Tidmarsh is a village in West Berkshire, England. Its development is mainly residential and agricultural, and is centred on the A340 road between Pangbourne and Theale. The rural area is bounded by the

M4 motorway The M4, originally the London-South Wales Motorway, is a motorway in the United Kingdom running from west London to southwest Wales. The English section to the Severn Bridge was constructed between 1961 and 1971; the Welsh element was largely ...

to the south. It is centred south of Pangbourne, west of Reading and west of London.

Geography

Its civil parish council is, unusually in this district, shared with another village and is called Tidmarsh with Sulham. Further east, Sulham Woods separate the villages from Tilehurst, a western suburb of Reading. Its elevation ranges between in the north-east, and AOD in the western projection. The vast majority of the parish (more than 90%) is at more than above the River Pang. Much of the main street is between above the river level. Woodland covers less than a tenth of its total area but about a quarter of the western or south-western higher ground. The Pang flows north through the village and then through the Moor Copse Nature Reserve on its way to join the River Thames at Pangbourne. In December 2006 the reserve was doubled in size, to about . The Tidmarsh and Sulham circular walk, about long, passes through the reserve and both villages.

History

The Tidmarsh section of the A340 is thought to follow the

Roman road Roman roads ( la, viae Romanae ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, and were built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Re ...

from the Roman town of

Calleva Atrebatum Calleva Atrebatum ("Calleva of the Atrebates") was an Iron Age oppidum, the capital of the Atrebates tribe. It then became a walled town in the Roman province of Britannia, at a major crossroads of the roads of southern Britain. The modern villa ...

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. Silchester is most notable for the archaeological site and Roman town of ...

(about south), either to Dorchester-on-Thames (about north) or a river-crossing at Pangbourne. If so, however, the southern portion has been straightened in later years. The earliest mention of Tidmarsh was in 1196. In 1239 there was a land-ownership dispute concerning the manor. There are records of a water corn-mill and a fishery in Tidmarsh in 1305. The 18th century successor to the mill is now Grade II listed and converted to domestic accommodation. There are multiple World War II pillboxes surrounding Tidmarsh, which made up part of the GHQ Line.

Notable buildings

The most conspicuous listed building in Tidmarsh is the 13th century half-timbered Greyhound Pub, which suffered a serious fire in 2005. Another historic building is the Grade I listed, 12th century church, which is dedicated to St Laurence. The church is particularly notable for its Norman south doorway, "very rare 13th century polygonal apse" and 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. The church was restored and modified in the 19th century. The old

rectory 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 ...

dates from 1856. Another notable building is the Grade II listed Round House.

Notable residents

These include author Lytton Strachey (1880-1932) and the painter Dora Carrington (1893-1932). Carrington painted the Greyhound Pub sign in the village. Rex Partridge, renamed Ralph by the Bloomsbury set, also settled at Tidmarsh and formed a very 'Bloomsbury' trio with Lytton and Dora. 21st century development in Tidmarsh has included housing at the north end of the village, Strachey Close.

Demography

References

External links

Tidmarsh-with-Sulham Website

Moor Copse Website

The Greyhound, Tidmarsh

{{authority control Villages in Berkshire Civil parishes in Berkshire West Berkshire District Former civil parishes in Berkshire