Beenham 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 authority ...
centred east of
Newbury in the
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 Distric ...
district of
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 ...
,
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
Beenham is north of
Aldermaston
Aldermaston is a village and civil parish in Berkshire, England. In the 2011 Census, the parish had a population of 1015. The village is in the Kennet Valley and bounds Hampshire to the south. It is approximately from Newbury, Basingsto ...
. The
Old Copse is a woodland within the village that is a
Site of Special Scientific Interest
A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of ...
.
History
Church history
The history of the
Church of England parish church of
Saint Mary begins in about the end of the 12th century.
[Page & Ditchfield, 1923, pages 277-279] An old print of the original building shows that it had some 13th century
lancet window
A lancet window is a tall, narrow window with a pointed arch at its top. It acquired the "lancet" name from its resemblance to a lance. Instances of this architectural element are typical of Gothic church edifices of the earliest period. Lancet wi ...
s and a 16th-century window.
[ In 1794 the church was struck by lightning and burnt down][Pevsner, 1966, page 85] and was replaced with a Georgian
Georgian may refer to:
Common meanings
* Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country)
** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group
** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians
**Georgian scripts, three scrip ...
building of brick.[ In 1859 the ]nave
The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...
was demolished and replaced by one in the Gothic Revival style
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 ...
[ designed by the architect ]Henry Woodyer
Henry Woodyer (1816–1896) was an English architect, a pupil of William Butterfield and a disciple of A. W. N. Pugin and the Ecclesiologists.
Life
Woodyer was born in Guildford, Surrey, England, in 1816, the son of a successful, highly resp ...
.[ The 1794 brick bell tower was retained and has a ]peal
In campanology (bell ringing), a peal is the special name given to a specific type of performance of change ringing which meets certain exacting conditions for duration, complexity and quality.
The definition of a peal has changed considerably ...
of six bells.[ The church is a Grade II* ]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 ...
.
19th century summary
The following is an extract from the 1870s gazetteer of the British Isles
The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isles, ...
.
"Beenham, or Beenham-Vallence, a parish...adjacent to the Kennet and Avon canal and to the Berks and Hants Railway
The Berks and Hants Railway comprised two railway lines built simultaneously by the Great Western Railway (GWR) south and west from in an attempt to keep the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) out of the area that it considered to be its ...
, 1 ¼. mile N of station, and 8½ WSW of . It has a post office
A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...
...Acres, 1,890. Real property, £2,548. Pop., 505. Houses, 105. The property is much subdivided. Beenham House and Beenham Lodge are chief residences. The living is a vicarage
A clergy house is the residence, or former residence, of one or more priests or ministers of religion. Residences of this type can have a variety of names, such as manse, parsonage, rectory or vicarage.
Function
A clergy house is typically ow ...
in the diocese of Oxford
The Diocese of Oxford is a Church of England diocese that forms part of the Province of Canterbury. The diocese is led by the Bishop of Oxford (currently Steven Croft), and the bishop's seat is at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford. It contain ...
. Value, £250. Patron, Mrs. Bushnell. The church was chiefly rebuilt in 1860. There are a Primitive Methodist chapel
A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common ty ...
and a National School. Stackhouse, the author of the "History of the Bible," was tsvicar."
However, the suffix, ''Valence'', is erroneous and was mistakenly transferred from the manor surrounding Benham Park
Benham Park is a mansion (on the site of Benham Valence Manor) in the English ceremonial county of Berkshire and district of West Berkshire. It is west of Newbury within 500m of a junction of the A34 trunk road Newbury by-pass outside the to ...
.
1960s murderer
In October 1966 children's nanny Yolande Waddington, age 17, was found dead having been stabbed and strangled in Beenham. Less than six months later, two nine-year-old girls, Jeanette Wigmore and Jacqueline Williams, were found murdered at a local gravel pit
A gravel pit is an open-pit mine for the extraction of gravel. Gravel pits often lie in river valleys where the water table is high, so they may naturally fill with water to form ponds or lakes. Old, abandoned gravel pits are normally used eithe ...
. David Burgess, of Beenham, was jailed for life in 1967 for the murder of the two girls and spent more than 25 years behind bars. Waddington's killer was not identified at the time. Burgess subsequently admitted to the crime but challenged the police to "prove it". Following advances in DNA profiling
DNA profiling (also called DNA fingerprinting) is the process of determining an individual's DNA characteristics. DNA analysis intended to identify a species, rather than an individual, is called DNA barcoding.
DNA profiling is a forensic tec ...
, in November 2011 the 64-year-old Burgess was re-arrested, and subsequently tried and convicted of her murder. He received his third life sentence with a minimum term of 27 years.
Amenities
Beenham has a primary school
A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...
catering for approximately 100 pupils aged 4 to 11. There is one pub in the village, the Six Bells. The UK Wolf Conservation Trust is based at Butlers Farm, Beenham, the wolves can be heard howling within a three-mile radius.
Transport
Bus routes 41 and 44 connect the village with Thatcham
Thatcham is an historic market town and civil parish in the English county of Berkshire, centred 3 miles (5 km) east of Newbury, 14 miles (24 km) west of Reading and 54 miles (87 km) west of London.
Geography
Thatcham straddles t ...
and Calcot.
Demography
See also
* List of civil parishes in Berkshire
A civil parish is a country subdivision, forming the lowest unit of local government in England. There are 104 civil parishes in the ceremonial county of Berkshire, most of the county being parished; Reading is completely unparished; Bracknell For ...
* List of places in Berkshire
This is a list of places in the ceremonial county of Berkshire, England. It does not include places which were formerly in Berkshire. For places which were formerly in Berkshire, see list of places transferred from Berkshire to Oxfordshire in 1 ...
References
Sources
*
*
External links
Beenham Parish web site
Beenham Primary School
{{authority control
Villages in Berkshire
West Berkshire District
Civil parishes in Berkshire