The Story of Bracknell (eBook)

Before the New Town

Andrew Radgick (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2024 | 1. Auflage
256 Seiten
The History Press (Verlag)
978-1-80399-588-5 (ISBN)

Infos

Bracknell is well known for being one of the 'new towns' built after the Second World War to relieve the pressure of housing and industry in London - but the history of Bracknell goes back much further than that. Early hunter gatherers, Iron Age people and Romans have all called Bracknell their home. Hidden in the royal hunting ground of Windsor Forest for many centuries, the village began to develop with the arrival of the railway. Local brickyards expanded, their output being used in many important buildings, both in Britain and abroad. In The Story of Bracknell, local historian Andrew Radgick sets about uncovering this near-forgotten history, producing a treasure trove of original research from newspaper archives and photographic collections, to personal accounts from residents and examinations of traditional tales associated with the area. Bracknell has a unique history, and this is its story.

ANDREW RADGICK has lived in Bracknell for nearly fifty years, and has been the local Civic Society's History Officer for the past ten. In 2014 he self-published three volumes covering the lives of local men killed in the First World War which was critically acclaimed by the Western Front Association. He has given interviews with BBC Radio Berkshire, appeared on BBC South television, and The Bracknell News often contact him for historical information. He frequently give talks on various aspects of local history to groups and societies.

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Bracknell up to 1800

Until now, references to Bracknell had been few and far between, and it was no more than a name. All that was to change with the publication of Norden’s map of 1607. John Norden was an English cartographer and antiquary. In 1600, he was appointed surveyor of the Crown woods and forests in Berkshire (as well as Devon and Surrey), and seven years later produced a ‘Description of the Honour of Windsor’, with maps and plans in colour. Between Warfelde Walke to the north and Easthampsted Walke to the south are two small settlements – New Brecknoll and Old Brecknoll:

New Brecknoll is situated on a crossroads; the track to the north heads towards Winkfeylde, to the east towards Englemeare Ponde, westwards to join another track running roughly north/south towards Easthamsted Parke, and southwards to the west of Old Brecknoll. The latter settlement is represented by a smaller scattering of buildings, but also where four tracks meet; north (by a different route) to Winkfeylde, southeast to Bagshot Parke, in a southerly direction towards Easthamsted Walke, and westwards to again meet up with the track to Easthamsted Parke.

Some of these tracks approximate to modern roads, while the route of others is less obvious.

New Brecknoll follows the line of the current High Street; the settlement is named Bracknell Street on a map of 1787, a name still used by some residents into the early twentieth century. The name Old Bracknell continued to be marked on Ordnance Survey maps until at least 1909 but is absent by 1932, although a road called Old Bracknell Lane still exists. At the start of the eighteenth century, Bracknell was still just a row of houses and shops along ‘a narrow cart track’. To the east and south were the wilds of Ascot and Bagshot Heaths, while Priestwood Common to the west had no road across it and no bridge over the Downmill River (now celebrated by The Bridge pub).

According to the catalogue of Listed Buildings maintained by Historic England, The Bull is the oldest building in Bracknell, originally a hall house from about 1400.1 The large extension to the rear is the latest in a long line of changes to a building that still manages to maintain an air of history, complete with its resident ghost (a man about to be hanged in Quelm Lane who can occasionally be seen, sipping his last pint). Arguably, the latest changes have saved a building that was in a poor state of repair and in need of extensive renovation. Bull-baiting is said to have taken place outside the building, the main event of the year taking place on Good Friday. It has been claimed, without any evidence, that Henry VIII watched the sport in Bracknell.

The Old Manor at the opposite end of the High Street is a fascinating building. Also originally a hall house from the fifteenth century, it has subsequently been faced with brick and much altered.2 In Tudor times, it was owned by a Catholic family who hid many persecuted priests in the secret ‘priest-hole’. This was discovered above a fireplace in 1969 and is now visible as a ‘talking point’. According to some reports, it was also used later by local highwaymen keen to escape from the authorities.

Although Dick Turpin (1705–39) is said to have been active in the area, his haunts were primarily to the east and north of London, and he is unlikely to have strayed this far west. The Hind’s Head, at the top of the High Street, was said to be his favoured drinking place, with a tunnel large enough to accommodate him riding his horse, connecting it to The Old Manor (then a private house). It is also claimed he hid in the parish church, a building that was only built more than a century after his death! But two other highwaymen known to have frequented the area were Claude Du Vall (or Duval, 1643–70) who was ‘notorious … his fame resting hardly less on his gallantry to ladies than on his daring robberies’.3 On one occasion, he was reported to have held up a coach and danced with its female occupant before ‘charging’ her husband £100 for the privilege of watching (this may have occurred on Bagshot Heath). He was finally caught and hanged at Tyburn in London. William Davies (or Davis, 1627–90) was also active in the seventeenth century. Details are muddled, but he led a double life as a successful farmer who supplemented his income by robbing the passengers of coaches crossing Bagshot Heath. Avoiding jewels and other items that would be recognised, he stole only money, and became known as The Golden Farmer from his habit of paying large bills with gold (he is commemorated by the pub of the same name in Easthampstead). He was eventually caught, and died either at Westminster, or was executed at Salisbury (there are two accounts of his death), and the body hung in chains near the former The Jolly Farmer pub, on the roundabout on the A30 to the west of Bagshot. Thomas Simpson (also known as Old Mob) sometimes operated in conjunction with William Davis. There is a report a newspaper as late as 1785 of a highwayman taking money from a couple on Binfield Road.

There were also many tales of secret tunnels leading from The Old Manor to other parts of Bracknell. The most likely one led from the cellar to The Hind’s Head, a hostelry that once stood just 20ft away on the opposite side of Warfield Road; the version that says the tunnel was large enough to ride a horse through is more likely to have been the result of a good evening’s drinking! There are also rumours of a tunnel stretching the entire length of the High Street to The Bull (which has never been found despite extensive rebuilding of this part of the town centre). The house remained a private residence (called Studlands) until the 1930s, with the small extension to the side of the main building (now integrated into the pub) housing a shop, variously used by a vet, a basket maker, and a butcher. Since then, The Old Manor has had a variety of uses including a private boys’ school, a club, and a residential hotel, before becoming a pub. Again, such an old building with a chequered history has a collection of ghostly residents, including ‘Old Fred’ (a figure wearing a cowl), and Bert (a regular in the early 1970s who reappeared shortly after his death). There are also reports of a young girl from the Victorian era who haunts The Old Manor, as well as a woman who makes her presence felt in an upstairs room.

The Red Lion has been a prominent building in Bracknell since its construction in the sixteenth century. It served as a coaching inn after the turnpike road was built in 1759. It is now The Blue’s Smokehouse. This picture shows the Berkshire Yeomanry passing, just prior to the First World War.

Another building from the same period stands further down the High Street. Now occupied by Prospects estate agents, it is known as ‘Ginger’s’ by many older residents after the delicatessen that occupied it for many years.4 It is difficult to imagine how it might have looked as it was re-faced in the eighteenth century, before being restored, altered and extended in the late twentieth century. The Old Farm (off Warfield Road) is of a similar age.5

The Red Lion (now Blue’s Smokehouse) was a prominent building in Bracknell. Standing at the bottom of the High Street (the area was called West End), it was built in the sixteenth century as an inn with stables.6 To the right of the bay window and central chimney was an opening for a coach and horses to pull off the highway into a rear courtyard. The east end of the building became a shop (and the West End sub post office at the beginning of the twentieth century). It soon became the premier inn and dining establishment in Bracknell, although several landlords went bankrupt while attempting to provide a more luxurious establishment than their income permitted. By the nineteenth century, in addition to travelling coaches, carriers and postal services were running from The Red Lion. Writing in the 1730s, a Binfield resident referred to assembly rooms and a coffee house in Bracknell. Such facilities were usually located in the major public house in the town, so the Bracknell ones were probably at The Red Lion.

Originally a cottage built in the seventeenth century, The Horse and Groom has been a pub for at least 200 years. Like several old buildings in the area, it has resident ghosts, one of whom is fond of spirits.

Mallorys in Broad Lane also dates from the sixteenth century with later alterations (Hill House was built on to the rear of it in the 1920s).7 It was probably a farmhouse on the edge of Old Bracknell. During restoration work, a child’s shoe from the 1600s was found behind some wooden panelling.

The nearby Horse and Groom was built in the following century but has been subsequently much altered.8 Originally a cottage, it has been a pub for at least 200 years. Two ghostly presences are associated with The Horse and Groom; footsteps of an old woman can be heard as she cleans the upstairs rooms, while whisky is said to disappear from a locked spirits cabinet.

Two other buildings still exist in Bracknell dating from this time. Lynwood Cottage9 in Goughs Lane is a private house, while Whynscar,10 near The Old Manor, was extended and re-faced in the eighteenth century. It is reported that a priest hole was also found here.

Two lost buildings also date from this period. The Hind’s Head, as already mentioned, was formerly known as The Bunch of Grapes. Dating from the early seventeenth century, this stood at the top of the High Street (part of Bracknell and Wokingham College now stands on its former site). A report from...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 8.8.2024
• Verlagsort: London
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Geschichte / Politik ► Regional- / Landesgeschichte
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Gesundheit / Leben / Psychologie ► Lebenshilfe / Lebensführung
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
• Schlagworte: Berkshire • Bracknell • historic newspapers • iron age britain • Local History • local photographs • New Towns • new towns movement • old photographs • roman bracknell • windsor forest
• ISBN-10: 1-80399-588-2 / 1803995882
• ISBN-13: 978-1-80399-588-5 / 9781803995885