Tidmarsh is a village in

West Berkshire West Berkshire is a unitary authority in the ceremonial county of Berkshire, England. It is 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 Newbur ...

, England. Its development is mainly residential and agricultural, and is centred on the A340 road between

Pangbourne Pangbourne is a village and civil parish on the River Thames in the West Berkshire unitary area of the county of Berkshire, England. Pangbourne has shops, churches, schools and a village hall. Outside its nucleated village, grouped developed are ...

and

Theale Theale () is a village and civil parish in West Berkshire, England. It is 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 incorpo ...

. The rural area is bounded by the

M4 motorway The M4, originally the London-South Wales Motorway, is the third longest 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 ele ...

to the south. It is centred south of Pangbourne, west of

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of symbols, often specifically those of a written language, by means of Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifacete ...

and west of

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

Geography

Its

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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

council is shared with another village and is called Tidmarsh with Sulham. Further east, Sulham Woods separate the villages from

Tilehurst Tilehurst is a village on the western outskirts of the town of Reading, Berkshire, Reading in the county of Berkshire, England. It extends from the River Thames in the north to the A4 road (England), A4 road in the south. The village is partl ...

, 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, Berkshire, Compton to its confluence wi ...

. 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, s ...

. 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 ( ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Republic and the Roman Em ...

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 vi ...

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 is a historic village and civil parish in South Oxfordshire, Oxfordshire, England, located about 9 miles (14 km) southeast of Oxford at the confluence of the River Thames and River Thame. The village has evidence of prehi ...

(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 (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

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 is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

in Tidmarsh is the 13th century half-timbered Greyhound

Pub A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the late 17th century, to differentiate private ho ...

, 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 9th and 10th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norma ...

south doorway, "very rare 13th century polygonal apse" and 13th century

lancet window A lancet window is a tall, narrow window with a sharp pointed arch at its top. This arch may or may not be a steep lancet arch (in which the compass centres for drawing the arch fall outside the opening). It acquired the "lancet" name from its rese ...

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 a given religion, serving as both a home and a base for the occupant's ministry. Residences of this type can have a variety of names, such as manse, p ...

dates from 1856. Other notable buildings include the Grade II listed Round House and Mill House.

Notable people

Notable residents 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 psychology, psychologic ...

(1880–1932) and 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 Lytt ...

(1893–1932), who lived in the Mill House between 1917 and 1924, and mathematician John Pollard (born 1941). Carrington painted the Greyhound Pub sign in the village. Rex Partridge, renamed Ralph by the

Bloomsbury set The Bloomsbury Group was a group of associated British writers, intellectuals, philosophers and artists in the early 20th century. Among the people involved in the group were Virginia Woolf, John Maynard Keynes, E. M. Forster, Vanessa Bell, ...

, also settled at Tidmarsh and formed a very 'Bloomsbury' trio with Lytton and Dora.

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