Beenham, Berkshire
Historical Description
Beenham or Beenham Vallence, a parish in Berks, adjacent to the Kennet and Avon Canal, 1½ mile N of Aldermaston station on the G.W.R., and 8¼ miles WSW of Reading. It has a post, money order, and telegraph office, of the name of Beenham, under Reading. Acreage, 1817; population, 517. Beenham House and Beenham Lodge are chief residences. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Oxford; gross value, £236 with residence. The church, a building of flint and stone in the Early English style, was chiefly rebuilt in 1859. There is a Primitive Methodist chapel. Stackhouse, the author of the "History of the Bible," was vicar here.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
| Ancient County | Berkshire | |
| Ecclesiastical parish | Beenham-Vallence St. Mary | |
| Hundred | Reading | |
| Poor Law union | Bradfield |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The register dates from the year 1562.
Churches
Church of England
St. Mary (parish church)
The church of St. Mary is a modern edifice of flint, with stone dressings, in the Early English style, consisting of chancel, nave, aisles, south porch and an embattled western tower of red brick with pinnacles and containing 6 bells: the organ was presented by a former vicar; the church was struck by lightning and partly burnt in the year 1794 and rebuilt in 1796; it was enlarged and restored in 1859: there is a monument to the Rev. Thomas Stackhouse, vicar here from 1733, who wrote a "History of the Bible," and an "Exposition of the Creed," with other works, and died 11th Oct. 1752; Haines records a brass here to William Carter, gent. 1586: there are 240 sittings.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Beenham was in Bradfield Registration District from 1837 to 1937 and Wokingham Registration District from 1937 to 1974
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Beenham from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Beenham-Vallence (St. Mary))
- Kelly's Directory of Berkshire, 1915
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Berkshire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Beenham are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Berkshire papers online:
Visitations Heraldic
The Visitations of Berkshire 1532, 1566, and 1665-6 is available online.