Chaddleworth Coal Shed

The Fuel Allotment/Poors Land Charity was set up in 1815 on land that was referred to as Chaddleworth Common Copse. Good old generous George the third in the Inclosures Act took the 800 acres off of the poor villagers and gave us back 12 acres to use ‘for coppicing and the cutting of furze (gorse) for winter fuel.

The 12 acres was badly managed and all the wood etcetera was removed and the land rented out to local farmers and the money from the rental was used to buy coal for the poor. That coal was stored in the village ‘coal shed’ which was situated in Main Street opposite where is now Monks Orchard and The Quick. This shed was about 25 to 30 feet long and 20 feet wide. Through the passage of time this shed received scant maintenance and coal was ordered directly from the local coal merchant ‘Greens’ in East Garston that had a depot near to the railway that ran from Newbury to Lambourn.

On the 25th of January 1950 Berkshire County Council’s (BCC) Surveyors Office based in Hampstead Norris wrote to the Chaddleworth Parish Clerk offering to buy the coal shed for the use of their local ‘Linesman’ (he looked after the condition of roads and banks in the Parishes). At this time the Old Village Pond was improved by BCC. Later another letter was received saying that the BCC had decided not to buy the Coal Shed and had found another shed to rent in a more convenient position.

Our Coal Shed continued to deteriorate becoming unsafe and was demolished in the early 1960’s. Joe Mills tells me he used to play in there when a young lad!

When the Wroughton Estate registered the field east of the Village Hall, at a date unknown but around this time, as is standard with the Land Registry they take the boundary to the nearest ‘metalled road’. This being Main Street so our piece of land including the Shed area was subsumed into their land. The Parish Council have at various times tried to get this piece of land back but have been thwarted by having no photographs or concrete evidence of its existence. However, a Victorian Ordnance Survey 6 inch to 1 mile Old Map (1888-1913) clearly shows the outline of the Coal Shed.

Grahame Murphy