Wargrave

Coordinates: 51°29′56″N 0°52′01″W / 51.499°N 0.867°W / 51.499; -0.867
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Not to be confused with War grave.

Wargrave
2011 Census)
• Density234/km2 (610/sq mi)
OS grid referenceSU7878
Civil parish
  • Wargrave
Unitary authority
Ceremonial county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townReading
Postcode districtRG10
Dialling code0118
PoliceThames Valley
FireRoyal Berkshire
AmbulanceSouth Central
UK Parliament
WebsiteWargrave Parish Council
List of places
UK
England
Berkshire
51°29′56″N 0°52′01″W / 51.499°N 0.867°W / 51.499; -0.867

Wargrave (

civil parish in Berkshire, England. The village is primarily on the River Thames but also along the confluence of the River Loddon and lies on the border with southern Oxfordshire. The village has many old listed buildings, two marinas with chandlery services for boats, a boating club and rises steeply to the northeast in the direction of Bowsey Hill, with higher parts of the village generally known as Upper Wargrave. In Upper Wargrave is a Recreation Ground with a cricket club, bowls club, football pitches and tennis
club.

Wargrave is situated in the A321 road 7 miles (11 km) from both

London Paddington; the village is quickly accessible to nearby parts of the M4 corridor, particularly Berkshire and Heathrow Airport and local major centres of employment include Reading and Maidenhead, with smaller businesses and additional commercial facilities in nearby Henley-on-Thames and Wokingham
.

History

Original forms of name

The name Wargrave is derived from 'Weir-Grove', as it was in the

medieval times recorded as 'Weregreave',[1] settling on a slightly different pronunciation after the Great Vowel Shift rendering it Wargrave.[2]

Early history

Church Street, c. 1888 by Henry Taunt
St Mary's parish church

The first documentary evidence of the settlement was recorded in 1061 which indicates that it was a village and had a

feudal system. The Domesday Book of 1086 records the settlement as having a population of 250.[1]
In the 13th century the current High Street was lined with plots and backstreets developed.

Wargrave Court was erected in the early

sash windows flanked by a single bays with similar windows: all windows have architrave surrounds, with the ground floor windows having Victorian panes. This section has a Doric veranda with coupled columns supporting entablature across the whole front. Flanking wings have two upper sash windows and venetian windows on their ground floor. Its Victorian south front has 5 bays repeating the design and a central porch of angle pilasters supporting entablature and blocking course. Above the double door is a radiating fanlight. The west front has a large Victorian semi-circular terrace in front.[4]

The village continued to develop into its current form in the 18th century growing up the hill from the High Street eastwards so that by the end of the 19th century this axis, now Victoria Road, was fully settled.

Post Industrial Revolution

In the 20th century the village's population grew significantly, especially in the 1970s and 1980s[

Sir Edwin Lutyens and unveiled on 28 May 1922. It is a grade II listed building.[5]

The Hannen Columbarium

Geography

The village encloses in its west the confluence of the River Loddon and the River Thames. It is on the A321 north–south road between Twyford and Henley-on-Thames. On the opposite bank of the River Thames are the villages of Shiplake and Lower Shiplake. When taken as its civil parish, such as in all of its history and in civil parish council provision of footpath maintenance and annual village events, it includes Hare Hatch and Cockpole Green. These largest hamlets rely on Wargrave's businesses (such as post office, shops, hairdressing and other usual large village services) and for education.

2011 census.[7]

Governance

Wargrave has its own

parliamentary constituency of Maidenhead
.

Christian buildings and memorials

The

Grade II* listed building.[9]

In the gardens of the churchyard is the

abolitionist, is also buried in the churchyard, after being fatally thrown from his horse. The Roman Catholic church of Our Lady of Peace was built in 1963 and is supported by the Parish of Saint Thomas More of the neighbouring village, Twyford
.

The river

River Thames in Wargrave

There are

dinghies, dongolas and skiffs. It is the largest community event of the year having taken place since 1867.[11]
The event ends with a large firework display on the Saturday night.

Wargrave is mentioned in Jerome K. Jerome's, 1889 book Three Men in a Boat, a humorous account of a boating holiday on the River Thames:

We caught a breeze, after lunch, which took us gently up past Wargrave and

Sandford and Merton
, lived and—more credit to the place still—was killed at Wargrave.

— Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men in a Boat, Chapter XIV

Amenities

At one time there were seven

St George and Dragon. The Queen Victoria public house in Hare Hatch recently closed and is being redeveloped into housing. Wargrave has its own primary school, which is split into the infant school and junior school, and a secondary academy school – The Piggott School formerly a comprehensive school, now an academy. Each is a Church of England voluntary controlled school
and are also feeder schools to each other. They are all named after Robert Piggott.

Demography

Wargrave is recorded since at least the

ward is redrawn typically every 12 years to roughly even out the population between such wards. It covers a similar area. As is common across the United Kingdom, the RG10 postcode of the mid-county-covering Reading post town is for postal convenience and bears a slight relation to the largest administrative border as currently drawn. Key statistics from both administrative areas are shown in the table below together with the nucleus of Wargrave twin census Lower Level Super Output Areas which omits a few communities of Wargrave which are isolated by buffering
fields and woodlands.

2011 Census key statistics
Output area Population Homes % Owned outright % Owned with a loan km2 km2 Greenspace[n 1] km2 gardens km2 road and rail[7]
Wargrave (civil parish) 3,803 1,570 41.2% 35.8% 16.28 13.76 1.45 0.41
Wargrave (Wokingham 001B and 1C) 3,025 1,234 41.2% 37.3% 6.41 4.84 0.82 0.23
Remenham, Wargrave and Ruscombe (ward) 5,421 2,272 41.6% 34.1% 30.12 26.42 2.02 0.73[7]

Notable residents

Nearest places

Notes

  1. ^ Comprises cultivated fields, pasture, woodland, public parks and a little marshland at the confluence of the River Loddon.

References

  1. ^ a b Wargrave Local History Society: A Potted History of the Village
  2. ^ a b David Nash Ford's Royal Berkshire History: Wargrave
  3. ^ Wargrave Court Historic England. "Details from listed building database (1290406)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 8 June 2013.
  4. ^ Wargrave Manor Historic England. "Details from listed building database (1155057)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 8 June 2013.
  5. ^ Historic England. "Wargrave War Memorial (1319107)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 11 September 2016.
  6. ^ Association of Train Operating Companies – official timetable
  7. ^
    United Kingdom Census 2011 and 2005 Land Use Statistics Office for National Statistics
    . Retrieved 25 November 2014
  8. ^ "Parish Churches". St Mary's Wargrave with Knowl Hill. Retrieved 19 September 2012.
  9. ^ St Mary's Church Historic England. "Details from listed building database (1155023)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 8 June 2013.
  10. ^ See description of the Hannen Mausoleum at http://www.mausolea-monuments.org.uk.
  11. ^ Wargrave & Shiplake Regatta: History of the Wargrave & Shiplake Regatta

Sources

  • Gray, R. and Griffiths, S. (eds) (1986), The Book of Wargrave, Wargrave: Wargrave Local History Society,
    ISBN 0 9511878 05

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wargrave.
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