Blog – Nickbits

Thatcham Twinned with Nideggen

Nick — Mon, 19 Jan 2026 21:28:08 +0000

Thatcham has been twinned with Nideggen, Germany, since 1973 but how did it come about and what has the partnership achieve? A big thank you to Franz-Josef Brandenburg[1] and Peter Routledge[2] for their fantastic help in putting this article together, there is more to come on this topic. Although there was a great deal of work being done it was not until 1973 that the Thatcham Twin…

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The Poplars

Nick — Mon, 10 Mar 2025 09:19:03 +0000

The Poplars, now known as Bradley Moore House and is home to the Cedars Dental Care, is a building that dates back to the 1700s and has played a crucial role in Thatcham’s history. Below is a short history of the building. The general thought is that the building dates to c.1744. However a few points to note. Historic England[1] note the building, on the listed entry record…

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Thatcham, a village or town?

Nick — Sun, 04 Aug 2024 11:08:10 +0000

Straight to the point, Thatcham is today a town. But why the confusion when we have Thatcham Town Council, Thatcham Town Football Club, and so on? At the time of Domesday, 1086, Thatcham was the centre of a Hundred, an administrative area. By the 12th century, if not before, Thatcham had a market and by c.1300 Thatcham had became a Borough. The exact details and charters have long since been…

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The Dunston Estate

Nick — Mon, 09 Oct 2023 20:40:09 +0000

I have mentioned Dunston House/Estate before, however in preparing for a new historical plaque to mark the location of the site I have been conducting more research. This post documents some of that research. Please do note this is a brief account and some details may be left out. I plan to continue the research and produce a small booklet when I get to the stage I feel it tells most of…

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Listed, Lasted, Lost (part 2)

Nick — Mon, 27 Mar 2023 11:35:51 +0000

In the previous post we looked at what listed building means and a few examples. I will post more on these buildings in Thatcham in future posts. Just the same as you can have a building listed you can apply to have a listed building removed, or rather delisted. A building that is on the national list can be removed, delisted, for a number of reasons. In some cases it is because the criteria may…

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Listed, Lasted, Lost (part 1)

Nick — Thu, 10 Nov 2022 22:13:24 +0000

There have been many historic buildings in Thatcham, some are still there while others have been demolished, some have been listed (nationally or locally), some are scheduled monuments, but what does it all mean and what do we have in Thatcham? Before we get to what a listed building is, a bit of background to the system is useful. The Town and Country Planning Acts of 1944 and 1947…

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Rethinking Saxon Thatcham

Nick — Fri, 05 Aug 2022 10:57:03 +0000

Most local history resources will tell you modern Thatcham stems from the Saxon period, and rightly so. We know from the written record Thatcham, the name at least, is Saxon in origin. Many also believe that any remains of the Saxon settlement lay underneath the modern town centre, namely the Broadway and High Street, but is this the case? A side note, the Saxon period is no longer referred…

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Is Thatcham unique in the World?

Nick — Wed, 25 May 2022 07:02:00 +0000

A few posts ago I looked at other settlements named Newbury around the World. With Thatcham it is a different story, try as I might I cannot find another settlement called Thatcham. If you know of any please do get in touch so I can add to my Thatcham history research. There are similar names, […]

A history of the name Thatcham

Nick — Thu, 05 May 2022 19:52:16 +0000

I wrote a post back in 2017, “The name of Thatcham“, detailing the history of the name of Thatcham. A few updates and more details are discussed in this post. The local myth is that when the people were stood thinking how to roof their buildings a figure (some say red with horns) suddenly appeared and shouted “Thatch-em.” As fascinating and amusing as this is it leads to the second thing…

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A Library in Thatcham

Nick — Fri, 15 Apr 2022 08:38:12 +0000

A parochial lending library was setup in 1843 and was to see to the spiritual needs of the poor[1]. Thatcham had another library in 1849 created by Mrs Barfield of Priory House, now The Priory, and opened on 8th November 1849[2]. This was a circulating library, you paid a subscription to use the service. This operated out of the British School-room and had over 400 items for loan.

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