Sulham is a village 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. The larger village of Tidmarsh is adjacent to Sulham on the west side, with

Tilehurst Tilehurst is a suburb of the town of Reading in the English county of Berkshire. It lies to the west of the centre of Reading, and extends from the River Thames in the north to the A4 road in the south. The suburb is partly within the boundarie ...

on the east side.

Governance

The two villages of Sulham and Tidmarsh share the combined civil parish council of

Tidmarsh with Sulham Tidmarsh with Sulham is a combined parish council area in the English county of Berkshire. It covers the civil parishes of Tidmarsh and Sulham, including the hamlets of Maidenhatch and Nunhide. The parish council's area shares boundaries with t ...

with most

local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loc ...

functions carried out by the West Berkshire council.

Geography

From the west, Sulham is surrounded by the

civil parishes 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. ...

of Tidmarsh,

Pangbourne Pangbourne is a large village and civil parishes in England, civil parish on the River Thames in Berkshire, England. Pangbourne has its own shops, schools, Pangbourne railway station, a railway station on the Great Western main line and a vill ...

, Purley-on-Thames and Tilehurst to the east. To the south is

Theale Theale () is a large village and civil parish in West Berkshire, England, southwest of Reading and 10 miles (16 km) east of Thatcham. The compact parish is bounded to the south and south-east by the Kennet & Avon Canal (which here incorp ...

which has the local roads' junction with 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 ...

. Sulham Woods and a lengthwise

escarpment An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that forms as a result of faulting or erosion and separates two relatively level areas having different elevations. The terms ''scarp'' and ''scarp face'' are often used interchangeably with ''esca ...

rises in this area from to . Sulham Woods 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 ...

and forms one side of the village. Features include many chalk pits and open rolling fields. The village is dominated by the Sulham Hall estate in the north and is spread out along Sulham Lane which stretches between Pangbourne and Theale, parallel to the

River Pang The River Pang is a small chalk stream river in the west of the English county of Berkshire, and a tributary of the River Thames. It runs for approximately from its source near the village of Compton to its confluence with the Thames in th ...

Landmarks

Sulham House is a Grade II

listed Listed may refer to: * Listed, Bornholm, a fishing village on the Danish island of Bornholm * Listed (MMM program), a television show on MuchMoreMusic * Endangered species in biology * Listed building, in architecture, designation of a historicall ...

country house An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peop ...

and was built about 1710. This has been the home of the Wilder family and their descendants since 1712. They have owned or rented estates in the parish since 1497. A feature of the parish and estate is the elevated Wilder's Folly, a tower built in 1768 by Reverend Henry Wilder of Sulham House and later used as a

dovecote A dovecote or dovecot , doocot ( Scots) or columbarium is a structure intended to house pigeons or doves. Dovecotes may be free-standing structures in a variety of shapes, or built into the end of a house or barn. They generally contain pige ...

. The ecclesiastical parish church of St Nicholas, built in 1836, stands next to the house and is Grade II listed. This is the main settled area of the village. Sulham Farmhouse is a Grade II* listed building.

References

External links

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