Burghfield
Burghfield is a village and large civil parish in West Berkshire, England, with a boundary with Reading. Burghfield can trace its history back to before the Domesday Book, and was once home to three manors: Burghfield Regis, Burghfield Abbas, and Sheffield. Since the 1980s the population of Burghfield has nearly doubled with the construction of housing estates, making it a dormitory for Reading, Newbury, Basingstoke and the M4 corridor.
Most of the former sparsely inhabited fields of the hamlet of Pingewood, in the north of the parish, are divided by the M4 motorway and have been converted, after gravel extraction in the mid to late 20th century, into lakes that are used for watersports, fishing, and other leisure activities. They are also a habitat for migrating geese, water fowl and other wildlife. A few higher gravel pits in this area have been drained, clay-lined and used as landfill sites.
Besides Burghfield and Pingewood, settlements in the parish include Burghfield Common, Burghfield Hill, Burghfield Bridge, Trash Green, Whitehouse Green and Sheffield Bottom.
Etymology
A Burh is an Old English name for a fortified town or other defended site,, sometimes centred upon a hill fort though always intended as a place of permanent settlement. Its origin was in military defence; "it represented only a stage, though a vitally important one, in the evolution of the medieval English Borough and of the medieval town", H. R. Loyn asserted. The boundaries of ancient burhs can often still be traced to modern urban borough limits. Most of these were founded by Alfred the Great in a consciously planned policy that was continued under his son Edward the Elder and his daughter, Æthelflaed, "Lady of the Mercians" and her husband Æthelred, Ealdorman of Mercia. A place, probably in Berkshire, appearing as Yerburghfeld, is seen in 1381. It may refer to Burghfield, or perhaps, Arborfield Other references trace the changing name of the village as follows: Borgefelle ; Burgefeld, Berfeld ; Burefeld ; Burfield.History
Prehistory
There are a number of Bronze Age sites within the parish - though many were destroyed by gravel pit workings in Pingewood, for example possible Bronze Age barrows and ditches once existed where the Burghfield sailing club is now, or under the M4 motorway. There was also a barrow cemetery at Field Farm in Pingewood, comprising ten round barrows which were visible on aerial photographs along with the cropmarks of a partially visible rectangular enclosure, and parallel ditched boundaries. Four of the barrows were excavated between 1985 and 1988 in advance of gravel extraction and were found to contain primary cremation burials, some of which were urned. Excavations have shown that this site was later used for burials when the Anglo-Saxons moved into the area. There have also been numerous finds of Bronze Age spearheads, and an axe head and a sword in the Pingewood and River Kennet area. Of Iron Age history there is only a ditch and some pits in Burghfield near Amners Farm.Roman
There are many indications of Roman settlement in the parish. The first is a possible prehistoric or Roman settlement and field system near the River Kennet, to the west of Burghfield Mill, but now lost to gravel pits. The earthworks were visible from aerial photographs, and formed a system of fragmented conjoined rectilinear enclosures. An incomplete rectangular enclosure, measuring 12m across, could be the remains of a building. The cropmarks extend over an area measuring approximately 700m by 450m. It is possible that some of the cropmarks may relate to much later features, possibly medieval or post medieval field boundaries. Other possible Roman settlements are indicated by cropmarks in the Pingewood area slightly further to the east and to the south west. Again, some features have been lost to gravel pits.Again in Pingewood, at Berrys Lane and Searle's Farm Lane, there are signs of a possible Roman road flanked by possible field systems and settlements, which are visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs. The side ditches of the road are visible extended in a north easterly direction for. It may be part of the Roman road from Silchester to Verulamium. The settlements or field systems are defined by a series of ditches, sometimes double ditches, which are parallel and perpendicular to the road. There are three concentrations of ditch systems which appear to form fragments of a larger system of conjoined enclosures. These features have been destroyed by gravel extraction. There have been finds of Roman coins, pottery, and other artefacts in the region.
Anglo-Saxon period
The Anglo-Saxons moved into the area in the 5th century, Burghfield appears to have been divided from very early times into two equal portions, each containing hides of land, and this division is probably the origin of the two manors of Burghfield that existed later.Norman era
Burghfield, with its two manors, is referenced twice in the Domesday Book:These manors formerly belonged to Queen Emma of Normandy, until her death in 1052. One half of the lands appear to have been transferred to Ralph de Mortemar around 1070, and they remained in that family until the death of Edmund, the last Earl of March in 1425. The heir to the lands was his nephew, a minor, Richard Duke of York, but on his attainder in 1459 the land passed to the Crown. The other half of Burghfield was awarded to Henry de Ferrers, a Norman soldier from a noble family who took part in the Norman conquest of England. Additionally Sir Nicholas De La Beche is known to have owned Burghfield at some time. The De La Beche family were powerful landowners and knights in the 14th century. Many of them were retainers to the king, warders to the Tower of London, and Sheriffs of Oxfordshire and Berkshire. The family were influential during the reign of Edward II and Edward III, and were embroiled in the royal intrigue of the time.
File:Medieval coin, Groat of Edward III.jpg|thumb|right|A silver groat from the reign of Edward III, found in Burghfield and dated to
The two manors in Burghfield were Burghfield Regis and Burghfield Abbas, although the current Parish of Burghfield also includes for the former manor of Sheffield. King Edward IV, gave Burghfield Regis its Royal title. Its manor house, known as Nether Court, stood on the site now occupied by the rectory in Burghfield village. This manner was sub-tenanted to the family of Thomas de Burghfield, who took his name from the village, sometime before 1175. The de Burghfields were also sub-tenants of Burghfield Abbas, which had been owned by Reading Abbey from about the same time. The original Burghfield Bridge was commissioned by Matthew de Burghfield, being the lord of the latter manor in the early 13th century, but later on the family had arguments with King Edward I over who should repair it.
Sheffield Manor was located in what is now Sheffield Bottom, at the junction of Jaques's Lane and Station Road. The manor of Sheffield was granted by the Count of Évreux to St Martin-de-Noyon, Charleval, in, as an alien Benedictine cell, and was leased privately after 1166–67. Reading Abbey gained possession in 1270. Although known locally as the Priory, it was only a manor and later a grange with a chapel and mill.
Tudor and Stuart eras
The Williams family bought all three manors after the Dissolution of the Monasteries and the village was the childhood home of John Williams, 1st Baron Williams of Thame, an important servant of several Tudor monarchs. Upon his death, having no male heirs, the manors of Burghfield were left to his daughter Margery and her husband, Sir Henry Norreys. In 1560 Henry and Margery bestowed Burghfield Regis, now Burghfield Manor, and Burghfield Abbas, now Amners Court to her cousin, Nicholas Williams. Sheffield Manor was retained in the Norreys family. Moatlands Farm was apparently a moated house. It stood just south of Burghfield Mill, where the gravel pits are. In the 18th century, it was the home of the May family.Searle's Farm is an ancient Tudor building now marooned in the middle of the gravel pits in northern Burghfield. One particular room in the house is said to be haunted. Apparently an unmarried serving girl, having discovered she was pregnant, committed suicide by throwing herself from the window during the 19th century. The Old Manor at Whitehouse Green is a small manor house built in 1685 and updated in the 20th Century. It is built of brick with vitreous headers and with an old tile gabled roof and is a Grade II listed building. Burghfield Bridge is also Grade II listed.