Wickham is a village about north-west of Newbury, Berkshire, England. The M4 motorway passes just north of it. It is in the

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 authorit ...

of Welford.

History

Wickham is on the course of a Roman road that linked Calleva Atrebatum ( Silchester) with

Corinium Dobunnorum Corinium Dobunnorum was the Romano-British settlement at Cirencester in the present-day English county of Gloucestershire. Its 2nd-century walls enclosed the second-largest area of a city in Roman Britain. It was the tribal capital of the Dobun ...

(

Cirencester Cirencester (, ; see below for more variations) is a market town in Gloucestershire, England, west of London. Cirencester lies on the River Churn, a tributary of the River Thames, and is the largest town in the Cotswolds. It is the home of ...

). Many traces have been found in the parish of Welford of habitation in

Roman Britain Roman Britain was the period in classical antiquity when large parts of the island of Great Britain were under occupation by the Roman Empire. The occupation lasted from AD 43 to AD 410. During that time, the territory conquered wa ...

.Page & Ditchfield, 1924, pages 116–125 The

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...

recorded five

watermills A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in the production of ...

in the manor of Welford, but it is not clear if any of these were at Wickham. No later record is known of any mill in the parish. By 1275–76 an annual royal fair was held at Wickham. In 1924 there was still an annual Wickham Feast on St Swithin's patronal festival, 15 July. An

open field system The open-field system was the prevalent agricultural system in much of Europe during the Middle Ages and lasted into the 20th century in Russia, Iran, and Turkey. Each manor or village had two or three large fields, usually several hundred acr ...

of farming prevailed until 1820, when the

common land Common land is land owned by a person or collectively by a number of persons, over which other persons have certain common rights, such as to allow their livestock to graze upon it, to collect wood, or to cut turf for fuel. A person who has a ...

s of Wickham and most of the rest of Welford parish were inclosed. By 1924 Welford parish had an elementary school at Wickham.

Parish church

The Church of England parish church of St Swithin has an Anglo-Saxon tower,Pevsner, 1966, page 266 built probably in the 11th century. It seems to have been built originally as a free-standing defensive tower. Later a

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 ...

and small

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ov ...

were added to form a chapel of ease for Wickham, which in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

was a

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

of Welford. By the time of the

in 1086 the

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

Abingdon Abbey Abingdon Abbey ( '' " St Mary's Abbey " '' ) was a Benedictine monastery located in the centre of Abingdon-on-Thames beside the River Thames. The abbey was founded c.675 AD in honour of The Virgin Mary. The Domesday Book of 1086 informs ...

seems to have held the parish church at Welford and its chapel at Wickham. During the reign of

Henry I Henry I may refer to: 876–1366 * Henry I the Fowler, King of Germany (876–936) * Henry I, Duke of Bavaria (died 955) * Henry I of Austria, Margrave of Austria (died 1018) * Henry I of France (1008–1060) * Henry I the Long, Margrave of the ...

, between 1100 and 1135, St. Swithin's had to provide of candle-wax per year for the altar at Abingdon Abbey. In 1396 St. Swithin's paid 50

shillings The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 12 pence or ...

per year to the

Abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns. The con ...

in lieu of of candle-wax. A Jacobean pulpit was installed in Saint Swithin's in 1629 and a north aisle was added in 1827. The church tower has only one bell. It was cast in 1617 and bears the initials "R P". In 1845 the nave, chancel and north aisle were all demolished. Between 1845 and 1849 a new church was built with a nave, chancel and both north and south aisles in a

Decorated Gothic English Gothic is an architectural style that flourished from the late 12th until the mid-17th century. The style was most prominently used in the construction of cathedrals and churches. Gothic architecture's defining features are pointed ar ...

style, and a Norman Revival style bell-chamber was added to the top of the tower. All were designed by the Gothic Revival architect Benjamin Ferrey, who included carved "Norfolk angels" supporting the nave roof and eight ''

papier maché Papier may refer to : *paper in French, Dutch, Afrikaans, Polish or German, word that can be found in the following expressions: **Papier-mâché, a construction material made of pieces of paper stuck together using a wet paste **Papier collé, a p ...

'' elephants' heads appearing to support the aisle roof. The pipe organ built in 1851 was by

Henry Bevington Henry Bevington (26 July 1777''England & Wales, Quaker Birth, Marriage, and Death Registers, 1578-1837'' – 8 November 1850)''London, England, Church of England Deaths and Burials, 1813-2003'' was a prolific English organ builder, active in Lon ...

. 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 ...

Wickham House

A rectory at Wickham seems to have been built during the reign of Henry II, between 1154 and 1189. However, the present building dates from the 18th century. Benjamin Ferrey greatly enlarged and altered it, adding a tower, spire and remarkable Gothic Revival bay windows. The Jacobean pulpit from St Swithin's was dismantled and its panels used to make a cupboard in the servants' hall of the house. In 1852 St. Gregory's parish church at Welford was also demolished and a new Gothic Revival church built in its place. Extensive carved stonework was salvaged from St. Gregory's and re-used to decorate the rectory garden at Wickham. A vinery was built using six Perpendicular Gothic windows, five being 15th-century originals and the sixth a modern copy. A 15th-century doorway and some 13th-century windows were also included in the vinery. Elsewhere in the garden, two 15th-century piers from the south aisle and many other fragments from St. Gregory's were set up. The remains of St. Gregory's were still in the rectory garden in 1924 but all had been demolished before 1966, along with the tall spire on the house. The building is no longer a rectory and is now called Wickham House and is a Grade II listed building.

History

Parish church

Wickham House

References

Sources

External links