22 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.
21 May 2009
Edward Winbolt, master of Thatcham workhouse, dies in 1835. The workhouse closes in 1837, becoming a private house that is later split into four cottages. It had probably existed from c.1782 or earlier.
20 May 2009
The Swing Riots start in Berkshire at Thatcham in 1830. A small group of labourers tours the local farms collecting others, and up to 300 gather in the churchyard to ask for more work and higher wages. They are met by members of the Select Vestry who offer work but no extra pay.
19 May 2009
Around 1820, the last of Thatcham’s open fields are enclosed under the Enclosure Award of 1817. The Award is made mainly on the basis that it will lead to better farming practice, but it is one of the main causes of rural unemployment and depopulation.
18 May 2009
A mail coach service is introduced in 1784. Edward Fromont of The King’s Head is contracted to provide horses for the first Royal Mail coach. The coaches stop at Cooper’s Cottage (where Beverley Close is today) and the King’s Head and White Hart inns. The mail coach era lasts until the 1840s when the railway …