History
History of Binfield Heath
Overview
The Villages we know today as Binfield Heath and Crowsley once belonged to the ‘Hundred’ of Binfield, together with neighbouring Shiplake, Henley, Caversham, Wyfold, Rotherfield Greys, Peppard, Sonning Common, Kidmore End and Mapledurham. Introduced in Saxon times, Hundreds were sub-divisions of a county for the administration of civil justice.
Invading Saxon territory in the 9th century, legend has it that the Vikings came up the Thames as far as Shiplake.
As houses were built around the small settlements away from the river, the majority of the old boundaries radiated like spokes in a wheel from the Thames up to higher ground. The old parish of Shiplake followed the Anglo-Saxon manorial division of lands in South Oxfordshire, with strips rising from the river frontage through water meadows to the higher woodlands, stretching almost to Sonning Common.
Binfield Heath takes its name from the Saxon hundred of Binfield to which it belonged, along with much of the locality. The name Binfield itself derives from Benifeld, noted in 1176 with later variant spellings, and may come from an original Beonan field, ‘a field belonging to Beona’.
Because of the poor quality of land in this area it was left as heath, roughly in the centre of what is now the village. The heath was originally common land, lying between what is now Dunsden Way, Gravel Road, Emmer Green Road and Common Lane. The heath had four gates leading onto it, one each at the Bottle & Glass, the New Inn, the Coach and Horses (both now private houses) and Coppid Cross Roads. Local inhabitants had the right to pasture their animals on it.
Up to the late 18th century, there were only two roads of any importance, one from Reading through Emmer Green to Henley and the second from Shiplake Mill via the church through Shiplake Row across the heath and on to Shiplake Bottom (Sonning Common) via Crowsley. These two roads crossed near Coppid Hall. Small communities developed along the road at Shiplake Row in Binfield Heath and at Crowsley. This route provided the only road access to Shiplake until the present A4155 was constructed in 1769.
The focus shifted from Shiplake Row once the Great Western Railway was constructed and land was sold by the Lashbrook and Bolney estates for house building in Shiplake at the turn of the century. Shiplake Row gradually became part of Binfield Heath, its history and origins enshrined in its name.
Until the late 18th century the heath carried the main routes through from Peppard to Shiplake and from Reading to Henley. The village became a useful through-route and has always boasted plenty of welcoming watering holes – two of an original five still exist today.
In 1867 the enclosure of the common land or heath was initiated principally by the Baskerville family of Crowsley. This was in return for the transfer of two areas of land by Coppid Cross Roads, one area for allotments for the ‘working poor’ and another area of land for recreation, together with various fencing and ditching and the construction of a new road (now Common Lane) from the Bottle and Glass pub to Arch Hill. Subsequently the whole heath, which was poor, gorse-covered agricultural land, and some surrounding farmland passed to the Phillimore family of Coppid Hall. The centre of the old heath is still mainly farmland and woodland.
Binfield Heath Parish Council was formed in 2003: one of the first new civil parishes to be created in the new millennium. Previously, one third of Binfield Heath had been in Eye & Dunsden parish and the other two-thirds in Shiplake. A referendum of residents, held by the Boundary Commission, showed a large majority of people in favour of uniting the village and running their own affairs. The new civil parish was created, taking in the whole of the village, together with the hamlet of Crowsley.
Linked by history, landscape, church, school and community, all these villages have always been, and will continue to be, closely intertwined.
Brickmaking
When Binfield Heath was a scattering of cottages centred around ponds, farms and greens it would have been a self-sufficient community of farm labourers, blacksmiths, bodgers, woodsmen, gardeners, estate workers and house servants.
A hundred years ago, there would have been no men living in Binfield Heath who were not also working there. The majority would have been farm labourers. Around the turn of the century, the agricultural depression led to the closure of many farms. An alternative employment opportunity entered the community in the form of two kilns - Comp Kiln and Shiplake Kiln.
Not only did this provide a range of jobs, from kiln stoke, brick cutter, brick moulder, to clay digger and kiln stacker, but the output from the kilns resulted in an increase in building. This provided further work for brickies, carpenters, hog-carriers and tilers. The name Kiln Lane and a tiny square brick building at the entrance to Kiln Land are almost the last remaining indication that there once was a brickworks there. The works began in about 1869 and lasted until 1935. Over that period Shiplake Kiln, together with Comp Kiln, provided not only local employment but bricks for houses, which altered forever the size, shape and prosperity of the area.
The production of the bricks and roof tiles was labour intensive. The clay had to be dug by hand during winter, loaded into wheelbarrows and taken up the sides of the pit, which could be 25 feet deep. Hand-made bricks were manufactured throughout the life of the works but later machine bricks were also produced. The bricks were fired in a clamp kiln, which was just a pile of bricks with coal dust sprinkled between them, covered with old bricks and coaxed alight. It would be left to burn itself out over a period of two or three weeks. A pair of cottages, Kiln Cottages, was built opposite the kiln to ensure that the stokers or ‘burners’ were always on hand. The cottages are still there.
Gradually brick making became mechanised with winches to raise the raw clay, a machine brick maker and a sophisticated kiln. Finished bricks were delivered by traction engine towing two flat trucks, travelling up to a week away.
This supply of bricks led to the rise of the speculative builder and a programme of building provided employment which continued until Shiplake Kiln was blown up on 11 October 1935. In part this was because reserves of clay were believed to be running out but it was also the result of litigation between the land owner and the proprietor of the kiln. Rather than pay the proprietor £2,500 for the loss of the lease, he called in the Royal Engineers to blow up chimney and kiln.
Many villagers still remember that event. George Englefield, who spent part of his childhood in the village and has since returned, recalls: “I well remember the trucks full of clay on the narrow gauge railtrack, crossing the lane to the brick-works. The clay was dug out from a site on the edge of the wood behind the houses, crossing the lane diagonally down hill to the works. When the kiln closed, the army arrived to demolish the buildings over two to three days. The highlight came at lunch time one day when the tall chimney was blown up. Bricks and debris were strewn over a wide area including the field opposite, over which children swarmed as soon as the dust settled, vying with each other to find the bricks furthest from the site. A great thrill for a small boy!”
Today, Shiplake Kiln bricks, clearly marked, are highly prized.
Family businesses
Ernest James Povey started his coal business while living in a bungalow in New Road, Binfield Heath. He transferred the business to the George and Dragon pub, close to Gravel Road, where his brother was landlord and his parents also lived, just before the second world war. Although the coal business was managed there, no coal was stored at the pub. Instead it was brought daily from the railway sidings in Reading. In 1955, when the brewery closed the pub, Ernie bought the property and it became a coal yard. Later, in partnership with his two sons he established a thriving business until gas became available through the local villages; the business closed in 1988. Jean Povey has traced the Poveys back 13 generations to 1679, most of them local to the area.
The Forge Garage
The Forge Garage in the village centre has maintained everything from pre-war tractors to present day Range Rovers. Three generations of the Cotterill family have looked after vehicles and machinery for local owners for nearly 60 years.
The business was started by Dick Cotterill and shouldering the workload now are his son Mervyn and grandson Martin. Granddaughter, Sarah deals with reception and paperwork and Mervyn's wife, Pauline, also helps out, taking cars for MOT tests or collecting parts. This is a real, independent family business.
Dick trained on Fordson tractors and all sorts of farm machinery. He worked at the agricultural repair shop in the barns of Sonning Eye, then went to Stacey's (now Manor Coach Works) in Common Lane. When he took over the Forge Garage in 1964 from village blacksmith, Fred Jenkins, most of his work was with the Phillimore farm machinery. "We did everything from cars to tractors and harvesters," he recalls. "Not just mending them, but welding too. Cars were not so sophisticated then. You didn't have all the electronics and locking devices.”
Mervyn joined his father in the business the same year. Apart from adding an extension for the office and a roof over the ramp area, the garage is still much as it was. "In fact we've still got some of the old tools we inherited from Fred and they're still used from time to time - like the old reamer set of king pins and brushes and the old arc welder. In the early days we used to do absolutely anything mechanical for our customers - including putting handles on old spades and forks and servicing lawn mowers. Now it costs less to buy new tools - and we just don't have the time.
"The old cars were easier to work on but the new ones are better to drive. But a lot of the knowledge is the same,” says Mervyn. "We have a great base of loyal customers and are well known for never giving up on old cars. We never dismiss a car as a write off until we've tried everything! This is a small business and it's getting harder to keep going in face of the big competition but many people still appreciate personal service and a garage they know.”
Mervyn and Pauline bought the house next to the garage when they acquired the freehold for the business. Sarah and Martin live nearby. “I have no idea whether little garages like us can keep on indefinitely or whether there might one day be a job for my son too - but I'd like to think so," adds Martin.
Architecture
The scattered village of Binfield Heath grew out of groups of houses, a few subsistence farms and tiny hamlets roughly arranged around a central heath.
Shiplake Row was among the earliest roads to be populated and there are a large number of old properties within a small area: Holmwood Farmhouse, The Old House, Tea Pot Cottage (formerly Dormons), Well Cottage, Shiplake Rise Farm, The White Hart and Walnut Cottage, all of which may have 17th century origins. In addition there was Keeps Farm, towards the top of Keeps Lane, which was pulled down in the 1800s.
Many of the oldest cottages in Binfield Heath village may survive from the 16th and 17th centuries and still stand picturesque in their timber and thatch, although it is thought that some even older cottages may have disappeared long ago.
The majority of early housing in Binfield Heath was predominantly for agricultural labourers. Through the centuries various parts of the heath developed in an uneven fashion, much of it hidden to the casual passer-by.
Between 1869 and 1935, the kilns in the village resulted in an expansion of housing. The late Victorian, early Edwardian development period produced a range of ‘villas’, semi-detached and detached houses in characteristic purple and red bricks from the brick works in Kiln Lane.
Building continued to be sporadic and just before the turn of the last century houses began to be constructed along Heathfield Avenue, Gravel Road and at a few other isolated sites using bricks made in Kiln Lane.
Between the world wars there was more development with infilling between existing houses. There followed a lull in building activity until post-war council houses and bungalows were built as part of a strategy of expansion. These estates, generally constructed of new bricks and concrete slabs, were in New Road, off Kiln Lane and Heath Drive, off Gravel Road.
Regrettably, with one or two exceptions, the quality of design at this period was poor but the village still retained its rural character. The estate built in the centre, in the1960s, sadly had little harmony with its surroundings, a close of ‘commuter homes’, opposite the former village pond. This land became available when owners of Holmwood had to sell it to offset death duties.
With greater regard for local architectural history, a small group of houses was created in King’s Common Close, reflecting earlier cottage styles, in 2001. There has been very little other new building, although some houses are extended and improved when they change hands. A few barns and a set of pig shelters have been turned into interesting homes. The most recent total renovation was Hollow Tree Cottage, sympathetically converted to a modern from its original form with earth floors, a central wood fire and without electricity or running water!
Although much of the village is not classically pretty it nevertheless retains an open, scattered, rural aspect and an eclectic mix of houses, many with large gardens. The twin factors of the availability of housing and employment has directly influenced the population, which has remained stable for years. Today, the village is still protected by a general presumption against development by South Oxfordshire District Council planners.
Altered over the years: Laundry Cottage, Binfield Heath, as the name suggests, was once the laundry for Coppid Hall. Alfred and Elizabeth Clark ran the laundry for the Phillimore family at the turn of the last century. Linen was brought by horse and cart both from Coppid Hall up the road and from the family home in west London. The large iron was heated over the fire and there was a tiny one ‘to deal with the fine frills’. Modernised and extended over the years, the laundry is now a private house, still owned, as many cottages in this village, by the Phillimore Estate.
Church
Binfield Heath does not have its own parish church: it lies in the ecclesiastical parish of Shiplake with Dunsden and Harpsden cum Bolney. The nearest CofE churches are in Dunsden and Shiplake and villagers use both.
As the village grew modestly in the early 19th century, there was a need for a convenient local place of worship. The Congregational Church at Binfield Heath, known locally as ‘the chapel’, was built in 1835. The initiative came from the Rev James Sherman, an active and charismatic preacher in the Castle Street Chapel in Reading. With support from the Countess of Huntingdon, he started what became known as Reading ‘stations’. Binfield Heath is one of only two to survive as churches. An opportunity arose to buy land in Binfield Heath and there was local support but no local money. That came liberally and unexpectedly from a Reading patron, Mrs Sarah Adams. The land was bought and ‘a very pretty church with tower and bell with a schoolroom attached was in the course of twelve months erected’. The church is built in Bath Stone in the Gothic Revival style. In the early days the preacher would walk from Caversham Hill to Binfield Heath and on to Wargrave each Sunday. Even now with a much smaller congregation, two services are held, with preachers coming from a variety of churches and chapels.
There is one more strand in the history of worship here: Ted Lammas remembers that when he was a boy in the 1920s and 1930s the pastor of the church was Mr Robert Lochhead. He had come to the church from the Salvation Army and felt very strongly that he should take the message of God to the people. On Tuesday evenings, open air meetings were held at Mays Green, at the Bottle and Glass, and at Heathfield Avenue. Here, to quote Ted, they would “sing hymns and shout out the Gospel to the villagers”. The Mission Room A parish school was built at the crossroads at Coppice Farm in 1847. From 1859 to 1869 services were also held there while Shiplake Church was being restored. Later, with the addition of a small apse at the west end, it was used as a mission hall. In 1871, when the new school was built at Shiplake Cross, the building was purchased by Sir Robert Phillimore.
Occasional services were held there in the second world war, apparently monthly, with the second Lord Phillimore serving as a licensed lay-reader. The historian, Reginald Ford, records great disappointment when these were discontinued around 1948. The former school, chapel and mission hall is now a house.