Ufton Nervet
Coordinates: 51°24′11″N 1°05′17″W / 51.403°N 1.088°W
| Ufton Nervet | |
 Ufton Court, near Ufton Nervet |
|
 Ufton Nervet
Ufton Nervet shown within Berkshire |
|
| Population | 321 (2001 Census) |
|---|---|
| OS grid reference | SU6367 |
| Civil parish | Ufton Nervet |
| Unitary authority | West Berkshire |
| Ceremonial county | Berkshire |
| Region | South East |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Reading |
| Postcode district | RG7 |
| Dialling code | 0118 |
| Police | Thames Valley |
| Fire | Royal Berkshire |
| Ambulance | South Central |
| EU Parliament | South East England |
| UK Parliament | Wokingham |
| Website | Sulhamstead and Ufton Nervet |
| List of places: UK • England • Berkshire | |
Ufton Nervet is a village and civil parish about 6 miles (10 km) southwest of Reading, Berkshire, England.
Contents |
[edit] Location
Ufton Nervet village is in hills south of the River Kennet, and its parish stretches down into the valley to the north as far as the A4 road. Two narrow lanes connect the village to the A4, crossing the Kennet and Avon Canal and the Great Western Railway line in the valley bottom. Both lanes cross the canal by swing bridges. The smaller lane passes through Ufton Green, crossing the railway by the level crossing involved in the rail crash, and the other by an overbridge. Other lanes connect the village with other villages on the higher ground above the valley. To the north lies the village and parish of Sulhamstead; Padworth is to the south west and Burghfield Common to the east. On the Kennett and Avon canal is Ufton Lock, now de-gated.
[edit] Local government
Ufton Nervet is a civil parish with an elected parish council. It is in the area of West Berkshire unitary authority.
[edit] History
An excavation at Ufton Green revealed a site which showed evidence of stone-working for the manufacture of tools or weapons and a number of scattered stone artefacts dating from the Mesolithic era.[1]
The toponym Ufton is derived from the Old English Uffa-tūn = "Uffa's farmstead" and the Domesday Book of 1086 records it as Offetune.[2]
Three manors have existed in this area: Ufton Robert, Ufton Nervet and Ufton Pole. The Domesday Book records the first two.
The original Ufton Nervet, also known as Ufton Richard, was about 1 mile (1.6 km) north west of the current village, in the current location of Ufton Green. It had its own parish church of St John the Baptist, the ruined west wall of which still survives. The place was named after Richard Neyrvut, later corrupted to Nervet, who held the manor in the 13th century.
Ufton Robert manor house was just west of the current village and had a moat, which still survives. Excavations in the 19th century found bridge piles, a gateway and other foundations. The moat is also part of a set of linked medieval fishponds fed from an artificial stream which flowed into the south pond. The water was controlled to the ponds and moat by a series of sluices.[3] The manor came into the hands of the Perkyns family around 1411. When they bought the manor of Ufton Pole in 1560 the two manors were combined and the main residence moved to Ufton Pole, which is now Ufton Court, a large Elizabethan manor house south-west of the village.
In 1434–35 the parishes of Ufton Nervet and Ufton Robert were merged and Ufton Robert's parish church of St Peter became the church of the merged parish. Although the original parish of Ufton Nervet had ceased to exist, this eventually became the name of the current village and parish.
[edit] Parish church
The Church of England parish church of Saint Peter was built in 1862, on the site of an earlier church, in a 14th century Gothic Revival style. The walls are predominantly a dark grey rag-stone with ashlar dressings. It has a chancel, north chapel (used as an organ chamber), nave of three bays, west tower with tall octagonal shingled spire, and south porch.[4] In front of the porch is a fine old yew tree. The church is now redundant and no longer used for worship.[citation needed]
[edit] Rail crash
The Ufton Nervet rail crash took place in the parish on the 6 November 2004. Seven people were killed when a First Great Western train from Paddington to Plymouth was derailed by colliding with a stationary car on an unmanned level crossing.
[edit] References
- ^ "National Monuments Record (Monument No. 1213740)". http://www.pastscape.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=1213740.
- ^ "The Domesday Book Online: Berkshire N-Z". http://www.domesdaybook.co.uk/berkshire3.html.
- ^ "National Monuments Record (Monument No. 240946)". http://www.pastscape.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=240946.
- ^ "National Monuments Record (St Peter's Church)". http://www.pastscape.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=1208593.
[edit] Sources and further reading
- Page, W.H.; Ditchfield, P.H., eds. (1923). A History of the County of Berkshire, Volume 3. Victoria County History. pp. 437–444. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=43241.
- Pevsner, Nikolaus (1966). Berkshire. The Buildings of England. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. p. 246.
[edit] External links
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ufton Nervet |
