Yattendon is a small village and civil parish northeast of Newbury in the county 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 ...

. 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 ...

passes through the fields of the village which lie south and below the elevations of its

cluster may refer to: Science and technology Astronomy * Cluster (spacecraft), constellation of four European Space Agency spacecraft * Asteroid cluster, a small asteroid family * Cluster II (spacecraft), a European Space Agency mission to study t ...

. The village is privately owned and is "part of the 9,000 acre estate owned by the Iliffes, former press barons", part of the Yattendon Group.

Geography

Yattendon stretches from Everington in the west to the hamlet of Burnt Hill in the east and the woodland just east of Yattendon Court, including Mumgrove Copse, Bushy Copse, Clack's Copse and Gravelpit Copse. The M4 motorway forms most of its southern boundary and some of the houses on the northern edge of Frilsham are actually in Yattendon. The River Pang flows through the west of the parish. It was in the hundred of Faircross, which was of little consequence after the Dissolution of the Monasteries and effectively ceased to function after 1886.

History

The Church of

St. Peter ) (Simeon, Simon) , birth_date = , birth_place = Bethsaida, Gaulanitis, Syria, Roman Empire , death_date = Between AD 64–68 , death_place = probably Vatican Hill, Rome, Italia, Roman Empire , parents = John (or Jonah; Jona) , occupation ...

and St. Paul was built around 1450 and was "restored in 1858, 1881 and a spire was added by

Alfred Waterhouse Alfred Waterhouse (19 July 1830 – 22 August 1905) was an English architect, particularly associated with the Victorian Gothic Revival architecture, although he designed using other architectural styles as well. He is perhaps best known f ...

in 1896". The village has had a shop since the 1600s. According to the Estate, the Iliffe's took over the operation in 2014 and "

Edward Iliffe Edward Mauger Iliffe, 1st Baron Iliffe, (17 May 1877 – 25 July 1960) was a British newspaper magnate, public servant and Conservative Member of Parliament. Biography Iliffe was the son of William Isaac Iliffe (1843–1917), a printer and Ju ...

, son of Lord Iliffe, was appointed Postmaster". William Burham, a saddle and

harness A harness is a looped restraint or support. Specifically, it may refer to one of the following harness types: * Bondage harness * Child harness * Climbing harness * Dog harness * Pet harness * Five-point harness * Horse harness * Parrot harness * ...

maker had a shop in the village from 1901 until his death in the early 1960s. A collection of his leather working tools is in the Museum of English Rural Life.

Amenities

Yattendon has a shop, post office, garage, pub/hotel, hairdressers, blacksmith, primary school, Montessori school, tennis courts and brewery as well as houses and cottages rented to tenants. Yattendon has 31 Grade II Listed buildings, as well as the Church of

and St. Paul which is Grade I.

Notable people

Notable residents of Yattendon include: * Robert Bridges, who later became Poet Laureate, lived at Yattendon until 1882, where he compiled the

Yattendon Hymnal The ''Yattendon Hymnal'' was a small but influential hymnal compiled by Robert Bridges and H. Ellis Wooldridge for the local Church of England parish church at Yattendon, Berkshire, England. Totalling 100 items, it first appeared in four separat ...

. * Thomas Carte, noted English historian, once held the

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 ...

and was buried in the church. * General

Sir Miles Dempsey General Sir Miles Christopher Dempsey, (15 December 1896 – 5 June 1969) was a senior British Army officer who served in both world wars. During the Second World War he commanded the Second Army in north west Europe. A highly professiona ...

, British Army officer who fought in World War I and World War II. *

Edward Iliffe, 1st Baron Iliffe Edward Mauger Iliffe, 1st Baron Iliffe, (17 May 1877 – 25 July 1960) was a British newspaper magnate, public servant and Conservative Member of Parliament. Biography Iliffe was the son of William Isaac Iliffe (1843–1917), a printer and Ju ...

, the newspaper magnate who lived at Yattendon Court. From 1925 to 1940, he amalgamated several small farming estates and formed the Yattendon Estate in 1955. It covers nearly of farmland, woodland, grazing and Christmas tree plantations. *

Ruth Mott Ruth Mott (5 February 1917 – 28 July 2012) was an English domestic servant who became a television cook and personality. Mott spent most of her life working in country houses with her television work not beginning until the age of 70, when her kn ...

, cook and TV presenter, was born in the village. Technical advisor on the 2001

Robert Altman Robert Bernard Altman ( ; February 20, 1925 – November 20, 2006) was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He was a five-time nominee of the Academy Award for Best Director and is considered an enduring figure from the New H ...

film '' Gosford Park''. *

Egon Ronay Egon Miklos Ronay (24 July 1915 – 12 June 2010) was a Hungarian-born food critic who wrote and published a famous series of guides to British and Irish restaurants and hotels in the 1950s and 1960s. These guidebooks are credited with raisin ...

the restaurant critic, lived in Yattendon until his death in 2010. *

, the architect of the Natural History Museum who built himself a home at Yattendon Court (not the present building). The fortified manor house, Yattendon Castle was home of: * Sir Henry Norreys, a Tudor courtier accused of adultery with Queen Anne Boleyn and the father of *

Henry Norris, 1st Baron Norreys {{Infobox noble, Baron , name = Henry Norris , title = Baron Norreys , image = Henry Norris 1st Baron Norris of Rycote.jpg , image_size = 240px , caption = Henry Norris, aged 60, 1585 , a ...

, Ambassador to France and father of *Sir

John Norreys John Norreys may refer to: *Sir John Norris (soldier) or Norreys (c. 1547–1597), the son of Henry Norris, 1st Baron Norreys, a lifelong friend of Queen Elizabeth *Sir John Norreys (Keeper of the Wardrobe) for Henry VI of England (c. 1400–1466) ...

, the greatest soldier of Elizabethan England whose

memorial A memorial is an object or place which serves as a focus for the memory or the commemoration of something, usually an influential, deceased person or a historical, tragic event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects or works of a ...

is in the parish church

References

External links

Royal Berkshire History: YattendonYattendon Estate
{{authority control Villages in Berkshire Civil parishes in Berkshire West Berkshire District