forsters oversaw the building of almshouse
Almshouse
Almshouses are charitable housing provided to enable people to live in a particular community...
s in Church Road. Built by R Dixon in 1706, the houses became known as "Dixon's Cottages". The manor passed through the Forster family until 1752, when the Forster lineage ended and the estate was inherited by Ralph Congreve, the husband of the last Forster's grand-niece.
Victorian era
On Ralph's death a second-cousin of dramatist William CongreveWilliam Congreve
William Congreve was an English playwright and poet.-Early life:Congreve was born in Bardsey, West Yorkshire, England . His parents were William Congreve and his wife, Mary ; a sister was buried in London in 1672...
inherited the manor. 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.
In 1843, the manor house was destroyed by fire, news of which was carried in The Illustrated London News. The estate passed into the Court of Chancery
Court of Chancery
The Court of Chancery was a court of equity in England and Wales that followed a set of loose rules to avoid the slow pace of change and possible harshness of the common law. The Chancery had jurisdiction over all matters of equity, including trusts, land law, the administration of the estates of...
and was purchased by Daniel Higford Davall Burr
Daniel Higford Davall Burr
Daniel Higford Davall Burr JP DL was a British Member of Parliament and Justice of the Peace.- Biography :...
. 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 (which is now home to a colony of bat
Bat
Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera "hand" and pteron "wing") whose forelimbs form webbed wings, making them the only mammals naturally capable of true and sustained flight. By contrast, other mammals said to fly, such as flying squirrels, gliding possums, and colugos, glide rather than fly,...
s). By 1851 the new building was complete, costing £20,000 and having a Tudor-like appearance. 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
Charles Edward Keyser
Charles Edward Keyser FSA was a British stockbroker and authority on English church architecture. In his later life, he became Lord of the Manor of Aldermaston in the English county of Berkshire.- Biography :...
, who was preoccupied with the idea of keeping the village unchanged – or, as he described it, "unspoilt". 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, 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 World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. Of the 100 men from the village who served in the war, 22 were killed (the highest percentage of town population in the country). The tablet bears the name of each man lost in action.
During Keyser's lordship, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales
Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales
The Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales is a substantial topographical dictionary first published between 1870 and 1872, edited by the Reverend John Marius Wilson. It contains a detailed description of England and Wales...
listed Adminston as a possible name for the village. On his death in 1929, his wife, Mary, continued to occupy the house until she died in 1938. The estate was auctioned off in September 1938, and many lots were purchased by their occupiers. The manor house was bought by Associated Electrical Industries
Associated Electrical Industries
Associated Electrical Industries was a British holding company formed in 1928 through the merger of the British Thomson-Houston Company and Metropolitan-Vickers electrical engineering companies...
(AEI) for £16,000. One of the houses in the village is recorded as having fetched £1,375. As AEI's chairman, Felix Pole
Felix Pole
Sir Felix John Clewett Pole was a British railway manager and industrialist. He was general manager of the Great Western Railway , before becoming executive chairman of Associated Electrical Industries, a post he held until 1945.-References:...
became the de jure
De jure
De jure is an expression that means "concerning law", as contrasted with de facto, which means "concerning fact".De jure = 'Legally', De facto = 'In fact'....
Lord of the Manor upon their purchase of Aldermaston Court.
Post-World War II
During the 1940s RAF AldermastonRAF Aldermaston
RAF Aldermaston was a World War II airfield. It was used by the Royal Air Force and the United States Army Eighth and Ninth Air Force as a troop carrier group base, and was assigned USAAF station No 467.-Origins:...
was created on the parkland at the southern end of the parish, with XIX Tactical Air Command
XIX Tactical Air Command
The XIX Tactical Air Command is an inactive United States Air Force unit. The unit's last assignment was with the Ninth Air Force based at Biggs Field, Texas...
stationed at the manor house. After World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the manor was returned to AEI who built the MERLIN reactor
MERLIN reactor
MERLIN reactor was a 10MWt pool-type research reactor at Aldermaston Court, Aldermaston, Berkshire, England which operated from 6 November 1959 until 1962....
on part of the land. The reactor was opened on 6 November 1959 by Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh is the husband of Elizabeth II. He is the United Kingdom's longest-serving consort and the oldest serving spouse of a reigning British monarch....
. With the opening of the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment (AWRE) in 1950, Aldermaston became synonymous with a number of CND marches
Aldermaston Marches
The Aldermaston marches were protest demonstrations organised by the British anti-war Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in the 1950s and 1960s. They took place on Easter weekend between the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston in Berkshire, England, and London, over a distance of...
.
In 1953, Pole stepped down as Lord of the Manor and was succeeded by AEI's senior representative, Thomas Allibone
Thomas Allibone
Thomas Edward Allibone, CBE, FRS was an English physicist, his work included important research into particle physics, X-rays, high voltage equipment, and electron microscopes.-Early life:...
. Allibone held the position for 32 years, until Blue Circle Industries
Blue Circle Industries
Blue Circle Industries was a British public company manufacturing cement. It was founded in 1900, and was bought out by the French company Lafarge in 2001.-History:...
acquired the estate in 1985. Allibone was succeeded by Tony Jackson. Blue Circle could not gain planning permission
Planning permission
Planning permission or planning consent is the permission required in the United Kingdom in order to be allowed to build on land, or change the use of land or buildings. Within the UK the occupier of any land or building will need title to that land or building , but will also need "planning...
in the grounds of the court, so the MERLIN reactor was demolished to make way for Portland House
Portland House, Aldermaston
Portland House is an office building in Aldermaston, Berkshire, UK. It was designed by Tim Forsyth.-History:Built on the site of Associated Electrical Industries's MERLIN reactor, Portland House was built in the mid-1980s as a new international headquarters for Blue Circle Industries...
. 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
Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester
Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester is a member of the British Royal Family. Prince Richard is the youngest grandchild of King George V and Queen Mary. He has been Duke of Gloucester since his father's death in 1974. He is currently 20th in the line of succession...
.
Toponymy
The village of Aldermaston derives its name from Ældremanestone, Eldremanestune or Hedlremanestone, the Old English for "Ealdorman's Homestead". The EaldormanEaldorman
An ealdorman is the term used for a high-ranking royal official and prior magistrate of an Anglo-Saxon shire or group of shires from about the ninth century to the time of King Cnut...
– or Alderman
Alderman
An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members themselves rather than by popular vote, or a council...
– was a person of extreme importance, equating to the modern-day Lord-Lieutenant of the County. Although his country estate was in Aldermaston, he would have spent most of the time in the original county town of Wallingford. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a collection of annals in Old English chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the Chronicle was created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alfred the Great...
states that the first known Ealdorman of Berkshire, Aethelwulf, fought the Danes with Ethelred of Wessex
Ethelred of Wessex
King Æthelred I was King of Wessex from 865 to 871. He was the fourth son of King Æthelwulf of Wessex...
at the nearby Battle of Englefield
Battle of Englefield
The Battle of Englefield was a battle on 31 December 870 at Englefield, near Reading in what is now the English county of Berkshire. It was one of a series of battles, with honours to both sides, that took place following an invasion of the then kingdom of Wessex by an army of Danes, during which...
in 871.
Other documented names include Aldermaston ad Pontem (11th century), Aldremanneston (12th century), Aldremaneston (13th century), Aldermanston and Aldermanneston Achard (14th century), and Aldmerston (19th century).
Governance
Historically, Aldermaston was a hundred, though for a period it was within the Theale hundred. By the 19th century, the hundreds had been superseded by other sub-divisions. From then on, Aldermaston was, at times, part of the BradfieldBradfield, Berkshire
Bradfield is a small village and civil parish in Berkshire, England. The parish also includes the now rather larger village of Bradfield Southend, and the hamlet of Tutts Clump....
Poor Law Union
Poor Law Union
A Poor Law Union was a unit used for local government in the United Kingdom from the 19th century. The administration of the Poor Law was the responsibility of parishes, which varied wildly in their size, populations, financial resources, rateable values and requirements...
and Sanitary District
Sanitary district
Sanitary districts were established in England and Wales in 1875 and in Ireland in 1878. The districts were of two types, based on existing structures:*Urban sanitary districts in towns with existing local government bodies...
, and the registration sub-districts of Mortimer (late 19th century) and Bucklebury (early 20th century). It was later an ecclesiastical parish.
Aldermaston is now a civil parish with an elected parish council. It is in the area of West Berkshire
West Berkshire
West Berkshire is a local government district in the ceremonial county of Berkshire, England, governed by a unitary authority . Its administrative capital is Newbury, located almost equidistantly between Bristol and London.-Geography:...
unitary authority
Unitary authorities of England
Unitary authorities of England are areas where a single local authority is responsible for a variety of services for a district that elsewhere are administered separately by two councils...
. The electoral ward
Wards of the United Kingdom
A ward in the United Kingdom is an electoral district at sub-national level represented by one or more councillors. It is the primary unit of British administrative and electoral geography .-England:...
of Aldermaston includes the neighbouring parishes of Wasing
Wasing
Wasing is a small village and civil parish in Berkshire, England.It is situated in the West Berkshire district, near to the Berkshire-Hampshire border approximately south east of Newbury, its post town. Other places located close by include Aldermaston and Brimpton...
, Brimpton
Brimpton
Brimpton is a rural village and civil parish in Berkshire, South East England, with a population of 613. The village is located between the River Kennet and the River Enborne, and is near the Hampshire county boundary.- History :...
, Midgham
Midgham
Midgham is a village and civil parish in the Kennet Valley about east of Newbury, Berkshire. It has a population of 282.The village extends to the Berkshire Arms public house in the west, New Road Hill in the east, Midgham Marsh to the south of the A4 road and Midgham Green to the north...
, and Woolhampton
Woolhampton
Woolhampton is a village and civil parish in the English county of Berkshire. The village is situated on the London to Bath road between the towns of Reading and Newbury...
. The ward is the smallest in West Berkshire
West Berkshire
West Berkshire is a local government district in the ceremonial county of Berkshire, England, governed by a unitary authority . Its administrative capital is Newbury, located almost equidistantly between Bristol and London.-Geography:...
by population. The ward's councillor
Councillor
A councillor or councilor is a member of a local government council, such as a city council.Often in the United States, the title is councilman or councilwoman.-United Kingdom:...
is Irene Neill, who represents the Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
.
Aldermaston is under the catchment of Thames Valley Police
Thames Valley Police
Thames Valley Police, formerly known as Thames Valley Constabulary, is the territorial police force responsible for policing the Thames Valley area covered by the ceremonial counties of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire....
and is covered by the Brimpton Neighbourhood Policing Team. In a meeting with Aldermaston Parish Council, the police reported that 57 criminal offences were reported to have taken place in the parish between 2009 and 2010. Of this, the majority was theft from non-dwelling properties. Vehicle crime had dropped by 57% on the previous year but violent crime
Violent crime
A violent crime or crime of violence is a crime in which the offender uses or threatens to use violent force upon the victim. This entails both crimes in which the violent act is the objective, such as murder, as well as crimes in which violence is the means to an end, such as robbery. Violent...
had risen from four to six incidents. Five of these crimes were reported to be domestic violence
Domestic violence
Domestic violence, also known as domestic abuse, spousal abuse, battering, family violence, and intimate partner violence , is broadly defined as a pattern of abusive behaviors by one or both partners in an intimate relationship such as marriage, dating, family, or cohabitation...
. There have been no reported cases of robbery
Robbery
Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take something of value by force or threat of force or by putting the victim in fear. At common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the person of that property, by means of force or fear....
in Aldermaston since 2006.
Geography
A340 road
The A340 is a major road in the south of England, portions of which are known as the Aldermaston Road, Tadley Hill, Basingstoke Road and Tidmarsh Road.-Route:...
and links the village with Pangbourne
Pangbourne
Pangbourne is a large village and civil parish on the River Thames in the English county of Berkshire. Pangbourne is the home of the independent school, Pangbourne College.-Location:...
and Basingstoke. The course of Ermin Street
Ermin Street
Ermin Street or Ermin Way is one of the great Roman roads of Britain. It runs from Gloucester via Cirencester to Silchester . Much of it is now covered by the modern A417, A419 and B4000 roads....
, the Roman road
Roman road
The Roman roads were a vital part of the development of the Roman state, from about 500 BC through the expansion during the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. Roman roads enabled the Romans to move armies and trade goods and to communicate. The Roman road system spanned more than 400,000 km...
that linked Calleva Atrebatum (Silchester
Silchester
Silchester is a village and civil parish about north of Basingstoke in Hampshire. It is adjacent to the county boundary with Berkshire and about south-west of Reading....
) with Glevum
Glevum
Glevum was a Roman fort in Roman Britain that become "colonia" of retired legionaries in AD 97. Today it is known as Gloucester, located in the English county of Gloucestershire...
(Gloucester
Gloucester
Gloucester is a city, district and county town of Gloucestershire in the South West region of England. Gloucester lies close to the Welsh border, and on the River Severn, approximately north-east of Bristol, and south-southwest of Birmingham....
) via Corinium Dobunnorum
Corinium Dobunnorum
Corinium Dobunnorum was the second largest town in the Roman province of Britannia. Today it is known as Cirencester, located in the English county of Gloucestershire.-Fortress:...
(Cirencester
Cirencester
Cirencester is a market town in east Gloucestershire, England, 93 miles west northwest of London. Cirencester lies on the River Churn, a tributary of the River Thames, and is the largest town in the Cotswold District. It is the home of the Royal Agricultural College, the oldest agricultural...
) 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
Village green
A village green is a common open area which is a part of a settlement. Traditionally, such an area was often common grass land at the centre of a small agricultural settlement, used for grazing and sometimes for community events...
called The Loosey. The Loosey is the site of a Roman well, discovered in 1940 by a cow that almost fell down it. The Loosey was previously home to the village maypole
Maypole
A maypole is a tall wooden pole erected as a part of various European folk festivals, particularly on May Day, or Pentecost although in some countries it is instead erected at Midsummer...
(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. Although no longer in use, the drinking fountain remains intact on the Loosey.
The River Kennet
River Kennet
The Kennet is a river in the south of England, and a tributary of the River Thames. The lower reaches of the river are navigable to river craft and are known as the Kennet Navigation, which, together with the Avon Navigation, the Kennet and Avon Canal and the Thames, links the cities of Bristol...
and River Enborne
River Enborne
thumb|left|250px|River Enbournethumb|left|250px|River Enbourne at Headley Ford, near Crookham Commonthumb|left|250px|River Enborne at Shalford bridge, near [[Brimpton]]thumb|left|250px|Oxford Bridge over a small tributary of the River Enborne, near Inwood Copse...
flow through the parish. The confluence of the rivers is approximately 0.6 mile (0.965604 km) north of the village. The Kennet and Avon Canal
Kennet and Avon Canal
The Kennet and Avon Canal is a waterway in southern England with an overall length of , made up of two lengths of navigable river linked by a canal. The name is commonly used to refer to the entire length of the navigation rather than solely to the central canal section...
forms part of the parish's boundaries with Woolhampton
Woolhampton
Woolhampton is a village and civil parish in the English county of Berkshire. The village is situated on the London to Bath road between the towns of Reading and Newbury...
and Padworth
Padworth
Padworth is a hamlet and civil parish in the English county of Berkshire, between Burghfield Common and Tadley.Padworth is in the unitary authority of West Berkshire, not far from the Hampshire border...
.
Sections of Grim's Bank are in the parish. Part of the earthwork in the AWE complex survives at a height of 3.3 metres (10.8 ft) and with a ditch 0.9 metres (3 ft) deep.
Geology
The landscape of Aldermaston is influenced by Paices Hill and Rag Hill, which are extremities of the chalk formation the North Wessex Downs as part of the Thames Basin Heaths. The topography of the land in the parish generally slopes northward to the River Kennet.The soil in the parish is high in clay
Clay
Clay is a general term including many combinations of one or more clay minerals with traces of metal oxides and organic matter. Geologic clay deposits are mostly composed of phyllosilicate minerals containing variable amounts of water trapped in the mineral structure.- Formation :Clay minerals...
. Due to the parish's location within the Kennet Valley there is a high concentration of alluvium
Alluvium
Alluvium is loose, unconsolidated soil or sediments, eroded, deposited, and reshaped by water in some form in a non-marine setting. Alluvium is typically made up of a variety of materials, including fine particles of silt and clay and larger particles of sand and gravel...
, with the content largely determined by the London Clay
London Clay
The London Clay Formation is a marine geological formation of Ypresian age which crops out in the southeast of England. The London Clay is well known for the fossils it contains. The fossils from the Lower Eocene indicate a moderately warm climate, the flora being tropical or subtropical...
Formation, the Bagshot Formation, and the Bracklesham Beds
Bracklesham Beds
Bracklesham Beds, in geology, are a series of clays and marls, with sandy and lignitic beds, in the Middle Eocene of the Hampshire Basin, England....
.
Flooding
Atomic Weapons Establishment
The Atomic Weapons Establishment is responsible for the design, manufacture and support of warheads for the United Kingdom's nuclear deterrent. AWE plc is responsible for the day-to-day operations of AWE...
, which were unable to cope with the rainfall. This happened again in July 1989, when 6 inches (152.4 mm) of rain was deposited on the village in two hours. Five 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. A donation of £10,000 was given to the village by Blue Circle.
In July 2007, torrential rain flooded the village and local primary school, and the event made national news. The storm coincided with the annual Glade music festival
The Glade
Glade Festival is an electronic dance music festival which originally started out as a stage at Glastonbury Festival. The annual festival takes place in England for three days in the summer and attracted around 16,500 people in 2007. The festival's home for the first five years was the Wasing...
and jeopardised the event. The festival gates were temporarily closed while organisers assessed the flooding, which submerged one of the stages. The festival's car park was incapacitated, with thousands of revellers stranded in the village and surrounding lanes.
The floods also hit the Church of England primary school, with the Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service
Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service
The Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service is a statutory fire and rescue service covering the area of the ceremonial county of Berkshire in England...
evacuating pupils and staff from the school in life rafts. The evacuation used four rafts, rescuing pupils and teachers from the school through windows. The 165 people (140 pupils and 25 members of staff) were taken uphill to the parish hall, where blankets and sleeping bags had been provided.
Ian Henderson, a police constable at Thames Valley Police
Thames Valley Police
Thames Valley Police, formerly known as Thames Valley Constabulary, is the territorial police force responsible for policing the Thames Valley area covered by the ceremonial counties of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire....
stated that the emergency services were "really stretched because of what happened over the county and the Glade event", that "the [A340] junction was two or three foot under water", and predicted that "a lot of householders [would be] homeless."
Demography
The 1831 census showed that 68% of the employed population of Aldermaston were working classWorking class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
or "labourers and servants". 20% were middle class
Middle class
The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....
("middling sorts"), 10% were upper class
Upper class
In social science, the "upper class" is the group of people at the top of a social hierarchy. Members of an upper class may have great power over the allocation of resources and governmental policy in their area.- Historical meaning :...
("employers and professionals") and 2% were unclassified.
In 1887 the population of the parish was 528. By 1896, the population had grown to 585. The population fluctuated steadily around 550 until the 1950s and 1960s, when a population explosion resulted in the 1961 UK census reporting 2,186 residents in the parish. This coincides with the opening of the Atomic Weapons Establishment in the early 1950s, and the majority of this figure counts residents in the parts of Tadley
Tadley
Tadley is a town and civil parish in the English county of Hampshire.During the 1950s and 1960s, the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment , now known as AWE, became the area's largest employer, and a large number of houses were built during this period to accommodate AWRE workers...
within the parish of Aldermaston – between 1901 and 1961, 368 houses were built in the parish.
A number of parish border changes occurred in the first half of the 20th century, including the net loss of 307 acres (124.2 ha) to Beenham and Woolhampton on 1 April 1934 alone. By 2001, the parish population had reduced to 927.
The 2001 United Kingdom Census identified that 99.3% of householders in the parish as white
White people
White people is a term which usually refers to human beings characterized, at least in part, by the light pigmentation of their skin...
. In 2005 30% of parish residents lived in the village. Of the 70% outside the village, 30% lived at Aldermaston Wharf, 20% in the local mobile home parks, 10% in the Falcon Fields development and 10% in "other outlying areas". Falcon Fields is a housing development on the southern border of the parish, completed in the early 2000s. Ravenswing and Pinelands are mobile home
Mobile home
Mobile homes or static caravans are prefabricated homes built in factories, rather than on site, and then taken to the place where they will be occupied...
parks near the Hampshire border. Raghill is a industrial area to the east of the parish, which has some light residential developments.
The average age of residents in the parish is approximately 50 with 31.5% of residents in the 45–64 age group. The average age of residents of Aldermaston Wharf is 30.7, and in the mobile home parks the average age is 53.9. Of these, 53.3% were female. This is in contrast with the 2001 census data, which showed that 49.8% were female.
In 2005, 3% of the parish population were unemployed and 25% were retired. The retirement figure increased in the Pinelands and Ravenswing areas, with a statistic of 42%. Most residents' places of work are in surrounding towns, with their location in the parish largely dictating where to look for work. The 2005 survey identified that residents in the south of the parish (Falcon Fields and Ravenswing/Pinelands) travel towards Tadley and Basingstoke whereas those further north in the parish tend to find work in Reading, Newbury and London.
| Historical population of Aldermaston | |||||||||||
| Year | 1801 | 1811 | 1821 | 1831 | 1841 | 1851 | 1861 | 1871 | 1881 | 1891 | 1901 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Population | 672 | 678 | 653 | 636 | 662 | 783 | 585 | ? | 528 | 655 | 482 |
| Year | 1911 | 1921 | 1931 | 1941 | 1951 | 1961 | 1971 | 1981 | 1991 | 2001 | 2011 |
| Population | 559 | 533 | 461 | ? | 638 | 2,186 | ? | ? | ? | 927 | - |
Census (1801 2001); Cassey's History, Gazetteer and Directory of Berkshire and Oxfordshire (1868) |
|||||||||||
Economy
Historically, the main source of industry in Aldermaston has been agriculture. According to the 1831 census, approximately 66% of working men (aged 20 and over) were employed in some form of agriculture. The next highest industry by workers was "retail and handicrafts", which employed approximately 20%. Employment categories in the 1881 census were more discreet; just 20% of working men identified their employment as agriculture. 30% however, were listed as "general or unspecified commodities". In this census, women's employment was also documented. Of the 137 working women in the parish, 40 (slightly fewer than 30%) worked in domestic services, whereas 82 (approximately 60%) were of an unknown occupation.Agriculture
In about 1797 a schoolmaster living in the village cultivated the Williams pearWilliams pear
The Williams' bon chrétien pear, commonly called the Williams pear, or Bartlett pear in the U.S. and Canada, is the most commonly grown variety of pear in most countries outside Asia. It is a cultivar of the species Pyrus communis, commonly known as the European pear...
. The schoolmaster (either Mr Wheeler or his successor, John Stair) was the original cultivator, but the pear (a cultivar
Cultivar
A cultivar'Cultivar has two meanings as explained under Formal definition. When used in reference to a taxon, the word does not apply to an individual plant but to all those plants sharing the unique characteristics that define the cultivar. is a plant or group of plants selected for desirable...
of the European Pear
European Pear
The European Pear, Pyrus communis, is a species of pear native to central and eastern Europe and southwest Asia. The European Pear is one of the most important fruits of temperate regions, being the species from which most orchard pear cultivars grown in Europe, North America and Australia have...
) was named after Richard Williams of Turnham Green
Turnham Green
Turnham Green is a public park situated on Chiswick High Road, Chiswick, London. It is separated in two by a small road. Christ Church stands on the eastern half of the green. A war memorial stands on the eastern corner...
, who grew several grafts of the original tree. On 5 December 1956, a plaque commemorating the tree was unveiled on the wall of the village school.
Locally-farmed wheat was milled at Aldermaston Mill until the 1920s. In existence at the time of the Domesday survey, the mill was previously called the "Kingsmill", and at one time supplied flour
Flour
Flour is a powder which is made by grinding cereal grains, other seeds or roots . It is the main ingredient of bread, which is a staple food for many cultures, making the availability of adequate supplies of flour a major economic and political issue at various times throughout history...
to Huntley & Palmers
Huntley & Palmers
Huntley & Palmers was a British firm of biscuit makers originally based in Reading, Berkshire. The company created one of the world's first global brands and ran what was once the world’s largest biscuit factory. Over the years, the company was also known as J...
in Reading. Now known as The Old Mill, it was owned by Wasing's Mount family throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. William Mount let the mill to Francis Webb (1797–1811), Mr Sherwood (1811–1820), Mr King (1820–1824), Mr Waldren (1824–1828), Mr Mathews (1828–1848), and William Gilchrist (1848–1856). Gilchrist (Mathews' business partner) bought the mill from Mount in 1856 using money inherited from his brother's death the previous year. Owning it outright for approximately a year, he drowned in the River Kennet in 1857 after visiting the Angel public house in Woolhampton. Joseph Crockett purchased the mill in an auction the same year, before it was acquired by a Richard Sisling of Godalming
Godalming
Godalming is a town and civil parish in the Waverley district of the county of Surrey, England, south of Guildford. It is built on the banks of the River Wey and is a prosperous part of the London commuter belt. Godalming shares a three-way twinning arrangement with the towns of Joigny in France...
in 1858. In approximately 1860, the mill was purchased by the Kersley family. Between then and 1885, it was operated by Anthony Kersley, a miller and maltster who employed "six men and a boy, a carter, several domestic servants and a governess". Kersley's son, also named Anthony, ran the mill until 1895. That year, Walter Parson bought the mill and operated it until approximately 1897. Charles Keyser subsequently oversaw restoration on the mill building which "had been untenanted for upwards of three years". He let the mill out to a Mr Iremonger from 1901. Iremonger used the mill until the late 1920s, shortly before Keyser's death. After Keyser had died and the Aldermaston estate had been divided and sold, his widow, Mary, approached Evelyn Arlott to run the mill as a tea room and guesthouse. The Arlott family purchased the mill in approximately 1939, after the death of Mary Keyser.
In 1939, there were seven farms on the Aldermaston estate – Forsters Farm, Village Farm, Church Farm, Upper Church Farm, Raghill Farm, Park Farm, and Soke Farm. These accounted for approximately 75% of the estate's land. Aside from these, there were six smallholding
Smallholding
A smallholding is a farm of small size.In third world countries, smallholdings are usually farms supporting a single family with a mixture of cash crops and subsistence farming. As a country becomes more affluent and farming practices become more efficient, smallholdings may persist as a legacy of...
s within the parish but outside the land owned by the court. These were Springhill Farm, Court Farm, Strawberry Farm, Circus Farm, Ravenswing Farm, and Frouds Farm.
Of these, Church Farm and Forster's Farm remain in operation. Upper Church Farm was originally known as Harry's Farm, after a William Harry who died in 1544.
Pubs and brewing
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 innCoaching inn
In Europe, from approximately the mid-17th century for a period of about 200 years, the coaching inn, sometimes called a coaching house or staging inn, was a vital part of the inland transport infrastructure, as an inn serving coach travelers...
, the establishment was named The Pack Horse during the De La Mare and Forster lordships and The Congreve Arms throughout the Congreves' ownership.
Gable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of a sloping roof. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system being used and aesthetic concerns. Thus the type of roof enclosing the volume dictates the shape of the gable...
, and a small bellturret upon which is a gilt
Gilding
The term gilding covers a number of decorative techniques for applying fine gold leaf or powder to solid surfaces such as wood, stone, or metal to give a thin coating of gold. A gilded object is described as "gilt"...
fox-shaped weather vane
Weather vane
A weather vane is an instrument for showing the direction of the wind. They are typically used as an architectural ornament to the highest point of a building....
. The bell was intended to be rung as an air-raid siren
Civil defense siren
A civil defense siren is a mechanical or electronic device for generating sound to...
during the Second World War. In the early 19th century the pub's signboard carried the arms of the Congreve family, as well as branding for a company named "Adams". In the British Parliamentary Papers of 1817, the Committee on the State of the Police in the Metropolis reported evidence of a John Adams – a Reading-based distiller and hop merchant
Hops
Hops are the female flower clusters , of a hop species, Humulus lupulus. They are used primarily as a flavoring and stability agent in beer, to which they impart a bitter, tangy flavor, though hops are also used for various purposes in other beverages and herbal medicine...
, who competed for business against Simonds' Brewery
Simonds' Brewery
H & G Simonds Ltd was a brewery founded in Reading, Berkshire, England in 1785 by William Blackall Simonds. The company amalgamated with Courage & Barclay in 1960, eventually becoming part of Scottish & Newcastle...
. By 1850, the pub brewed beer on-site; a brewery was built as an out-building behind the main pub building. John Knight produced beer at the pub for 40 years, selling it for 2d
Penny (British pre-decimal coin)
The penny of the Kingdom of Great Britain and later of the United Kingdom, was in circulation from the early 18th century until February 1971, Decimal Day....
. The brewery building is still in existence, with the wooden louvres
Louver
A louver or louvre , from the French l'ouvert; "the open one") is a window, blind or shutter with horizontal slats that are angled to admit light and air, but to keep out rain, direct sunshine, and noise...
still operational. The building is now the pub's kitchen. In the 1970s, the pub was owned by Whitbread
Whitbread
Whitbread PLC is a global hotel, coffee shop and restaurant company headquartered in Dunstable, United Kingdom. Its largest division is Premier Inn, which is the largest hotel brand in the UK with around 580 hotels and over 40,000 rooms. Its Costa Coffee chain has around 1,600 stores across 25...
. In the mid-1990s the pub was taken over by Gales Brewery
Gales Brewery
Established in 1847 Gales Brewery was an old brewery situated in Horndean, on the edge of Waterlooville, near Portsmouth in Hampshire, England. It made the nutty HSB and the newer Gales Bitter...
(having previously been a free house), later becoming tied to Fuller's Brewery on their acquisition of Gales in 2006. In the 1970s, the pub was home to the Kennet Folk Club.
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. The inside of the lock-up measures approximately 7.5 feet (2.3 m) by 6 feet (1.8 m), and is enclosed by a studded door with a grille. It was last used in 1865 and its drunk inhabitant burnt himself to death trying to keep warm. The lock-up was designated as a Grade II listed building in April 1967. On 11 September 2010 the lock-up was opened to the public as part of the Heritage Open Days scheme.
Another pub in the parish, The Butt Inn, is located approximately 1.25 miles (2 km) north-east of the village. The pub is named after the archery butts
Archery butts
An archery butts is an archery practice field, with mounds of earth used for the targets. The name originally referred to the targets themselves, but over time came to mean the platforms that held the targets as well. For instance Othello, V,ii,267 mentions "Here is my journey's end, here is my...
that were located in the fields opposite the pub.
The Aldermaston Brewery
Aldermaston Brewery
The Aldermaston Brewery was a brewery located near Aldermaston in Berkshire, UK.- History :The brewery was established at Aldermaston Wharf in 1770., adjacent to the Kennet and Avon Canal. The brewery was bought by Thomas Strange in 1833. William Jeffreys Strange operated the brewery until 1902,...
was established at Aldermaston Wharf
Aldermaston Wharf
Aldermaston Wharf is a small settlement situated north-northwest of Aldermaston in the West Berkshire district, part of the English county of Berkshire. The Kennet and Avon Canal and Great Western Railway pass through it and Aldermaston railway station and Aldermaston Lock are located here. The A4...
in 1770, and was demolished in the 1950s. It was replaced with a cable factory, which was demolished in 1990.
Cricket bats
Old Village Farm (on Fishermans Lane) is now the location of a wood yard, used since the 1930s to prepare local willowWillow
Willows, sallows, and osiers form the genus Salix, around 400 species of deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere...
for the production of cricket bat
Cricket bat
A cricket bat is a specialised piece of equipment used by batsmen in the sport of cricket to hit the ball. It is usually made of willow wood. Its use is first mentioned in 1624....
s. The trees are grown at Harbour Hill Copse, where 70 trees are felled annually for this purpose. There are approximately 1000 trees growing at any given time. The workers at the yard cut the wood into approximate bat shaps, then cure the wood in a kiln. The clefts of wood are then shipped to India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
where the final manufacturing can be undertaken under moisture-controlled conditions.
The yard would take on three up-coming cricketers for the winter, in the hope that the hard work would "toughen them up" to get them picked for the England cricket team. One year the yard had help from Frank Tyson
Frank Tyson
Frank Holmes Tyson is an England cricketer of the 1950s who became a journalist and cricket commentator after he emigrated to Australia in 1960. Nicknamed "Typhoon Tyson" by the press he was regarded by many commentators as one of the fastest bowlers ever seen in cricket and took 76 wickets in...
, Alan Moss
Alan Moss
Alan Edward Moss is a former English cricketer, who played in nine Tests for England from 1954 to 1960....
, and Peter Loader
Peter Loader
Peter James Loader was an English cricketer and umpire, who played thirteen Test matches for England. He played for Surrey and Beddington Cricket Club. A whippet-thin fast bowler with a wide range of pace and a nasty bouncer, he took the first post-war Test hat-trick as part of his 6 for 36...
. The following year they hosted three Davids – David Kaufman, David Spragbury, and David Gibson
David Gibson (cricketer)
David Gibson is an English former cricketer who played for Surrey from 1957 to 1969. He was a fast-medium bowler who captured over 500 wickets in his career, and also a useful enough batsman almost to rank as an all-rounder...
.
The wood yard was featured on A Question of Sport
A Question of Sport
A Question of Sport is a long-running BBC quiz show which started on 2 December 1968 and continues to this day. It is currently recorded at The Studios, MediaCityUK...
, when cricketer Graham Gooch
Graham Gooch
Graham Alan Gooch OBE DL is a former cricketer who captained Essex and England. He was one of the most successful international batsmen of his generation, and through a career spanning from 1973 until 2000, he became the most prolific run scorer of all time with 67,057 runs...
took part in the programme's "Mystery Guest" round. Gooch endorsed the bats made from Aldermaston willow, which were sold by Surridge. When he scored 333 runs against India at Lord's in the 1990 test season
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
, the Turbo 333 bat, made from Aldermaston wood, was launched in his honour.
In the 1960s, Blue Peter
Blue Peter
Blue Peter is the world's longest-running children's television show, having first aired in 1958. It is shown on CBBC, both in its BBC One programming block and on the CBBC channel. During its history there have been many presenters, often consisting of two women and two men at a time...
aired a short documentary on the cricket bat production entitled "The Life of a Cricket Bat". It was presented by Christopher Trace
Christopher Trace
Christopher Leonard Trace was an English actor and television presenter, best remembered for his nine years as a presenter of the BBC children's programme Blue Peter.-Career:...
.
Pottery
In 1955, the Aldermaston PotteryAldermaston Pottery
Aldermaston Pottery was a pottery located in the Berkshire village of Aldermaston. It was founded in 1955 by Alan Caiger-Smith and was known for its tin-glaze pottery and particularly its lustre ware...
was established on the main street by studio potter
Studio potter
A studio potter is one who is a modern artist, who either works alone or in a small group, producing unique items of pottery in small quantities, typically with all stages of manufacture carried out by themselves. Studio pottery includes functional wares such as tableware or cookware, and...
s Alan Caiger-Smith
Alan Caiger-Smith
Alan Caiger-Smith MBE is a British studio potter and writer on pottery.- Life and work :He was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He studied at the Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts and read history at King's College, Cambridge...
and Geoffrey Eastop
Geoffrey Eastop
Geoffrey Eastop is an English potter.Eastop was born in London, where he studied at Goldsmiths' College. He also studied at the Academie Ranson, Paris....
. The pottery was renowned for tin-glazed
Tin-glazed pottery
Tin-glazed pottery is a majolica pottery covered in glaze containing tin oxide which is white, shiny and opaque. The pottery body is usually made of red or buff colored earthenware and the white glaze was often used to imitate Chinese porcelain...
and porcelain
Porcelain
Porcelain is a ceramic material made by heating raw materials, generally including clay in the form of kaolin, in a kiln to temperatures between and...
wares, which used scrap wood from the Village Farm woodyard to fire the kiln.
The pottery closed in 2006. It had previously scaled back its output in 1993 due to Caiger-Smith's partial retirement after the 1992 recession.
Atomic Weapons Establishment
The Atomic Weapons EstablishmentAtomic Weapons Establishment
The Atomic Weapons Establishment is responsible for the design, manufacture and support of warheads for the United Kingdom's nuclear deterrent. AWE plc is responsible for the day-to-day operations of AWE...
(AWE), for which Aldermaston has become known, is less than 1 miles (1.6 km) south of the village. The establishment is where the UK designs and manufacture Trident missiles, and where decommissioned and redundant nuclear weapons are dismantled. In April 1958, the first Aldermaston March was held. The march saw around 3,000 protesters march from London to Aldermaston over four days, with a total attendance of 12,000 at the establishment's gates. The 50th anniversary of the event was marked on 24 March 2008 with the "Bomb Stops Here" protest, attended by Vivienne Westwood
Vivienne Westwood
Dame Vivienne Westwood, DBE, RDI is a British fashion designer and businesswoman, largely responsible for bringing modern punk and new wave fashions into the mainstream.-Early life:...
and CND president Walter Wolfgang
Walter Wolfgang
Walter Jakob Wolfgang is a German-born British socialist and peace activist.He is currently Vice President and Vice Chair of Labourof the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and a supporter of the Stop the War Coalition...
. The 2008 demonstration was the biggest protest staged by CND in ten years.
Until 2005, AWE discharged "pre-treated waste water" into the River Thames at Pangbourne
Pangbourne
Pangbourne is a large village and civil parish on the River Thames in the English county of Berkshire. Pangbourne is the home of the independent school, Pangbourne College.-Location:...
via an 11.8 miles (19 km) pipeline which runs under roads and fields within the parish. A water processing facility was installed on-site in 2006, though the Pangbourne Pipeline remains in situ.
Other businesses
Lafarge Aggregates owns various sites in the parish. In 1974 the village won an appeal against Pioneer Concrete's application for gravel extraction near the village. Similar events took place in March 2003 when hundreds of local residents protested against an application of gravel extraction by Lafarge. Larfarge's initial appeal, in April 2003, was turned down by West Berkshire Council. A further application to extract aggregate at the Wasing Estate is due to be decided in 2010. One former extraction site, Butts Lake Quarry, is now a nature reserve and the flooded lakes have been identified as a Site of Special Scientific InterestSite of Special Scientific Interest
A Site of Special Scientific Interest is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom. SSSIs are the basic building block of site-based nature conservation legislation and most other legal nature/geological conservation designations in Great Britain are based upon...
and is now operated by the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust
Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust
The Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust is a wildlife trust covering the counties of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire in England....
. The reserve contains specimens of trees such as alder
Alder
Alder is the common name of a genus of flowering plants belonging to the birch family . The genus comprises about 30 species of monoecious trees and shrubs, few reaching large size, distributed throughout the North Temperate Zone and in the Americas along the Andes southwards to...
, cherry
Cherry Tree
Cherry Tree may refer to:* A tree that produces cherries* An ornamental cherry tree that produces cherry blossomsPlaces* Cherry Tree, Pennsylvania, a borough in Indiana County, Pennsylvania, United States* Cherry Tree, Oklahoma...
, hawthorn, oak
Oak
An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...
, and willow
Willow
Willows, sallows, and osiers form the genus Salix, around 400 species of deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere...
. Examples of reed
Reed (plant)
Reed is a generic polyphyletic botanical term used to describe numerous tall, grass-like plants of wet places, which are the namesake vegetation of reed beds...
s present include typha latifolia
Typha latifolia
Typha latifolia is a perennial herbaceous plant in the genus Typha. It is found as a native plant species in North and South America, Europe, Eurasia, and Africa...
, phragmites australis, mentha aquatica, and lythrum salicaria. Numerous species of bird nest in the reserve, including the common teal
Common Teal
The Eurasian Teal or Common Teal is a common and widespread duck which breeds in temperate Eurasia and migrates south in winter. The Eurasian Teal is often called simply the Teal due to being the only one of these small dabbling ducks in much of its range...
, shoveler
Shoveler
The shovelers, formerly known as shovellers, are four species of dabbling ducks with long, broad spatula-shaped beaks:* Red Shoveler, Anas platalea* Cape Shoveler, Anas smithii* Australasian Shoveler, Anas rhynchotis...
, warbler
Warbler
There are a number of Passeriformes called "warblers". They are not particularly closely related, but share some characteristics, such as being fairly small, vocal and insectivorous....
, kingfisher
Kingfisher
Kingfishers are a group of small to medium sized brightly coloured birds in the order Coraciiformes. They have a cosmopolitan distribution, with most species being found in the Old World and Australia...
, water rail
Water Rail
The Water Rail is a bird of the rail family which breeds in well-vegetated wetlands across Europe, Asia and North Africa. Northern and eastern populations are migratory, but this species is a permanent resident in the warmer parts of its breeding range...
, and nightingale
Nightingale
The Nightingale , also known as Rufous and Common Nightingale, is a small passerine bird that was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family Turdidae, but is now more generally considered to be an Old World flycatcher, Muscicapidae...
.
Britain's first roadside petrol filling station was opened by The AA
The Automobile Association
The Automobile Association , a British motoring association founded in 1905 was demutualised in 1999 to become a private limited company which currently provides car insurance, driving lessons, breakdown cover, loans and motoring advice, and other services...
on the Bath Road near Aldermaston on 2 March 1919. The following year, one villager requested that a pump be installed by his house. "Chuffer" Ford, who lived in The Forge with his wife Olive, was told by Keyser that it must be "behind a wall and recessed". A hole was cut in the brick wall beside Ford's yard to house the Shell
Royal Dutch Shell
Royal Dutch Shell plc , commonly known as Shell, is a global oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the fifth-largest company in the world according to a composite measure by Forbes magazine and one of the six...
-branded pump. The location of this pump is marked by a square hole in the present wall. Ford's business offered other motoring services, with signage reading "vacuum
Vacuum
In everyday usage, vacuum is a volume of space that is essentially empty of matter, such that its gaseous pressure is much less than atmospheric pressure. The word comes from the Latin term for "empty". A perfect vacuum would be one with no particles in it at all, which is impossible to achieve in...
, oil
Motor oil
Motor oil or engine oil is an oil used for lubrication of various internal combustion engines. The main function is to lubricate moving parts; it also cleans, inhibits corrosion, improves sealing, and cools the engine by carrying heat away from moving parts.Motor oils are derived from...
, and cycles
Bicycle
A bicycle, also known as a bike, pushbike or cycle, is a human-powered, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A person who rides a bicycle is called a cyclist, or bicyclist....
".
There is a number of small businesses in the village, including a hairdressing salon, a software development
Software development
Software development is the development of a software product...
company and the village shop. In the 1970s the hairdressers was a music shop, which was opened by Terry Wogan
Terry Wogan
Sir Michael Terence Wogan, KBE, DL , or also known as Terry Wogan, is a veteran Irish radio and television broadcaster who holds dual Irish and British citizenship. Wogan has worked for the BBC in the United Kingdom for most of his career...
. Before this it was a cooperative
Cooperative
A cooperative is a business organization owned and operated by a group of individuals for their mutual benefit...
village stores started by Charles Keyser.
There are two business park
Business park
A business park or office park is an area of land in which many office buildings are grouped together. All of the work that goes on is commercial, not industrial or residential....
s in the parish – Calleva Business Park (on the Berkshire/Hampshire border) and Youngs Industrial Estate (on Paices Hill). The latter opened in the early 1980s, and is the location of Paices Wood Country Parkland, a wildlife project sponsored by English Nature
English Nature
English Nature was the United Kingdom government agency that promoted the conservation of wildlife, geology and wild places throughout England between 1990 and 2006...
.
In 2007 Aldermaston won the Business Category Award in the regional final of the Calor Village of the Year
Calor Village of the Year
The Calor Village of the Year comprised 4 annual competitions organised by gas provider Calor to identify the villages that best met the following criteria: "a well-balanced, pro-active, caring community which has made the best of local opportunities to maintain and enhance the quality of life for...
competition. The judges stated that the village "has a very successful business community" and that "local businesses are well-supported by villagers and in return these businesses support village activities". In addition to the business award, the village was announced as the Overall Winner of the Calor "Berkshire Village of the Year" competition in 2006, as well as category winners in the "Building Community Life", "Business", "Young People" and "ICT" categories.
Architecture
The majority of houses in the village were built between the 17th and late 19th centuries, including examples of Victorian Gothic architecture. Only one house has been built on the village's main street since the early 20th century. The parish hall, built in 1897, is predominantly flint and brick.Most of the houses in the village are Grade II listed buildings, and many were built using local red and blue bricks. In total, 51 structures in the parish are listed – including gatepiers, greenhouse
Greenhouse
A greenhouse is a building in which plants are grown. These structures range in size from small sheds to very large buildings...
s, a tomb
Tomb
A tomb is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes...
, railing
Guard rail
Guard rail or guardrail, sometimes referred to as guide rail or railing, is a system designed to keep people or vehicles from straying into dangerous or off-limits areas...
s and a wall, the village telephone box and Aldermaston Lock
Aldermaston Lock
Aldermaston Lock is a lock on the Kennet and Avon Canal, at Aldermaston Wharf in the English county of Berkshire. It stands at the junction of the civil parishes of Padworth, Beenham and Aldermaston....
.
Culture
Since the early 1800s, Aldermaston has held a candle auction every three years. The auction, which sees a horseshoe nail driven through a tallowTallow
Tallow is a rendered form of beef or mutton fat, processed from suet. It is solid at room temperature. Unlike suet, tallow can be stored for extended periods without the need for refrigeration to prevent decomposition, provided it is kept in an airtight container to prevent oxidation.In industry,...
candle an inch below the wick, is held in the parish hall. The lot is the lease of Church Acre, a plot 2 acre (0.809372 ha) in area that was granted to the church in 1815 after the Inclosures Act. The proceedings are overseen by the vicar and churchwardens, who drink rum punch throughout the auction. Traditionally, the churchwardens smoked clay pipes during the event.
The parish hall often holds other events, such as plays produced by the village's own amateur dramatics society. The society, known as The Aldermaston Players, have staged fundraising events in the village 1966. In 1976, the parish hall hosted an episode of the BBC's Any Questions?
Any Questions?
Any Questions? is a topical debate radio programme in the United Kingdom.-Format:It is broadcast by BBC Radio 4 on Friday evenings and repeated on Saturday afternoons, when it is followed by a phone-in response programme, Any Answers?, previously a postal response slot...
.
The village, along with the neighbouring parish of Wasing, holds an annual produce show
Fête
Fête is a French word meaning festival, celebration or party, which has passed into English as a label that may be given to certain events.-Description:It is widely used in England and Australia in the context of a village fête,...
at The Old Mill. The show, which was previously held behind the Hind's Head pub, hosts produce competitions in approximately 100 classes. In the 1990s, a team of gardeners formed from the produce show entered the Chelsea Flower Show
Chelsea Flower Show
The RHS Chelsea Flower Show, formally known as the Great Spring Show, is a garden show held for five days in May by the Royal Horticultural Society in the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea in Chelsea, London...
. They won a silver gilt in the Best Courtyard Garden Award in two consecutive years, for gardens named "Calma" and "Time Lords".
Since 1957 there has been an annual performance of the York Nativity Play from the 15th century York Mystery Cycle. The play follows a script by E. Martin Browne
E. Martin Browne
E. Martin Browne was a British theatre director, known for his production of twentieth century verse plays. He collaborated for many years with T. S...
with carols by William Byrd
William Byrd
William Byrd was an English composer of the Renaissance. He wrote in many of the forms current in England at the time, including various types of sacred and secular polyphony, keyboard and consort music.-Provenance:Knowledge of Byrd's biography expanded in the late 20th century, thanks largely...
, Johannes Eccard, and Michael Praetorius
Michael Praetorius
Michael Praetorius was a German composer, organist, and music theorist. He was one of the most versatile composers of his age, being particularly significant in the development of musical forms based on Protestant hymns, many of which reflect an effort to make better the relationship between...
. The performances are at the Church of St Mary the Virgin in early December, and the actors are local people who have appeared in the play for many years. In 1964, the play was recorded and broadcasted by the BBC Home Service
BBC Home Service
The BBC Home Service was a British national radio station which broadcast from 1939 until 1967.-Development:Between the 1920s and the outbreak of The Second World War, the BBC had developed two nationwide radio services, the BBC National Programme and the BBC Regional Programme...
under the title of Star Over Aldermaston. One member of the production team was David Shute
David Shute
David Shute is a British journalist, best known for his work at the BBC.-Career:Shute was educated at Brentwood School in Essex. While working on newspapers in Reading he was auditioned by the BBC in Bristol and immediately signed on contract...
.
Aldermaston was mentioned in Plum Pie
Plum Pie
Plum Pie is a collection of nine short stories by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on September 22, 1966 by Herbert Jenkins, London, and in the United States on December 1, 1967 by Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York....
(1966) by P. G. Wodehouse
P. G. Wodehouse
Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE was an English humorist, whose body of work includes novels, short stories, plays, poems, song lyrics, and numerous pieces of journalism. He enjoyed enormous popular success during a career that lasted more than seventy years and his many writings continue to be...
– "Every now and then we march from Aldermaston, protesting like a ton of bricks... And then we sit a good deal."
Aldermaston was the original location of The Glade
The Glade
Glade Festival is an electronic dance music festival which originally started out as a stage at Glastonbury Festival. The annual festival takes place in England for three days in the summer and attracted around 16,500 people in 2007. The festival's home for the first five years was the Wasing...
Festival. The 2007 event was jeopardised by torrential rains and flooding but cautiously went ahead. In 2009, the festival moved from the area and was held near Winchester
Winchester
Winchester is a historic cathedral city and former capital city of England. It is the county town of Hampshire, in South East England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government district, and is located at the western end of the South Downs, along the course of...
. Since 2006, the village has held a blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
festival known as "Blues on the Meadow".
The parish of Aldermaston forms a group with the local parishes of Wasing
Wasing
Wasing is a small village and civil parish in Berkshire, England.It is situated in the West Berkshire district, near to the Berkshire-Hampshire border approximately south east of Newbury, its post town. Other places located close by include Aldermaston and Brimpton...
and Brimpton
Brimpton
Brimpton is a rural village and civil parish in Berkshire, South East England, with a population of 613. The village is located between the River Kennet and the River Enborne, and is near the Hampshire county boundary.- History :...
. The three share a monthly Parish Magazine featuring stories from churches, organisations, schools, businesses and various miscellany.
Transport
Aldermaston railway station
Aldermaston railway station is a railway station named after the village of Aldermaston in the county of Berkshire in England. The station is in the nearby settlement of Aldermaston Wharf and approximately north from Aldermaston village. It was opened on December 21, 1847.- Description...
is in Aldermaston Wharf
Aldermaston Wharf
Aldermaston Wharf is a small settlement situated north-northwest of Aldermaston in the West Berkshire district, part of the English county of Berkshire. The Kennet and Avon Canal and Great Western Railway pass through it and Aldermaston railway station and Aldermaston Lock are located here. The A4...
, 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from the village itself. The station is managed by National Rail
National Rail
National Rail is a title used by the Association of Train Operating Companies as a generic term to define the passenger rail services operated in Great Britain...
and served by First Great Western
First Great Western
First Great Western is the operating name of First Greater Western Ltd, a British train operating company owned by FirstGroup that serves Greater London, the South East, South West and West Midlands regions of England, and South Wales....
services between and .
The village is on the A340 road
A340 road
The A340 is a major road in the south of England, portions of which are known as the Aldermaston Road, Tadley Hill, Basingstoke Road and Tidmarsh Road.-Route:...
, and has nearby access to the A4 road and the M4 motorway
M4 motorway
The M4 motorway links London with South Wales. It is part of the unsigned European route E30. Other major places directly accessible from M4 junctions are Reading, Swindon, Bristol, Newport, Cardiff and Swansea...
. Newbury Buses route 104 serves the village, with services terminating in Newbury, Calcot and Reading. The 2005 Parish Plan identified a need for a relief road near the village. A report was presented in 2009 evaluating the problems caused by HGV traffic through the village, and described solutions which included support from Newbury MP
Newbury (UK Parliament constituency)
Newbury is a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It returns one Member of Parliament , elected by the first-past-the-post voting system....
Richard Benyon
Richard Benyon
Richard Henry Ronald Benyon MRICS is a British Conservative Party politician. He has been the Member of Parliament for Newbury since 2005 and a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs since May 2010.-Early life:Benyon was born in...
.
The nearest operating airstrip, Brimpton Airfield
Brimpton Airfield
Brimpton Airfield is an unlicensed single-runway civilian airfield in Berkshire, United Kingdom.-History:Located close to RAF Greenham Common, the airfield was founded in the 1950s by Sir William Mount, 2nd Baronet, a director at Miles Aircraft in nearby Woodley...
, is less than 1 miles (1.6 km) west of the village, within AWE's restricted airspace
Restricted airspace
Restricted airspace is an area of airspace in which the local controlling authorities have determined that air traffic must be restricted for safety or security concerns...
. RAF Aldermaston
RAF Aldermaston
RAF Aldermaston was a World War II airfield. It was used by the Royal Air Force and the United States Army Eighth and Ninth Air Force as a troop carrier group base, and was assigned USAAF station No 467.-Origins:...
ceased to operate as a civilian airport in 1950.
The village is 1.5 miles (2.4 km) south-east of the Reading Marine Company's headquarters on the Kennet and Avon Canal
Kennet and Avon Canal
The Kennet and Avon Canal is a waterway in southern England with an overall length of , made up of two lengths of navigable river linked by a canal. The name is commonly used to refer to the entire length of the navigation rather than solely to the central canal section...
, which provides waterway links to London (via the Thames) and Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
(via the River Avon).
Education
The parish of Aldermaston has two primary schools. Aldermaston Primary School is a Local Authority-run Church of England school in Wasing Lane and has about 150 pupils. It was established in 1836 and originally located in Church Road, moving to the present site in 1988. The school uses the names of the manor's squires in its house systemHouse system
The house system is a traditional feature of British schools, and schools in the Commonwealth. Historically, it was associated with established public schools, where a 'house' refers to a boarding house or dormitory of a boarding school...
.
The Cedars is a private school
Private school
Private schools, also known as independent schools or nonstate schools, are not administered by local, state or national governments; thus, they retain the right to select their students and are funded in whole or in part by charging their students' tuition, rather than relying on mandatory...
opened in 1992 in the former buildings of the Church of England school. The school has approximately 40 pupils enrolled.
Alder Bridge Steiner School, although located in Aldermaston Wharf, is within the parish of Padworth. Padworth College
Padworth College
Padworth College is an independent co-educational senior school at Padworth, between Burghfield Common and Tadley in the English county of Berkshire....
is situated on the border of Aldermaston and Padworth parishes.
Parish church
Church of England parish church
A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative region, known as a parish.-Parishes in England:...
of Saint Mary the Virgin
Mary (mother of Jesus)
Mary , commonly referred to as "Saint Mary", "Mother Mary", the "Virgin Mary", the "Blessed Virgin Mary", or "Mary, Mother of God", was a Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee...
and was built in the mid 12th century. The Norman
Norman architecture
About|Romanesque architecture, primarily English|other buildings in Normandy|Architecture of Normandy.File:Durham Cathedral. Nave by James Valentine c.1890.jpg|thumb|200px|The nave of Durham Cathedral demonstrates the characteristic round arched style, though use of shallow pointed arches above the...
building was altered throughout the following millennium, particularly in 13th, 14th, 15th and 17th centuries. The 12th-century building now comprises the current nave
Nave
In Romanesque and Gothic Christian abbey, cathedral basilica and church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar, the main body of the church. "Nave" was probably suggested by the keel shape of its vaulting...
, with additions seen in the Forster Chapel and chancel
Chancel
In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar in the sanctuary at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building...
(13th century), the steeple
Steeple (architecture)
A steeple, in architecture, is a tall tower on a building, often topped by a spire. Steeples are very common on Christian churches and cathedrals and the use of the term generally connotes a religious structure...
(14th century), and vestry (17th century). The 17th-century Jacobean
Jacobean era
The Jacobean era refers to the period in English and Scottish history that coincides with the reign of King James VI of Scotland, who also inherited the crown of England in 1603 as James I...
pulpit
Pulpit
Pulpit is a speakers' stand in a church. In many Christian churches, there are two speakers' stands at the front of the church. Typically, the one on the left is called the pulpit...
is an unusual heptagonal design. Various additions were made to the structure in the 14th and 15th centuries, primarily to the walls and ogee
Ogee
An ogee is a curve , shaped somewhat like an S, consisting of two arcs that curve in opposite senses, so that the ends are parallel....
windows. A scratch dial
Sun Dial
Sun Dial is a British space rock band formed in 1990 by Gary Ramon.-History:The precursor to Sun Dial was Ramon's the Modern Art, formed in the mid-'80s with a loose lineup that never played gigs but did see the release of two studio albums...
was added to the south-west buttress
Buttress
A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall...
in the 14th century.
The church features architecture by Edward Doran Webb
Edward Doran Webb
Edward Doran Webb was a British ecclesiastical architect. Based in Wiltshire, he worked on churches in Salisbury, Finchley, and Aldermaston. He designed Birmingham Oratory....
and stained glass
Stained glass
The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works produced from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant buildings...
by Charles Eamer Kempe
Charles Eamer Kempe
Charles Eamer Kempe was a well-known Victorian stained glass designer. After attending Twyford School, he studied for the priesthood at Pembroke College, Oxford, but it became clear that his severe stammer would be an impediment to preaching...
. The Forster Chapel, a lady chapel
Lady chapel
A Lady chapel, also called Mary chapel or Marian chapel, is a traditional English term for a chapel inside a cathedral, basilica, or large church dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary...
added to the south face in the 13th century, contains the alabaster
Alabaster
Alabaster is a name applied to varieties of two distinct minerals, when used as a material: gypsum and calcite . The former is the alabaster of the present day; generally, the latter is the alabaster of the ancients...
effigial monument
Church monument
A church monument is an architectural or sculptural memorial to a dead person or persons, located within a Christian church. It can take various forms, from a simple wall tablet to a large and elaborate structure which may include an effigy of the deceased person and other figures of familial or...
of Sir George Forster and his wife Elizabeth which was built in 1530. Evidence suggests that the chapel may originally have been a chantry
Chantry
Chantry is the English term for a fund established to pay for a priest to celebrate sung Masses for a specified purpose, generally for the soul of the deceased donor. Chantries were endowed with lands given by donors, the income from which maintained the chantry priest...
dedicated to St Nicholas. The roundel windows in the north wall date from the 13th century and are the oldest glass in Berkshire.
The tower has a peal
Change ringing
Change ringing is the art of ringing a set of tuned bells in a series of mathematical patterns called "changes". It differs from many other forms of campanology in that no attempt is made to produce a conventional melody....
of eight bells dating from 1681 to 1900. The current organ, which has 16 stops
Organ stop
An organ stop is a component of a pipe organ that admits pressurized air to a set of organ pipes. Its name comes from the fact that stops can be used selectively by the organist; some can be "on" , while others can be "off" .The term can also refer...
, was installed in 1880.
Individuals buried in the churchyard include squires Charles Keyser (1847–1929) and Daniel Burr (c.1811–1885), schoolmaster John Stair (c.1745–1820), and Maria Hale (1791–1879).
Sport
Aldermaston has a number of sports teams. The village cricketCricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
team, Aldermaston Village CC, play at nearby Wasing Park. The club, which first played in 1786 as "The Gentlemen of Aldermaston", originally played at a pitch at Aldermaston Court. The ground was lost when the airfield was built. Sir William Mount, 2nd Baronet
Sir William Mount, 2nd Baronet
Lieutenant-Colonel Sir William Malcolm Mount of Wasing Place, 2nd Baronet TD was a British Army officer, High Sheriff of Berkshire and grandfather to David Cameron, UK Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party....
, the grandfather of British Prime Minister David Cameron
David Cameron
David William Donald Cameron is the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service and Leader of the Conservative Party. Cameron represents Witney as its Member of Parliament ....
, allowed a cricket pitch to be established on a portion of his Wasing estate. The original football club played next to the cricket pitch. The club's strip was sponsored by Mr. George L Heighton, the proprietor of the village shop.
Aldermaston Rugby Club and A.F.C. Aldermaston
A.F.C. Aldermaston
A.F.C. Aldermaston is a non-league English association football club based in Aldermaston, Berkshire. The team's motto, Facta Non Verba, comes from a Latin phrase meaning "deeds, not words"....
both play their home games at the Recreational Society at AWE. Tadley RFC is in the parish, about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from the village.
Aldermaston Raceway, a banger racing
Banger racing
Banger Racing is a tarmac or dirt track racing type of motorsport event popularised in both North America and Europe and especially United Kingdom, Ireland, Belgium and the Netherlands in which drivers of old vehicles race against one another around a race track and the race is...
and demolition derby
Demolition derby
Demolition derby is a motorsport usually presented at county fairs and festivals. While rules vary from event to event, the typical demolition derby event consists of five or more drivers competing by deliberately ramming their vehicles into one another...
venue, is located to the south of the village. A course for off-road 4x4 trials
Off-roading
Off-roading is a term for driving a vehicle on unsurfaced roads or tracks, made of materials such as sand, gravel, riverbeds, mud, snow, rocks, and other natural terrain.-Off-road vehicle:...
is also located in the south of the parish.
Notable residents
- Thomas AlliboneThomas AlliboneThomas Edward Allibone, CBE, FRS was an English physicist, his work included important research into particle physics, X-rays, high voltage equipment, and electron microscopes.-Early life:...
, Lord of the Manor (1953–1985) - Alan Caiger-SmithAlan Caiger-SmithAlan Caiger-Smith MBE is a British studio potter and writer on pottery.- Life and work :He was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He studied at the Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts and read history at King's College, Cambridge...
, the studio potter, founded Aldermaston PotteryAldermaston PotteryAldermaston Pottery was a pottery located in the Berkshire village of Aldermaston. It was founded in 1955 by Alan Caiger-Smith and was known for its tin-glaze pottery and particularly its lustre ware... - Duncan GrantDuncan GrantDuncan James Corrowr Grant was a British painter and designer of textiles, potterty and theatre sets and costumes...
, painter, lived in the village with Paul Roche for the last few years of his life, and died in the village - Felix PoleFelix PoleSir Felix John Clewett Pole was a British railway manager and industrialist. He was general manager of the Great Western Railway , before becoming executive chairman of Associated Electrical Industries, a post he held until 1945.-References:...
, Lord of the Manor (1939–1953) - Paul RochePaul RocheDonald Robert Paul Roche was a British poet, novelist, and professor of English, a critically acclaimed translator of Greek and Latin classics, notably the works of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Sappho, and Plautus...
, poet, lived in the village