History Month Fact 27: British School Closes
27 May 2009
The British School in Church Lane closes in 1913. This is because it is too overcrowded. Pupils move to the new Council School on the London Road, later called the Francis Baily School.
Facts
History Month Fact 26: Coach and van works
26 May 2009
In 1911, A.H and C.G Brown expand their business and open a “coach and van works”, called the Broadway Motor Works, in the Broadway next to the King’s Head. The company managed to keep training until 1990.
History Month Fact 25: Samuel Barfield
25 May 2009
Samuel Barfield wrote the book “Thatcham, Berks, and its Manors” but died in 1899, before it could be published. James Parker took on the material and had it published in 1901. To this day the book remains one of the most complete histories of Thatcham. It is spread over two volumes, one containing the appendices …
History Month Fact 24: Employment
24 May 2009
For those who could not find employment here in Thatcham in the late nineteenth-century, but who were young enough to risk trying to make a fresh start, there was always emigration. Thousands of people left England in the nineteenth-century to seek a new life in a new country, including many from Thatcham. A “goodbye supper” …
History Month Fact 23: St Mark’s Church
23 May 2009
John Barfield, solicitor of the Priory in Church Lane, conveys land next to the Independent Chapel in Church Lane to be used for the British School (Non conformist). It opens in 1847 largely as result of the efforts of Mrs Barfield.