Bucklebury, Berkshire
Historical Description
Bucklebury, a village and a parish in Berks. The village stands on an affluent of the Thames called the Pang, 3 miles NE from Midgham station on the G.W.R., and 7 NE from Newbury. It has a post office under Reading; money order and telegraph office, Woolhampton. The parish includes the liberties of Hawkridge and Marlston. Area, 6130 acres; population, 1151. The living is a vicarage with the chapelry of Marlston annexed in the diocese of Oxford; joint net yearly value, £456 with residence. The church is an ancient building of chalk and flint, and contains some Norman work. There is also a Congregational chapel. There is an iron foundry in the village. In Marlston there is an ancient chapel of flint and rubble, which was restored in 1855.
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 | Bucklebury St. Mary | |
| Hundred | Reading | |
| Poor Law union | Bradfield |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register, including that of Marlston, dates from the year 1538, and is said to be one of the oldest and best kept in the county; it contains a list of the vicars of Bucklebury from 1303 to the present time.
Churches
Church of England
St. Mary (parish church)
The church of St. Mary is an ancient building of chalk and flint, consisting of, chancel, nave, north aisle, south porch and an embattled western tower, with pinnacles, containing 8 bells and a clock; two new bells, the gift of Mrs. Palmer, were added in 1915; the greater part of the chancel seems to have been rebuilt in 1705, by Sir Henry Winchcombe bart.: the nave is divided from the aisle by an arcade of three Pointed Transition Norman arches; the aisle itself is Perpendicular, as also is the tower, which has a good eastern arch; in the chancel are several monuments to the families of Packer and Winchcombe-Hartley, and to Frances, first wife of Henry St. John, the celebrated Viscount Bolingbroke; she died previous to 1718; the south doorway is a beautiful specimen of Norman work, with highly-wrought zigzag mouldings and shafts with sculptured caps: the church was restored in 1912 at a cost of £500, and a new east window, the gift of Mrs. N. K. Webley Parry, was put in at the same time; there is an ancient church chest; the church affords 350 sittings.
Congregational
Congregational Chapel
There is a Congregational chapel, erected in 1811, with 200 sittings.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Bucklebury 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 Bucklebury from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Bucklebury (St. Mary))
- Kelly's Directory of Berkshire, 1915
Land and Property
The manor, which belonged to Reading abbey, was granted in 1539 to John Winchcombe, son of the famous clothier of that name, known as "Jack of Newbury"; his son, Henry Winchcombe esq. of Bucklebury, was created a baronet in 1661 and married Frances, daughter of Thomas Howard, Earl of Berkshire; on his death in 1667, the estate passed to his son, Sir Henry, 2nd bart. who married a Miss Rolls, but dying without male issue in 1703, the baronetcy became extinct and the property devolved on Frances (Winchcombe), Viscountess Bolingbroke, and afterwards through her younger sisters passed to the Packer family; Henry Packer, last male heir of that family, devised it to his sisters son, Winchcombe Henry Hartley esq. grandfather of the Rev. Winchcombe Henry Howard Hartley esq., who died 9th Sept. 1832.
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Berkshire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Bucklebury 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:
Villages, Hamlets, &c
HawkridgeVisitations Heraldic
The Visitations of Berkshire 1532, 1566, and 1665-6 is available online.