Stratfield Mortimer

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see Mortimer (disambiguation).

Stratfield Mortimer
St Mary's Mortimer.jpg
St. Mary's Church
Stratfield Mortimer is located in Berkshire
Stratfield Mortimer
Stratfield Mortimer
Location within Berkshire
Area9.67 km2 (3.73 sq mi)
Population3,807 (2011 census including Mortimer Common)[1]
• Density394/km2 (1,020/sq mi)
OS grid referenceSU6664
Civil parish
  • Stratfield Mortimer
Unitary authority
Ceremonial county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townREADING
Postcode districtRG7
Dialling code0118
PoliceThames Valley
FireRoyal Berkshire
AmbulanceSouth Central
UK Parliament
List of places
UK
England
Berkshire
51°22′23″N 1°02′13″W / 51.373°N 1.037°W / 51.373; -1.037Coordinates: 51°22′23″N 1°02′13″W / 51.373°N 1.037°W / 51.373; -1.037

Stratfield Mortimer is a village and civil parish, just south of Reading, in the English ceremonial county of Berkshire and district (unitary authority area) of West Berkshire.

Parish geography[]

The south and south-east half of the parish consists of farms with a small percentage of woodland and is bisected towards the middle of the whole area by the Foudry Brook and adjacent Reading to Basingstoke Line (two tracks) which is more than 40% on raised embankments but in the far south is in a cutting. The linear village of Stratfield Mortimer climbs Mortimer Hill which rises westward from the Foudry Brook. It has no fixed formal or historic boundaries with Mortimer Common (often colloquially referred to simply as Mortimer), the more populated part of the parish located at the top of the hill. There are more outlets and amenities there and this area is not so semi-rural or rural in density.

The north-western 5% of the land is Mortimer Woods or common land which blends into Wokefield Common - Mortimer Woods has a set of Scheduled Ancient Monuments – one large, steep Bronze Age round barrow and three further smaller bowl barrows.[2] The Foudry Brook is crossed by a scenic Victorian bridge with footways known as Tun Bridge. The Lockram Brook flows through the middle of the parish and there is more than 10% woodland making up the parish open to the public under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 including Starvale Woods, Wokefield Common and Holden Firs.

The south boundary (all but south-west, see the county boundary on the map shown above) is a straight footpath called the Devil's Highway because it sits on the line of the western stretch of the Roman road from Londinium (London) to Calleva Atrebatum (Silchester).[3]

Other villages in the parish[]

Mortimer Common[]

Main article: Mortimer Common

The main settlement in this civil parish is Mortimer Common which has a surgery, dentist, a bank, pharmacy, a post office, Dads Shop (hardware), Budgens supermarket, McColls convenience store, travel agent, Chinese/fish and chips take away, the Church of England parish church of St John the Evangelist. Next to the church is St John's Infant School.

There are three pubs in Mortimer Common, each on one of the three main roads through the village: The Horse and Groom in The Street opposite Mortimer Fairground, The Victoria Arms in Victoria Road and The Turner's Arms in West End Road.

A new Mortimer Community Hall with a cricket pavilion has been constructed on the common, it is available for hire. There is also the St. John's Hall, that houses the Mortimer Pre-School, holds amateur dramatic shows and is available for hire.

Mortimer West End[]

Main article: Mortimer West End

Before the mid-nineteenth century when parishes were only ecclesiastical, Stratfield Mortimer was a cross-county parish: the Hampshire part was known as Mortimer West End.[4] It became in the Church of England an ecclesiastical parish in 1866[4] and acquired its own civil parish in 1894.[5]

A faint vestige of this is that Stratfield Mortimer ecclesiastical parish today includes Wokefield and a small uninhabited fraction of Mortimer West End.[6]

Demography[]

2011 Published Statistics: Population, home ownership and extracts from Physical Environment, surveyed in 2005[1]
Output area Homes owned outright Owned with a loan Socially rented Privately rented Other km2 roads km2 water km2 domestic gardens Usual residents km2
Civil parish 543 559 246 181 26 0.242 0.028 0.722 3807 9.67

Amenities[]

Stratfield Mortimer School

The village includes the Cinnamon Tree Indian restaurant (formerly the Fox and Horn and prior to that, the Railway Inn public house), St Mary's Church of England parish church, Mortimer St Mary's Junior School and the headquarters of the Berkshire Federation of Women's Institutes.

Transport[]

Stratfield Mortimer is served by Mortimer railway station on the Reading to Basingstoke Line. Reading Buses run the Vitality 2 and 2a routes from Mortimer to Peppard Common via Burghfield, Reading Station & Sonning Common.

Sport[]

Mortimer Tennis club, play from 2 courts on the Fairground.
Mortimer Cricket Club, play out of the Mortimer Community Hall on the Fairground.
Mortimer Football Club, play on the Alfred Palmer Memorial Field to the west of Mortimer, beside The Turners Arms
Local golf club is at Wokefield Park

Nearest places[]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b Key Statistics: Dwellings; Quick Statistics: Population Density; Physical Environment: Land Use Survey 2005
  2. ^ Historic England. "Details from listed building database (1012304)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 10 December 2014., Historic England. "Details from listed building database (1012425)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 10 December 2014.Historic England. "Details from listed building database (1012427)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 10 December 2014.Historic England. "Details from listed building database (1012804)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
  3. ^ Silchester amphitheatre University of Reading. Retrieved 2014-12-10.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b Ford, David Nash (2020). Mid-Berkshire Town and Village Histories. Wokingham: Nash Ford Publishing. pp. 226–231. ISBN 9781905191024.
  5. ^ A History of Hampshire Vol 4 pages 55-56 (1911), Victoria County History, The Institute of Historical Research, London. Retrieved 2014-12-10.
  6. ^ "Parish of Stratfield Mortimer (Churches of St John the Evangelist and St Mary". achurchnearyou.com. Retrieved 10 December 2014.

External links[]

Media related to Stratfield Mortimer at Wikimedia Commons

Retrieved from ""