Harwell, Berkshire
Historical Description
Harwell, a village and a parish in Berks. The village stands 2¼ miles SW from Didcot station on the G.W.R., and 6 E by N from Wantage, and has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Steventon (R.S.O.) The parish comprises 2521 acres; population, 729. The manor belonged in the 13th century to Eichard, king of the Romans, and belongs now to the Hopkins family. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Oxford; gross yearly value, £346 with residence. The church is an ancient Gothic building of stone with an embattled western tower, and contains several monuments. There are a Wesleyan chapel, almshouses for six poor widows, and other charities worth about £250 a year.
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 | Harwell St. Matthew | |
| Hundred | Moreton | |
| Poor Law union | Wantage |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The Phillimore transcript of Marriages at Harwell 1559-1837, Berkshire is available to browse online.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Harwell was in Wantage Registration District from 1837 to 1974
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Harwell from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Harwell (St. Matthew))
- Kelly's Directory of Berkshire, 1899
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Berkshire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Harwell 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.