Tidmarsh, Berkshire
Historical Description
Tidmarsh, a village and a parish in Berks, 1½ mile S of Pangbourne station on the G.W.R., and 7 miles W from Reading. Post town, Reading via Pangbourne; money order and telegraph office, Pangbourne. Acreage, 785; population, 196. Tidmarsh Manor is a seat of the Hopkins family, who are lords of the manor and chief landowners. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Oxford; gross value, £197 with residence. The church is a small but ancient edifice of flint and stone in the Early English style, consisting of chancel, nave, S porch, and a western belfry of wood with spire. It has some very interesting architectural features, an ancient font, and some ancient brasses.
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 | Tidmarsh St. Lawrence | |
| Hundred | Theale | |
| Poor Law union | Bradfield |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The register of baptisms and burials dates from the year 1730; marriages, 1731.
Churches
Church of England
St. Lawrence (parish church)
The church of St. Lawrence is a small building of flint and stone in the Early English style, and consists of apsidal chancel, nave and south porch and a western belfry of wood with spire, containing 3 bells: the chancel and nave appear to date from about 1230, the former having a semi-octagonal apse with a small lancet window in each face; the vaulting is a modern restoration, carefully executed: the Norman doorway belongs to a period fifty years earlier than the rest of the west of the church, and is richly carved with bands of chevron ornament, interlaced work and scrolls of foliage; on either side and at the top is a flat semicircular projection, the latter bearing a rude carving of a human face: the peculiar feature of the church is its octagonal apse, a very rare, perhaps unique, example in England: the triple 13th century west window is also a remarkable and unfrequent design: the font appears to be of the same date as the church; the pulpit is of the 15th century: there are brasses of a knight in armour, c. 1530, and of Margaret, wife of Thomas Wode, appointed one of the Justices of the King's Bench in 1499 and Chief Justice in 1501: the church was restored in 1897 at a cost of £900, and affords 130 sittings.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Tidmarsh 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 Tidmarsh from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Tidmarsh (St. Lawrence))
- 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 Tidmarsh 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.