Great Fawley, Berkshire
Historical Description
Fawley, Great, a parish in Berks, near Icknield Street, 5 miles S from Wantage, and 7 S from Wantage Road station on the G.W.R. It includes the hamlets of Little Fawley and Whatcombe, and has a post office under Wantage; money order office, Brightwalton; telegraph office, Chaddleworth. Acreage, 2191; population, 170. The living is a donative in the diocese of Oxford; gross value, £10 0 with residence. A new church was built from designs by the late G. E. Street, and consecrated in 1866. There are remains of an ancient religious house at Whatcombe.
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 | Fawley St. Mary | |
| Hundred | Kintbury-Eagle | |
| Poor Law union | Wantage |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The register dates from the year 1540 and contains entries relating to Whatcombe from 1596.
Churches
Church of England
St. Mary (parish church)
The church of St. Mary, erected in 1866 on a new site, by Mrs. Blanche Wroughton and her son, Philip Wroughton esq. on the dismantling of the old church, is a building of stone from designs by the late G. E. Street esq. R.A. and consists of apsidal chancel, with a grained roof, nave, south porch and a south tower containing 2 bells; the pulpit, screen and pillars of the nave arcades are of Devonshire marble, and there is a reredos of Caen stone and mosaics, with a group of the "Crucifixion" by Earp, the mosaics being by Salviati; the old church was the burial place of the ancient family of Moore, who held both manors here from some time after the Reformation until 1765; to this family belonged Sir Francis Moore kb. a distinguished lawyer, who was born at East Ilsley, and represented Reading in the parliaments of 1597, 1601 and 1613; he died 20 Nov. 1621 and was buried in Old Fawley church, on the removal of which the vault of the Moores was opened and their remains, bound round with bands of leather, were found to have been embalmed and in perfect preservation, even to the features; his eldest surviving son and heir, Henry Moore, was created a baronet 21 May, 1627, but the title became extinct on the death of Sir Thomas Moore, 6th bart. 10 April, 1807; in 1892 a memorial window was erected to Mrs. Bonham, wife of Col. Bonham and sister to P. Wroughton esq.; the new west stained window was erected in 1909 to the memory of Stephen and Harriett Brown by their ehildren; there are 200 sittings.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Great Fawley from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Fawley, North and South (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 Great Fawley 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.