Barkham

Barkham is a village and civil parish in the Royal County of Berkshire in England, just south-east of and almost joined to Wokingham.

Government

Barkham is administered by the unitary authority of Wokingham District, as well as its own parish council of nine councillors.

Geography

Barkham proper is a small hamlet alongside Barkham Street, the location of the Barkham Antiques Centre, and adjoining the parish church, at gbmapping|SU781666. However most of the population live in the north-east of the parish, around the post office, or in the Arborfield Garrison, which is largely in Barkham, as is the REME Museum of Technology. It is a rural parish, mostly consisting of dairy farmland and woods, despite being surrounded by the towns of Wokingham and Winnersh and the large villages of Arborfield Cross and Finchampstead.

History

The name "Barkham" means "Birch Home" referring to a settlement near the birch trees on the edge of Windsor Forest. In King Edward III's reign, the income from Barkham Manor helped pay for the rebuilding of Windsor Castle and, not long afterwards, wood from Barkham trees was sent to make the roof of Westminster Abbey. For many centuries, the manor house, in the moat by the church, was a secondary home of the well-known Bullock family. The local pub is named after them. They had inherited it from the family of William Neville, a 13th century valet to St. Thomas Cantilupe, the Bishop of Hereford and Chancellor of England, from whom the manor was originally purchased. Another local farming family, the Balls, were the ancestors of George Washington's mother.

External links

* [http://www.barkham.org.uk/ Barkham Village]
* [http://www.berkshirehistory.com/villages/barkham.html Royal Berkshire History: Barkham]