Letcombe Regis, Berkshire
Historical Description
Letcombe Regis, a village, a township, and a parish in Berks. The village stands on a branch of the river Ock, 1½ mile SW of Wantage, and 3¾ miles SW from Wantage Road station on the G.W.R. It has a post and telegraph office under Wantage; money order office, Wantage. Acreage of township, 2156; population, 407; of the ecclesiastical parish of Letcombe Regis, 483. The parish includes the township and ecclesiastical parish of EAST and WEST CHATLOW. Acreage, 4883; population, 1092 The manor of Letcombe Regis is held by the Silver family. The court rolls are among the most ancient in the kingdom, and some of the wooden tallies used on the occasion of holding the courts in the reign of Henry III. (1216-72) are still in perfect preservation, and may be seen, as well as the court rolls of the same reign, in the Public Record Office, London. A modern house, surrounded by a moat, occupies the site of what is thought to have been a hunting-box of King John. It has lately been considerably enlarged. A beautiful hill, called Castle Hill, rises behind the village, and is crowned by a nearly circular camp of about 26 acres, thought by some antiquaries to have been the site of a British town, and by others to have been a Roman encampment. Large quantities of water cresses are sent to the London market. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Oxford; gross value, £224 with residence. Patrons, Corpus Christi College, Oxford. The church is Late Norman, with Perpendicular English additions, consists of nave, chancel, S porch, and embattled western tower, and contains a Norman font
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 | Letcomb-Regis St. Andrew | |
| 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 1536; the earliest book, extending from this date to 1697, was for a long time lost, until discovered to be in private hands.
Churches
Church of England
St. Andrew (parish church)
The church of St. Andrew is a small building consisting of chancel, nave, south porch and an embattled western tower containing 6 bells and a clock striking the hours: the chancel is Perpendicular and the chancel arch Norman: the windows in the nave are variously Decorated and Perpendicular, and the north and south door-ways are Early English, to which period the tower may also be referred: the font is Norman: there are 187 sittings: the churchyard was closed against interments Aug. 3, 1880, and another burial ground has since been consecrated on land given by the late S. W. Silver esq.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Letcombe Regis was in Wantage Registration District from 1837 to 1974
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Letcombe Regis from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Letcomb-Regis (St. Andrew))
- 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 Letcombe Regis 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.