Visit Aldermaston Places

Welcome to Visit Aldermaston Places
The Walkfo guide to things to do & explore in Aldermaston

  

Aldermaston Places Overview: History, Culture & Facts about Aldermaston

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Aldermaston history

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Radiocarbon dating on postholes and pits in the area show activity from 1690 to 1390, 1319 to 1214, and 977 to 899 BCE. Wheat and barley grains have been found in these excavations.

Middle ages

Domesday Book of 1086 identified existence of mill, worth twenty shillings, and two fisheries. Six families have had lordship of the Aldermaston estate since the 11th century. The history of the Lords of the Manor can be traced to Achard, who was born in 1036. The Forsters built a large manor house to the east of the church in 1636.

Victorian era

The Congreve Family owned the estate at the time of the 1830 Swing Riots. In 1843, the manor house was destroyed by fire. The estate passed into the Court of Chancery and was purchased by Daniel Higford Davall Burr. Burr held the estate until his death 50 years later, when was inherited by his son, who sold it in 1893.

Post-World War II

RAF Aldermaston was created on the parkland at the southern end of the parish, with XIX Tactical Air Command stationed at the manor house. AEI built the MERLIN reactor on part of the land, which was opened in 1959 by The Duke of Edinburgh. Blue Circle Industries acquired the estate in 1985 and demolished the reactor.

Toponymy

Aldermaston derives its name from Ældremanestone, the Old English for “Ealdorman’s Homestead” The first known Ealdorman of Berkshire fought the Danes with Ethelred of Wessex at the Battle of Englefield in 871.

Aldermaston culture & places

Since the early 1800s, Aldermaston has held a candle auction every three years. The lot is the lease of Church Acre, a plot of 2 acres (0.81 ha) granted to the church in 1815. Since 1957 there has been an annual performance of the York Nativity Play from the 15th century York Mystery Cycle.

Aldermaston economy & business

Agriculture

In 1797 a schoolmaster living in the village cultivated the Williams pear. The pear (a cultivar of the European Pear) was named after Richard Williams of Turnham Green, who grew several grafts of the original tree. Locally farmed wheat was milled at Aldermaston Mill until the 1920s.

Pubs and brewing

The Hind’s Head is named in honour of the Forster family crest. Built in the 17th century and originally operating as a coaching inn. The pub has its own gaol-house, the lock-up, at the rear. It was last used in 1865 and its drunk inhabitant burnt himself to death trying to keep warm. The Butt Inn is named after the archery butts that were located in the fields opposite the pub.

Cricket bats

Old Village Farm (on Fishermans Lane) is now the location of a wood yard, used since the 1930s to prepare local willow for the production of cricket bats. The yard would take on three up-coming cricketers for the winter, in the hope that the hard work would “toughen them up” to get them picked for the England cricket team. There are approximately 1000 trees growing at any given time.

Pottery

In 1955, the Aldermaston Pottery was established by studio potters Alan Caiger-Smith and Geoffrey Eastop. The pottery was renowned for tin-glazed and porcelain wares. It used scrap wood from the Village Farm woodyard to fire the kiln.

Atomic Weapons Establishment

The Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) is less than 1 mile (1.6 km) south of the village. The establishment is where the UK designs and manufactures the warheads for its stock of Trident missiles. In April 1958, the first Aldermaston March was held.

Other businesses

Britain’s first roadside petrol filling station was opened by The AA on the Bath Road near Aldermaston on 2 March 1919. There is a number of small businesses in the parish, including a hairdressing salon, a software development company and the village shop. The village won an appeal against Pioneer Concrete’s application for gravel extraction near the village.

Aldermaston geography / climate

Aldermaston is in West Berkshire, about 2 miles (3.2 km) from the Hampshire boundary. The main road in the village, The Street, is part of the A340 road and links the village with Pangbourne and Basingstoke. The River Kennet and River Enborne flow through the parish. The site of a Roman well was discovered in 1940 by a cow that almost fell down it.

Geology

The landscape of Aldermaston is influenced by Paices Hill and Rag Hill, which are extremities of the chalk formation the North Wessex Downs. The soil in the parish is high in clay, with the content largely determined by the London Clay Formation, the Bagshot Formation, and the Bracklesham Beds.

Flooding

The flat low clay of Aldermaston’s north has with exceptional rainfall led to flooding certain populous streets on three occasions – 1971, 1989, and 2007. The flood in 1971 was exacerbated by the non-porous tarmac and buildings of the Atomic Weapons Establishment which managed for the first time to overwhelm its balancing ponds. In July 2007, torrential rain flooded some of the traditional village centre and primary school. The storm coincided with the annual Glade music festival and jeopardised the event.

You can visit Aldermaston places with Walkfo Aldermaston to hear history at Aldermaston’s places whilst walking around using the free digital tour app. Walkfo Aldermaston has 48 places to visit in our interactive Aldermaston map, with amazing history, culture & travel facts you can explore the same way you would at a museum or art gallery with information audio headset. With Walkfo, you can travel by foot, bike or bus throughout Aldermaston, being in the moment, without digital distraction or limits to a specific walking route. Our historic audio walks, National Trust interactive audio experiences, digital tour guides for English Heritage locations are available at Aldermaston places, with a AI tour guide to help you get the best from a visit to Aldermaston & the surrounding areas.

“Curated content for millions of locations across the UK, with 48 audio facts unique to Aldermaston places in an interactive Aldermaston map you can explore.”

Walkfo: Visit Aldermaston Places Map
48 tourist, history, culture & geography spots

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Aldermaston historic spots	Aldermaston tourist destinations	Aldermaston plaques	Aldermaston geographic features
Walkfo Aldermaston tourism map key: places to see & visit like National Trust sites, Blue Plaques, English Heritage locations & top tourist destinations in Aldermaston

  

Best Aldermaston places to visit

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Aldermaston has places to explore by foot, bike or bus. Below are a selection of the varied Aldermaston’s destinations you can visit with additional content available at the Walkfo Aldermaston’s information audio spots:

Padworth Common Local Nature Reserve Padworth Common Local Nature Reserve is a 28-hectare (69-acre) Reserve on the edge of the hamlet between Reading and Newbury in Berkshire. It is owned by West Berkshire Council and managed by Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust.

Old Copse, Beenham Old Copse, Beenham is an 8-hectare (20-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest south of Beenham in Berkshire. The site is private land with no public access.

West’s Meadow, Aldermaston West’s Meadow, Aldermaston is a 1.2-hectare (3.0-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest. Site consists of two fields bounded by hedgerows and a small stream. It has been managed by grazing since the 1950s.

Aldermaston Court Aldermaston Court is a country house and private park built in the Victorian era for Daniel Higford Davall Burr. It is south-east of the village nucleus of AlderMaston in the English county of Berkshire. The predecessor manor house became a mansion from the wealth of its land and from assistance to Charles I during the English Civil War.

Wasing Wasing is an agricultural and woodland village, country estate and parish in West Berkshire, England owned almost wholly by the descendants of the Mount family. In minor local administration its few people convene their own civil parish occasionally.

Wasing Wood Ponds Wasing Wood Ponds is a 13.5-hectare (33-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest south of Aldermaston in Berkshire. The ponds are special for their range of Odonata.

River Enborne River Enborne rises near the villages of Inkpen and West Woodhay, to the West of Newbury, Berkshire and flows into the River Kennet. Despite the name, the river does not run through the village of Enborne, although it does run through Enborne Row.

Visit Aldermaston plaques