The Berkshire Village Book

This book is produced by The Berkshire Federation of Women’s Institutes. In the latest edition there is an inclusion about Chaddleworth by Grahame Murphy that villagers might like to see as follows:

Chaddleworth a sleepy Downland village of about 500 inhabitants that has been here for over 1000 years. It is mentioned in the Domesday Book and we have a plaque in St Andrews Church commemorating this fact. The church itself is very ancient and has been on the present site since at least the year 908. Points of note about the church is that it has some very attractive stained glass windows.
The east facing window behind the altar is of ‘splendiferous’ proportions and is dedicated to Hugh ‘Hugo’ Cotesworth who fought in the Zulu wars. His father William and his mother Adelaide provided Chaddleworth with its Village Hall in 1873 on land given by Musgrove
Lavalin Wroughton, it was referred to by the ‘locals’ as the ‘Iron Room’ as it was clad in corrugated iron. The Wroughton family are still in the parish and the current Sir Philip Wroughton was the Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire until quite recently.

The First World War threw up some really interesting facts about this village. It is amazing but true that Chaddleworth in the whole of England sent the second most volunteers (as a proportion of population) to the war effort! We have in the Village Hall a
photograph and a tribute to all the brave men of Chaddleworth. Also the Pearce family (and there are still some relatives living here now) sent ‘a band of brothers’ who were all killed (but were they)? Jack Pearce (known locally as Stocko) actually survived but
was recorded as dead on the Chaddleworth War Memorial. He came back after convalescence in France and for the next 74 years he attended the Armistice Day commemoration at the Chaddleworth War Memorial with a wry smile at his supposed demise! He
finally died at 99 years of age in 1992. His wife Ida died at 105 years of age so as can be seen Chaddleworth is a place to live a long life!

Chaddleworth has a very active Parish Council in the whole of Berkshire to undertake a ‘low cost’/ affordable housing scheme at The Glebe Field (courtesy of the Diocese of Oxford) built on land leased from them. Ten houses were built expressly for local people. A legal agreement was struck with West Berkshire Housing Association (later to become Sovereign Housing Association). Chaddleworth Parish Council has the final say on who goes into these properties. This agreement has been challenged several times by Sovereign
but all to no avail. In 2007 Chaddleworth Parish Council undertook another low cost/affordable housing scheme at St Andrews Close
again with the agreement of the Oxford Diocese on the final piece of available land in the village. This was for 7 affordable houses again for local people. Chaddleworth does not have a ‘settlement boundary’ due to an anomaly in the early nineteen eighties. So no new housing can be undertaken save for section S106 (low cost/ affordable ) housing.

In 2014 Chaddleworth lost its village pub The Ibex ( the only public house of that name in the UK). When opened in 1839 it was named The Star. Later it was renamed The Ibex as a ‘snook’ to the Wroughton family (local landowners) who frowned upon the local populace partaking of the ‘demon drink’. The ‘Ibex’ was part of the family crest of the Wroughton family and so this was chosen as a ‘coat of arms’ for the pub. Mercifully The Ibex rose again in December 2016 thanks to the Parish Council who convinced both West Berks Council’s Planning Committee’s that this was a valuable community asset and asked for an exception to be made as a ‘one off’. The Ibex that
had 4 breweries in 50 years (Simonds, Courage, Moreland and finally Greene King) who spent zero on it in that time. In order to finance its thorough refurbishment the developer Mr John Castle of Letcombe Regis, Oxfordshire needed to build some accommodation. The Parish Council recognised this and ‘went the extra mile’ to persuade West Berkshire Council to pass the planning application that had been rejected due to the aforesaid ‘settlement boundary’ issue.

Chaddleworth has several Charitable Trusts some dating back to the 18th century. There is the Saunders Wynne and Coventry Educational Trust that still provides funds to support local students. The Fuel Allotment Trust that has developed into a ‘hardship
fund’ to support local people who have ‘fallen upon hard times’, and the ‘Village Hall Trust’ that looks after the said Village Hall. This is supported by The 100 Club made up of largely; local parishioners that helps fund the maintenance and upkeep of the Village Hall.

Everyone loves a ghost story and Chaddleworth has several. Beneath ‘Jasmine Cottage’ in Main Street there are ( I have been in them many years ago) some tunnels were ‘priest holes’ when Henry the Eighth was ‘sacking all the monasteries, Catholics had to hide in these tunnels. I have been told that one of the tunnels eventually leads to St Margarets Priory which is now inside RAF Welford. That would be more than a mile and I am sceptical. However I have been in St Margarets Priory at RAF Welford and there is an entrance in the cellar that has been blocked off so who knows!!! Also there is a pond long since disused and filled in on Tower Hill in which I was told a young child drowned and her ghost haunts Tower Hill. When walking up the hill from Main Street I have witnessed a feeling of very cold air when passing the said pond in warm summer weather. Do I believe it? No.

RAF Welford is in the parish of Chaddleworth and over the June years many Chaddleworth residents have worked there and continue to do so. During the war USAF WACO gliders took off from RAF Welford to help free Europe. General Eisenhower and Winston Churchill were both here and there are archive photo’s in RAF Welford museum. Glenn Miller the very famous American band leader is reputed to have played his very last concert at RAF Welford before he disappeared over the English Channel during World War 11. There is a very close relationship with Chaddleworth and our American ‘cousins’ and this continues right up to today, many Americans who served at RAF Welford come back to visit and there is an active liaison group.

There is currently an exhibition in Newbury Museum of locally found ‘hoards’, and as you might have guessed there is a Chaddleworth hoard. The hoard consists of 134 Roman coins dating from 268 AD-402 AD. They were found in 2010 by Alistair Cooper who farms at Manor Farm formally (in 1840) Butlers Farm. They were all found within a small area and this plus their dates, suggest they are a single hoard. The coins are copper alloy, of low value, and were probably the savings of a relatively poor man or woman. The earlier coins were very worn, showing they had been in circulation for a very long time.

The date of the newest coin-402 AD- coincides exactly with the last issue of bronze coins sent to Britain from Rome. Roman rule in Britain officially ended in AD 410, but even before this date the urban economy was breaking down and money, particularly low value coins such as this hoard, was ceasing to have any real value. Many hoards date from this period, possibly hidden in the hope that things would improve and the coins have value again.