Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for WOKINGHAM, or Oakingham

WOKINGHAM, or Oakingham, a town, a parish, a sub-district, and a district, in Berks. The town stands on the London and Reading railway, at the junction of the line to Red Hill, within the limits of Windsor forest, 7 miles SSE of Reading; gave the title of Baron to Prince George of Denmark, husband of Queen Anne; retained the ancient custom of bull-baiting till about 1840; is a seat of petty-sessions and a polling place; possesses a corporation, under an ancient charter, and not regulated by the new act; occupies an elevated and healthy situation; consists of several irregularly-built streets, meeting in a central market place; and has a head post-office,‡ a r. station with telegraph, two chief inns, a town hall with lofty clock tower, built in 1860 at a cost of £3,500, a handsome old church, recently restored, another church in the decorated English style, with tower and spire 170 feet high, built in 1864, a Baptist chapel in the Italian Gothic style, built in 1861, a Wesleyan chapel, an endowed school with £44 a year, two other public schools, alms houses with £32, an hospital and chapel for 16 poor pensioners, at Luckley-Green, a workhouse , aggregate charities £430, a weekly market on Tuesday, and fairs on 11 Oct. and 2 Nov. Pop. in 1861, 2,404. Houses, 472.—The parish comprises 8,141 acres. Real property, £16,733; of which £89 are in gasworks. Pop. in 1851, 3,752; in 1861, 4,144. Houses, 807. Bearwood is the seat of J. Walter, Esq.; and Marchfield House, of Mrs. Laws. Both the head living and that of St. Paul are rectories in the diocese of Oxford. Value of the former, £1,700; of the latter, £190.* Patron, the Bishop of Oxford; of the latter, J. Walter, Esq.—The sub-district contains 6 parishes. Acres, 23,107. Pop., 7,807. Houses, 1,581. -The district includes Wargrave sub-district, and comprises 42,226 acres. Poor rates in 1863, £10,274. Pop. in 1851, 13,668; in 1861, 14,465. Houses, 2,925. Marriages in 1866, 99; births 452,-of which 22 were illegitimate; deaths, 277,-of which 86 were at ages under 5 years, and 13 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 698; births, 4,113; deaths, 2,475. The places of worship, in 1851, were 13 of the Church of England , with 4,478 sittings; 5 of Independents, with 962 s.; 6 of Baptists, with 1,070 s.; 2 of Wesleyans, with 240 s.; and 5 of Primitive Methodists, with 325 attendants. The schools were 18 public day-schools, with 1,353 scholars; 16 private day-schools, with 257 s.; 19 Sunday schools, with 1,343 s.; and 1 evening school for adults, with 40 s.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a town, a parish, a sub-district, and a district"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Wokingham Ch/CP       Wokingham Within CP       Wokingham SubD       Wokingham RegD/PLU       Berkshire AncC
Place names: OAKINGHAM     |     WOKINGHAM     |     WOKINGHAM OR OAKINGHAM
Place: Wokingham

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