Aldworth

Aldworth
Aldworth parish church
Rolling fields of barley and other crops in Aldworth with patched woodland.
Aldworth Location within Berkshire
Area	9.06 km2 (3.50 sq mi)
Population	296 (2011 census)[1]
• Density	33/km2 (85/sq mi)
OS grid reference	SU5579
Civil parish	Aldworth
Unitary authority	West Berkshire
Ceremonial county	Berkshire
Region	South East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Reading
Postcode district	RG8
Dialling code	01635
Police	Thames Valley
Fire	Royal Berkshire
Ambulance	South Central
UK Parliament	Newbury
Website	Aldworth Village Community Website
List of places UK England Berkshire 51°30′32″N 1°12′04″W / 51.509°N 1.201°W / 51.509; -1.201Coordinates: 51°30′32″N 1°12′04″W / 51.509°N 1.201°W / 51.509; -1.201

Aldworth is a mainly farmland village and civil parish in the English county of Berkshire, near the boundary with Oxfordshire, in a rural area between Reading, Newbury and Streatley. It includes the hamlet of Westridge Green.^{[n 1]} It lies on the high ground of the Berkshire Downs, just off the B4009 road between Newbury and Streatley. The north of it is crossed by The Ridgeway, an 87-mile (140 km) pre-Roman footpath. The parish church has large medieval figures in white stone, seemingly life-size, though some knights have an unlikely height of over seven feet. The Battle of Ashdown, where King Alfred defeated the Danes in January 871 CE, is said by some to have been fought near The Ridgeway and Lowbury Hill.

Amenities[]

Long Copse in the south of the parish.

A small area in the south of the village bears woodland centuries old that is still coppiced and carpeted with bluebells. It is open to the public subject to informal permission. The north of Aldworth is traversed by one of the National Trails, The Ridgeway, a pre-Roman Britain footpath 87 miles (140 km) long.

The Bell Inn, Aldworth, is a 15th-century inn that has twice won a National Pub of the Year award. Another pub, The Four Points, stands at a crossroads south of the village centre.^[2]

Local government[]

Aldworth is a civil parish with an elected parish council. It belongs to the West Berkshire unitary authority and the parliamentary constituency of Newbury.

Orthography and slight changing of name[]

Aldworth was recorded in the Domesday Book by scribes whose orthography was heavily geared towards French, lacking k and w, regulated forms for sounds ð and θ and ending many hard consonant words with e, as Elleorde, hinting at El(d)ward, the Old English for Old Ward i.e. Old farmed out (let) land.^[3] Scribes in the 12th century rendered it at least once Aldewurda.

Manor[]

In medieval times there was a fortified manor or castle;^[3] La Beche Castle once stood on the site of what is now Beche Farm in the parish.^[4] This was the main residence of the De La Beche family, after whom it was named.^[4] This well-known family of medieval knights had held high positions at court since at least 1260.^[3]

The De La Beche family remained powerful landowners and knights in the 14th century.^[3] Many were retainers to the king, warders to the Tower of London, and sheriffs of Oxfordshire and Berkshire. The family was influential in the reigns of Edward II and Edward III, and embroiled in the royal intrigue of the time.^[3] Sir Phillip was imprisoned in Scarborough Castle from 1322 to 1327, but later pardoned by Edward III. His father, also Sir Phillip, had been imprisoned and later pardoned under Edward II.

Parish church[]

The aldworth giants, pictured, are on all sides of pews in Aldworth's church and are up to seven-foot tall, laid flat stone effigies to members of a family.

The Church of England parish church of Saint Mary the Virgin contains numerous effigial monuments to the De La Beche family.^[5] The collection holds the largest number of medieval memorials to a single family in any parish church.^[3] The figures are supposed to be life-size representations, but they recreate some of the knights as over seven feet tall, which has led to them being known as the "Aldworth Giants". They were long thought to have been erected in the 1340s by the most influential member of the family, Sir Nicholas De La Beche (sometimes erroneously called Lord De La Beche),^[6] but historians now prefer to date them to various times in the Middle Ages.^[5]

A large number of the effigies were damaged by Parliamentarian iconoclasts during the English Civil War of the 17th century. Many of the knights are missing the lower part of their legs, noses and arms, presumably because these were easy parts to break off. Parliamentarians may have seen the giants as a symbol of royalty, although many churches were ransacked in the same period.

The poet Laurence Binyon moved to Westridge Green on his retirement in 1933.^[7] After his death in 1943, his ashes were scattered in the churchyard,^[3] where there is a slate memorial plaque to him. The parents of Emily Tennyson, Lady Tennyson née Sellwood, the wife of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, are also buried there.^[3]

Demography[]

Notes and references[]

Notes

References

Further reading[]

• Page, William; Ditchfield, P.H., eds. (1924). A History of the County of Berkshire, Volume 4. Victoria County History. pp. 3–8.
• Pevsner, Nikolaus (1966). Berkshire. The Buildings of England. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. pp. 63–65.

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Aldworth.

• Royal Berkshire History: Aldworth Parish Church
• Aldworth in the Domesday Book