•  Bradfield, Berkshire

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In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Bradfield like this:

BRADFIELD, a village, a parish, and a district in Berks. The village stands on an affluent of the river Thames, 3 miles NW by W of Theale r. station, and 7½ W of Reading; and has a post office‡ under Reading. The parish comprises 4,384 acres. Real property, £6,558. Pop., 1,167. ...

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Houses, 200. The property is divided among a few. Bradfield Hall is a chief residence. The surface contains rich close scenes, and commands fine views. The living is a rectory, united with the p curacy of Trinity, in the diocese of Oxford. Value, £788.* Patron, the Rev. T. Stevens. The church was restored and enlarged in 1848. There are two chapels-of-ease and a P. Methodist chapel. St. Andrews college is a handsome edifice of 1850; and was endowed in 1859, and chartered in 1862, as a foundation-school for 16 founder's boys and 153 commoners. An Abbey was founded here, before the close of the 7th century, by King Ina. Bishop Lloyd was sometime rector.—The district comprehends the subdistrict of Bucklebury, containing the parishes of Bradfield, Bucklebury, Frilsham, Yattendon, Stanford-Dingley, Basildon, Ashampstead, Streatley, and Goring,-the last electorally in Oxford; the subdistrict of Mortimer, containing the parishes of Stratfield-Mortimer, Beenham-Vallence, Aldermaston, Padworth, Ufton, Sulhampstead-Bannister, Sulhampstead-Abbots, and Burghfield; and the subdistrict of Tilehurst, containing the parishes of Tilehurst, Englefield, Tidmarsh, Sulham, Purley, Pangbourn, Whitchurch, and Maple-Durham, the two last electorally in Oxford. Acres, 62,166. Poor-rates in 1866, £11,902. Pop. in 1861, 15,771. Houses, 3,323. Marriages in 1866, 88; births, 478,- of which 30 were illegitimate; deaths, 266,-of which 72 were at ages under 5 years, and 13 at ages above 85 years. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 874; births, 5,015; deaths, 3,035. The places of worship in 1851 were 27 of the Church of England, with 4,651 sittings; 5 of Independents, with 825 s.; 2 of Baptists, with 124 s.; 3 of Wesleyan Methodists, with 344 s.; 5 of Primitive Methodists, with 772 s.; and 3 of Lady Huntingdon's Connexion, with 580 s. The schools were 23 public day schools, with 1,075 scholars; 25 private day schools, with 553 s.; and 18 Sunday schools, with 800 s. The workhouse is in Bradfield, and cost £7,450.

Bradfield through time

Bradfield is now part of West Berkshire district. Click here for graphs and data of how West Berkshire has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Bradfield itself, go to Units and Statistics.

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