Blog entries for 2019

Nick giving a guided history tour.

Talks at Thatcham Festival

Ten years ago four local historians together with the local district archaeology officer started to create a book “Thatcham: An historic town in a changing world.” Sadly the leader of the project, Peter Allen, passed away before completion. I took over and we launched the book, in memory of Peter, at the Thatcham Festival of […]

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Long lost Thatcham pubs

I have uncovered and documented a number of Thatcham (including Cold Ash, Ashmore Green, Colthrop and Crookham) pubs, a few though still remain elusive. This post will name some of those that I have little for. This is a very brief summary of some of the pubs, I make a few assumptions and I have

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Roman Thatcham

Most know that modern Thatcham stems from the Saxons, many know there were people in the area before this so where were they if not in the modern town centre? In the 20th century the theory that the Roman road of Ermin Way crossed the Kennet to the east of Colthrop and cut across Henwick

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St Mary's Church before the restoration

What is the oldest building in Thatcham?

I am always being asked the question “What is the oldest building in Thatcham?” So first a clarification, typically the person asking is referring to standing building and not those already destroyed.  Thus in this article I am ignoring buildings that are no longer standing such as Chamberhouse Castle but will revisit them in a future post. People

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Chapel Street looking east

Chapel Street

Chapel Street in Thatcham has gone by a few different names including East Street and Duck Street. There are a number of places of historic interest along this stretch. Starting from the foreground there is the old cycle shop, which in the 1930’s was owned by Mr Gilbert.  A few doors down is the Wesleyan Methodist

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