Visit Theale Places

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

  

Theale Places Overview: History, Culture & Facts about Theale

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Theale history

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Romans

Roman remains were uncovered during the excavation of the Theale Old Gravel Pit (at the end of St Ives Close) for ten years after 1887. The old significance of Theale is that it lay at the junction of two ancient natural routes, one following the Kennet Valley from east to west and another which exploited the valley of the River Pang.

Middle Ages

From the early Middle Ages to the 19th century, Theale was mostly part of Tilehurst ecclesiastical (and later also civil) parish. The village was a Chapelry comprising a western outlier of this large and irregularly shaped parish. From before 1241 until the 1800s Theale gave its name to the hundred containing the parishes of Aldermaston, Bradfield, Burghfield, Englefield, Padworth, Purley and Stratfield Mortimer.

Civil War

Theale saw action in the English Civil War (1642–51) On 22 September 1643, soon after the First Battle of Newbury, the village was the site of a skirmish between Prince Rupert’s Royalist forces and the Earl of Essex’s Parliamentarians. Up to 800 Royalist musketeers and 60 horses were killed in the skirmish.

Coach road

Stagecoaches began to run through from London to Bath and Bristol in the mid-17th century. The first through coach was advertised as The Flying Machine in 1667. In response to increased traffic, the first section of the Bath Road between Reading and Theale was made into a turnpike in 1714. Theale became a staging post and as such was known for its numerous coaching inns.

Toponymy

One suggested origin of the name Theale refers to the village’s coaching inns, and its position as the first staging post on the Bath Road out of Reading. An alternative explanation is that the name comes from the Old English “þelu” meaning “planks”

Canal

Theale had its wharf at a location called Sheffield, in Burghfield parish and next to Sheffield Lock. The Kennet and Avon Canal, extending from Newbury to Bath, was opened in 1810.

Railway

On 21 December 1847, Theale railway station opened on the Berks and Hants Railway, a Great Western Railway subsidiary running from Reading to Hungerford. This immediately destroyed the coach traffic and the turnpike road company’s income. The canal sold out to the railway in 1852, which maintained it in operation until 1951. A collapsed aqueduct closed it as a through route, although it was never formally abandoned.

Road again

Bath Road came back to life with the invention of the motor car in 1900. For the next seventy years, all motor traffic between London, Reading and Bristol passed along Theale High Street. The development response was slow, and only two small housing estates were developed in the inter-war period.

Airfield

RAF Theale is a former RAF training facility located on Sheffield Farm, just east of the canal swing bridge. It was opened in 1944 and used for training by “No. 26 Elementary Flying Training School” The EFT used twenty-four de Havilland Tiger Moths.

Gravel and birdwatching

Theale Old Gravel Pit in the village was already attracting the attention of birdwatchers by 1935. Post-war, the major impact on the village’s surroundings came from intensive gravel extraction along the River Kennet. The Theale Area Bird Conservation Group was founded in 1988.

Motorway

Theale High Street went from having an enormous amount of traffic passing through, to none. The next day of total change for the village was the opening of the M4 motorway. Junction 12 on the motorway was built just east of the village. The area between the bypass and railway was zoned for industrial and warehouse development.

Canal and railway again

The canal was locally re-opened from the Thames at Reading to Hungerford Wharf in 1974. Full restoration of the entire length to Bath was only completed in 2004. It has the legal status of a cruiseway, or a waterway devoted to recreational boat traffic, since 2011.

Theale economy & business

Pubs

Theale has long been associated with pubs and the brewing trade. Many coaching inns were established on the road from London to Bath. The success of the Great Western Railway had reduced the custom the inns received. By 1854, the village’s old coaching pubs had either closed down or become ordinary inns and pubs.

Blatch’s Theale Brewery

The village business with the highest public profile in the later 19th and earlier 20th century was Blatch’s Theale Brewery. The brewery began operations in 1752, and was acquired by the Blatch brothers (William Henry and Frank) in 1854. The family went on to create an estate of twenty-two public houses in west Berkshire and north Hampshire.

Pincents Kiln

Until at least the late 19th century there was a kiln to the north-east of the village. Pincents Kiln exploited the proximity of chalk to a pocket of clay to make lime cement. The site is now a business park to the east of the motorway.

Gravel

Gravel extraction was confined to small pits on the exposed gravel terrace of the village until the arrival of the railway. The Theale and Great Western Sand and Gravel Co was incorporated as a limited company in 1928. The rail-served “Theale Aggregate Depot” on Wigmore Lane remains in operation.

Theale Motor Company

Theale Motor Company is a descendant of a very early garage and car repair business. It was established, on the former coach horse paddock of the “Crown” opposite, by the First World War.

Business Parks

Five business parks adjoin the railway station. Koch Media has its UK offices in Theale, at Arlington Business Park. Nokia UK opened its “South East” office in the same park in 2018.

Theale geography / climate

Topography

Theale village is dominated by the built-up area of the village, north of the bypass, and south of it. The landscape of the old parish is relatively flat, with expanses of level ground flanking the main road. The River Kennet runs south of the parish, and is canalised as the Kennet & Avon Canal with two sets of locks and weirs.

Geology

As with other parts of the Kennet Valley, soil in Theale is a variety of chalk, flint, gravel, clay, alluvium and loam. The village is on a broad gravel terrace, the gravel deriving from flints weathered out of bedrock of chalk.

Layout and fabric

Theale before the 20th century was an early example of ribbon development, in that the built-up area was a long strip along Bath Road with no side streets. The layout focuses on the crossroads formed by the High Street (east), Church Street (west), Blossom Lane (north) and Station Road (south) The High Street is completely built up with mainly Victorian edifices in red brick, some in patterned brickwork and some rendered in lime plaster.

You can visit Theale places with Walkfo Theale to hear history at Theale’s places whilst walking around using the free digital tour app. Walkfo Theale has 50 places to visit in our interactive Theale 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 Theale, 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 Theale places, with a AI tour guide to help you get the best from a visit to Theale & the surrounding areas.

“Curated content for millions of locations across the UK, with 50 audio facts unique to Theale places in an interactive Theale map you can explore.”

Walkfo: Visit Theale Places Map
50 tourist, history, culture & geography spots

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

  

Best Theale places to visit

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

Wilder’s Folly Wilder’s Folly is a folly and dovecote at Nunhide, near the village of Sulham in the English county of Berkshire.

RAF Theale Royal Air Force Theale or more simply RAF Theale is located south of Theale, Berkshire, England. The following units were here at some point: No. 8 Elementary Flying Training School RAF No. 26 Elementary flying Training School. No. 2818 Squadron RAF Regiment Air Crew Disposal Unit.

Hosehill Lake Hosehill Lake is a 23.6-hectare (58-acre) Local Nature Reserve west of Reading in Berkshire. It is owned by West Berkshire Council and managed by the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust.

Folly Farm, Sulhamstead Folly Farm is an Arts and Crafts style country house in Sulhamstead, West Berkshire, England. Built around a small farmhouse dating to c. 1650, the house was substantially extended in William and Mary style by Edwin Lutyens. The gardens, designed by Lutyen and Gertrude Jekyll, are Grade II* listed in the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.

Visit Theale plaques