Arborfield is a village on the A327 road in

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...

about south-east of

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of Letter (alphabet), letters, symbols, etc., especially by Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process invo ...

, about west of

Wokingham Wokingham is a market town in Berkshire, England, west of London, southeast of Reading, north of Camberley and west of Bracknell. History Wokingham means 'Wocca's people's home'. Wocca was apparently a Saxon chieftain who may als ...

. It lies in the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

Arborfield and Newland Arborfield and Newland is a civil parish in the Wokingham district of Berkshire, England. It had a population of 2,228 according to the 2001 census, increasing to 3,115 at the 2011 Census. It includes Arborfield, Arborfield Cross, part of ...

in the Borough of Wokingham, about west of its sister village of

Arborfield Cross Arborfield Cross is a village in the civil parish of Arborfield and Newland in the Borough of Wokingham in the English county of Berkshire. Location It is situated at what was a cross-roads but is now a roundabout on the A327 road, 3 miles so ...

and the two villages have become collectively known as Arborfield, with no signs marking their boundary.

Etymology

The name 'Arborfield' is first recorded in 1166 as Edburgefeld, meaning 'Edburga's Field', Edburga being a widespread

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...

lady's name. It evolved through variations to the modern Arborfield as first recorded in the 17th century.Bullock, Llewellyn C W, ''Memoirs of the Bullock Family'', A J Lawrence 1905

Notable buildings

Arborfield Hall

The

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals w ...

, which originally stood on the site, was occupied by the Bullock family from the mid-12th century. The last Arborfield Hall, built in 1837, was the home of

Sir John Conroy Sir John Ponsonby Conroy, 1st Baronet, KCH (21 October 1786 – 2 March 1854) was a British Army officer who served as comptroller to the Duchess of Kent and her young daughter, Princess Victoria, the future Queen of the United Kingdom. Con ...

, Controller of the Household of the

Duchess of Kent Duchess of Kent is the principal courtesy title used by the wife of the Duke of Kent. There have been four titles referring to Kent since the 18th century. The current duchess is Katharine, the wife of Prince Edward. He inherited the dukedom o ...

. It was demolished in 1955.

Churches

The present

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 each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ca ...

of Saint Bartholomew is a

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

building designed by J Picton and built in 1863. The new building replaces an older St Bartholomew's church that had been built in the 13th century and altered probably early in the 18th century. When the new church was consecrated the roof of the old one was removed and later layers of plaster stripped from the interior walls, revealing

Medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...

wall paintings of ''"figure subjects and geometrical and masonry patterns"'' that ''"covered the walls"''. These have now been lost and the church ruins have greatly deteriorated. The army

garrison A garrison (from the French ''garnison'', itself from the verb ''garnir'', "to equip") is any body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it. The term now often applies to certain facilities that constitute a mil ...

has its own garrison church, a 20th-century building dedicated to

Saint Eligius Saint Eligius (also Eloy, Eloi or Loye; french: Éloi; 11 June 588 – 1 December 660 AD) is the patron saint of goldsmiths, other metalworkers, and Coin collecting, coin collectors. He is also the patron saint of veterinarians, the Royal Elect ...

Army garrison

Arborfield is also known for the School of Electronic & Aeronautical Engineering (SEAE) where the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

train their Electronic, Aircraft and Avionic engineers for RADAR, Telecommunications, Control Equipment, Aircraft (Airframes and Engines) and Avionic (Aviation electronic and weapon system) modalities. Arborfield Garrison is about the other side of

and which is mostly in the

of Barkham.

International Cocoa Quarantine Centre

Since 1985, Arborfield has also been the home of the

International Cocoa Quarantine Centre The International Cocoa Quarantine Centre (ICQC), located in Arborfield, a suburb of Reading, Berkshire, United Kingdom, is an organization aiming to reduce the amount of disease affecting cocoa plants. Cocoa plants are quarantined in a greenhou ...

whose aim is to investigate and reduce diseases in cocoa plants worldwide.

References

Sources

* *

External links

Arborfield Community Website
{{authority control Villages in Berkshire Borough of Wokingham Former civil parishes in Berkshire