Tidmarsh 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 Distric ...

, England. Its development is mainly residential and agricultural, and is centred on the

A340 road The A340 is a major road in the south of England, portions of which are known as the Aldermaston Road, Tadley Hill, Basingstoke Road and Tidmarsh Road. Route Starting in the south of Basingstoke, Hampshire, it runs west, forming the western s ...

between

Pangbourne Pangbourne is a large village and civil parish on the River Thames in Berkshire, England. Pangbourne has its own shops, schools, a railway station on the Great Western main line and a village hall. Outside its grouped developed area is an in ...

and

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 incorpor ...

. 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 Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of Letter (alphabet), letters, symbols, etc., especially by Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process invo ...

and west of

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Geography

Its civil parish council is, unusually in this district, shared with another village and is called

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 the ...

. Further east,

Sulham Woods Sulham and Tidmarsh Woods and Meadows is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest west of Reading in Berkshire. Previously known as Pang Valley SSSI, the site is mostly sandwiched between the River Pang and the Sulham Road and includes B ...

separate the villages from

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 boundaries ...

, 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 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 the ...

. 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 Moor Copse is a nature reserve west of Reading in Berkshire. It is managed by the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust. Parts of it are in Sulham and Tidmarsh Woods and Meadows, which is a Site of Special Scientific Intere ...

on its way to join the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...

. 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 Dorchester on Thames (or Dorchester-on-Thames) is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire, about northwest of Wallingford and southeast of Oxford. The town is a few hundred yards from the confluence of the River Thames and River Thame. A c ...

(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 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 opposin ...

pillboxes surrounding Tidmarsh, which made up part of the

GHQ Line The GHQ Line (General Headquarters Line) was a defence line built in the United Kingdom during World War II to contain an expected German invasion. The British Army had abandoned most of its equipment in France after the Dunkirk evacuation. It ...

Notable buildings

The most conspicuous

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 ...

in Tidmarsh is the 13th century half-timbered Greyhound

Pub A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

, 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 Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

south doorway, "very rare 13th century polygonal

apse In architecture, an apse (plural apses; from Latin 'arch, vault' from Ancient Greek 'arch'; sometimes written apsis, plural apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an ''exedra''. In ...

" 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 Giles Lytton Strachey (; 1 March 1880 – 21 January 1932) was an English writer and critic. A founding member of the Bloomsbury Group and author of ''Eminent Victorians'', he established a new form of biography in which psychological insight ...

(1880-1932) and the painter

Dora Carrington Dora de Houghton Carrington (29 March 1893 – 11 March 1932), known generally as Carrington, was an English painter and decorative artist, remembered in part for her association with members of the Bloomsbury Group, especially the writer Lytton ...

(1893-1932). Carrington painted the Greyhound

Bloomsbury set The Bloomsbury Group—or Bloomsbury Set—was a group of associated English writers, intellectuals, philosophers and artists in the first half of the 20th century, including Virginia Woolf, John Maynard Keynes, E. M. Forster and Lytton Strac ...

, 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