Cold Ash

Coordinates: 51°25′26″N 1°15′50″W / 51.424°N 1.264°W / 51.424; -1.264

Cold Ash
St Mark Church
Cold Ash  Cold Ash shown within Berkshire
Population	3,623 (2001)
OS grid reference	SU5169
Parish	Cold Ash
Unitary authority	West Berkshire
Ceremonial county	Berkshire
Region	South East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Thatcham
Postcode district	RG18
Dialling code	01635
Police	Thames Valley
Fire	Royal Berkshire
Ambulance	South Central
EU Parliament	South East England
UK Parliament	Newbury
Website	Cold Ash Village Net
List of places: UK • England • Berkshire

Cold Ash is a village and civil parish in West Berkshire about 1 mile (1.6 km) north of Thatcham and 2.5 miles (4.0 km) north east of Newbury.

In the 2001 Census, Cold Ash had the highest proportion of women to men for any urban area in the United Kingdom.^{[citation needed]}

History

The Church of England parish church of Saint Mark was designed by the architect C.N. Beazley and built in 1864-65.^[1][2]

Downe House School, a girls' boarding school, has been in Cold Ash since 1922. It was founded in 1907 by Olive Willis and moved to the Cloisters in Cold Ash when its original site, Downe House, Charles Darwin's former home near Bromley in Kent, became too small for the school.^[3]

Cold Ash started off as a cattle track, which houses got built around and then a proper road (without foundations, so driving is sometimes slow around the area) was built. Many of the houses are from the Victorian era, when it was used for farm land. Whilst now the houses are mainly occupied by the elderly and doctors, there are still some, such as Ashmore Green Farm, in the area.

Amenities

Cold Ash Post Office

Cold Ash has two public houses, the Castle Inn and the Spotted Dog, as well as The Sun in the Wood, in close-by (and in the same parish) Ashmore Green. The Sun in the Wood is a more restaurant, the Castle being very traditionally pub-like and the Spotted Dog a sort of mixture of the two. Cold Ash has a Women's Institute.^[4] Cold ash also has a primary school called St. Marks, from the name of the Parish, with roughly 150-200 pupils from the ages of 4-11.

The Acland Hall and recreational ground (commonly known as the 'rec') is also in Cold Ash. The Hall is used for many events, however they don't allow the residents to do 18th and 21st birthday parties, as the mess can be costly. The park is fairly small, although it also has 2 tennis courts. There is lots of land, used for football and cricket.

A quote from a resident: "there really isn't anything good in Cold Ash apart from the Post Office." It is also quite well known for the housing, some of which dates back to early Victorian days, and there are several small businesses based in Cold Ash.

See also

• List of places in Berkshire
• List of civil parishes in Berkshire

References

1. ^ Sherwood, Jennifer; Pevsner, Nikolaus (1974). The Buildings of England: Oxfordshire. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. p. 117. ISBN 0 14 071045 0. 
2. ^ Cold Ash Village Net: Cold Ash - A Brief History of the Development of the Village by Reg. Piper, © 2001
3. ^ Downe House School: History
4. ^ Cold Ash Village Net: Clubs & Societies

External links

Media related to Cold Ash at Wikimedia Commons