Earley - History

History

Evidence of early man has been found in several locations around Earley. For example, a hand axe was found in the railway cutting; flint implements in a garden in Elm Lane; and hand axes in the gardens in Fowler Close and Silverdale Road. Most of these finds are thought to date from the late Paleolithic period around 35,000 years ago. Traces of flimsy shelters from the Mesolithic were discovered at the site of the old power station at Thames Valley Park in North Earley. Tools from that time have also been found, including a flint blade found in a garden in Silverdale Road. Archaeological evidence for continued human presence during the Bronze Age and Iron Age was also discovered on the site of Thames Valley Business Park and Roman remains were found on a building site off Meadow Road.

Earley is mentioned in Domesday Book, with two main manors: Erleigh St Bartholomew, later known as Erleigh Court; and Erleigh St Nicolas, later Erleigh White Knights. In Domesday Earley is "held by Osbern Giffard from the King, previously Dunn held it from King Edward in freehold. The value was 100 shillings, later 60 shillings, now £4".

The de Erleighs held the manors of St Bartholemew and St Nicolas for some centuries. John de Erleigh was known as the White Knight, hence the renaming of the manor of Erleigh St Nicolas to Whiteknights. More recently Whiteknights estate was owned by the Englefields from 1606 to 1798 and then by the Marquis of Blandford, later the 5th Duke of Marlborough.

The manor of Maiden Erleigh was formed out of the Manor of Erlegh, as a gift of land by John De Erlegh to Robert De Erlegh in 1362. Later it was transferred to Charles Hide of Abingdon. In 1673 the estate was sold to Valentine Crome, after many changes of ownership at the end of the 18th century it belonged to William Matthew Birt who was Governor General of the Leeward Islands. In 1818 the property passed to the Rt Hon Edward Golding, MP for Downton in Wiltshire. In 1878 it was purchased by John Hargreaves, Master of the South Berks Hunt, who founded a course where hunt and yeomanry (similar to modern hunter chases) races were run. The course extended over an area now covered by Sutcliffe Avenue, Hillside Road and Mill Lane. The grandstand stood on an area opposite Loddon Infant School. The estate was purchased in 1903 by the millionaire Solly Joel, well known in horse racing circles, who had a racecourse on the estate, the racecourse was demolished during the first world war and the grandstand was re-erected at Newbury Racecourse. He donated a piece of his land to the village to be used for sporting purposes: the park and pavilion were opened by the Duke of York, later King George VI, in 1927 and, as Sol Joel Park, the park and the original pavilion are used to this day.

The estate of Bulmershe Court once belonged to the Abbey of Reading. In the 18th century it was the home of Henry Addington, Viscount Sidmouth, Prime Minister. Bulmershe College, part of the University of Reading, occupies this site.

Until 1888, Earley extended westwards from the Three Tuns crossroads down the Wokingham Road and into Reading. To enable this section to be linked into the drainage system, Reading extended its boundaries to the Three Tuns crossroads, and this part of Earley was incorporated into Reading. At that time, the centre of Earley was the crossroads and Saint Peters Church. Even today, some residents living over the boundary in Reading think of themselves as belonging to Earley even though they pay their council tax to Reading Borough Council.

Reading University began as a University Extension College in 1892; it became the University of Reading in 1926 and acquired its new site, which straddles the boundary between Earley and Reading, in 1947. Of the six large villas on the estate four were designed by Waterhouse (Erleigh Park 1859, Whiteknights 1868, Foxhill 1868 and the Wilderness 1873). Waterhouse also designed Reading School (1865–71) in Erleigh Road, extended Pepper Manor, now Leighton Park School on Shinfield Road, in 1890 and built Grove House on the north of the same site (1892-4).

Earley grew rapidly both before and after World War II, and became a town in 1974. From 1977, the Lower Earley private estate was constructed, almost doubling the town's population to the current level. Two new primary schools were built, together with a large supermarket complex, which opened in 1979, and a sports centre. In 1988 a second shopping area, Maiden Place, opened. An additional secondary school was planned roughly opposite the sports centre next to Rushey Way, possibly on the site next to the police station. However the school never materialised, and the land was built on.

Listed Buildings

Despite its generally 19th and 20th century appearance Earley has some remnants of its older past hidden in amongst the newer development. The following buildings in Earley Town are currently listed by English Heritage as being of special architectural or historic interest:

• 25 Church Road - 1820's cottage red and grey chequered brick;
• Church of St Peter, Church Road - 1844 grey vitreous brick, aisles and change added 1882-3;
• Rusheymead, Cutbush Close - late C16 timber framed house altered in C19 and C20;
• Radstock Cottage, 1 Radstock Lane - early C17 timber framed cottage altered and extended in mid C20;
• Foxhill, Whiteknights Park - 1868 large house in red brick diaper pattern, now students hall of residence;
• Former stables and coach house Immediately north east of Foxhill House, Whiteknights Park;
• Landscape garden feature, Whiteknights Park - early C19;
• North Lodge, Whiteknights Road- early C19 gate lodge;
• South Lodge, Whiteknights Road - early C19 gate lodge;
• The Lodge, Whiteknights Road - 1868 red brick lodge to Foxhill;
• Bridge at Sindlesham Mill - C19 road bridge over mill stream (note this is in Earley not Woodley);
• Sindlesham Farmhouse - C18 altered C20, brick rendered and painted;
• Blandford Lodge, Chancellors Way, Whiteknights Park - C19 grey brick;
• Reading War Room ('The Citadel'), University of Reading, Whiteknights - 1953 concrete war room;
• Sindlesham Mill Mill Lane - C19 watermill now restaurant and club;
• The George Inn, Loddon Bridge Road - C18 inn now public house;