Thatcham (St. Luke)

THATCHAM (St. Luke), a parish, in the union of Newbury, partly in the hundred of Faircross, but chiefly in that of Reading, county of Berks, 3 miles (E.) from Newbury; containing, with the chapelries of Greenham and Midgham, 4250 inhabitants, of whom 2677 are in Thatcham township. This place appears, from the Norman survey, to have been a town of some importance; and tradition has assigned to it the rank of a borough, but there is no proof that it ever sent representatives to parliament. A market on Sunday was confirmed by charter of Henry II., to the monks of Reading, then possessors of Thatcham, and was changed to Thursday in 1218, by Henry III.; but it has long been discontinued: the remains of the butter-cross still exist. The parish comprises 10,925a. 1r. 32p.: the town is pleasantly situated on the Bath road, near the navigable river Kennet, and the inhabitants are well supplied with water. The Kennet and Avon canal passes a little to the south. A paper-mill at Colthrop affords employment to 80 persons. A statute-fair is held on the first Tuesday after October 12th. The living is a vicarage, valued in the king's books at £20; patron, J. Hanbury, Esq.; impropriators, various proprietors of land: the vicarial tithes have been commuted for £735, and the impropriate for £806. 1. 7. The church has portions in the early, and some in the later, English style; at the south entrance is a fine Norman arch: in the interior are an altar-tomb to William Danvers, chief justice of the court of common pleas, and a mural monument to Nicholas Fuller, Esq., barrister of Gray's Inn. At Greenham and Midgham are chapels of ease; and at Crookham, or Crokeham, was formerly another, of which there are no remains. The Independents have a place of worship. A free school was founded in 1707, by Lady Frances Winchcomb, who gave a rent-charge of £53 for its support; it was opened about 1713, but continued only for a few years, in consequence of the attainder of Lord Bolingbroke, owner of the estate charged. In 1741, however, arrears were recovered; since which period the funds have continued to increase, the amount of stock being now upwards of £5000, exclusively of the rent-charge, which is regularly received. The school was re-opened in 1794, and is now united with a national school.