Beedon is a village and

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 authorit ...

about 6½ miles (10.4 km) north of Newbury in

West Berkshire West Berkshire is a local government district in Berkshire, England, administered from Newbury by West Berkshire Council. History The district of Newbury was formed on 1 April 1974, as a merger of the borough of Newbury, Bradfield Rural Dist ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

Geography

The village has outlying farmhouses, surrounded by farmland and hedgerows, and is otherwise clustered around the old A34 Oxford Road, now unclassified, which runs through the village, parallel to the modern A34, with the latter acting as a bypass. The other village street, Stanmore Road, heads north west from Oxford Road, and has the parish church and village school.

History

Beedon is listed in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...

of 1086 as a property of

Abingdon Abbey Abingdon Abbey ( '' " St Mary's Abbey " '' ) was a Benedictine monastery located in the centre of Abingdon-on-Thames beside the River Thames. The abbey was founded c.675 AD in honour of The Virgin Mary. The Domesday Book of 1086 informs ...

, with Walter de Rivers as the tenant. It passed by inheritance to the de Lisle and later the Roos family. After the manor reverted to the Crown, it was awarded to the Reade family in 1615. In 1857 Sir John Chandos Reade sold the manor to Lewis Loyd, whose son Samuel became Baron Overstone. The manor was then inherited by Overstone's daughter, Harriet Loyd-Lindsay, Baroness Wantage. There was a RAF decoy airfield opened to the west of the town during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

and its role was to deflect the bombing of real airfields. It was parented by nearby

RAF Harwell Royal Air Force Harwell or more simply RAF Harwell is a former Royal Air Force station, near the village of Harwell, located south east of Wantage, Oxfordshire and north west of Reading, Berkshire, England. The site is now the Harwell Sc ...

, in Oxfordshire.

Natural conservation areas

Beedon has a site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) just to the north-east of the village, called

Ashridge Wood Ashridge Wood is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest south-west of Compton in Berkshire. It is in the North Wessex Downs, which is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The wood is a surviving section of a once larger ancient c ...

Demography

Amenities

Transport

Beedon is served by Newbury and District bus services 6 and 6A from Newbury.

Notable buildings

Manor house

Beedon

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 ...

was built in 1553 but mostly dates from the early in the 18th century.

Parish church

The Church of England parish church of Saint Nicholas is a Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

built in about 1220.

References

External links

Villages in Berkshire West Berkshire District Civil parishes in Berkshire {{Berkshire-geo-stub