October 2011\u2019s article for Loddon Reach is taken from the introduction composed by the late Barbara Debney of the Group\u2019s first book called Our Village of Spencers Wood.\u00a0\u00a0 The village originally lay within the boundaries of the Royal Windsor Forest.\u00a0 By 1300, the area of the Forest had been reduced because of a dispute between the King and the bishop of Salisbury where it was decreed \u201cwhatsoever\u00a0 is on the east side of the Lodona (River Loddon) in the county of Berkshire is the King\u2019s Forest\u201d.\u00a0 Roque\u2019s map of 1761 shows Spencers Wood no longer in the Royal Forest and with the Loddon as its western boundary.\u00a0 Thomas Pride\u2019s map of 1790 shows where Shinfield and Swallowfield were once partly in Wiltshire.<\/p>\n
In the 13th century, portions of Wokingham, Hurst, Shinfield and Swallowfield were held by William Lungespe, Earl of Salisbury and were administered through his court at Amesbury in Wiltshire.\u00a0 In her book, Swallowfield and its Owners, Lady Russell states, \u201cPart Lane in Swallowfield, was so called because it separated Swallowfield, Berks from Swallowfield, Wilts.\u201d\u00a0 It was not until 20th October, 1844 that these areas became part of Berkshire.\u00a0 Until the 1860s, Spencers Wood consisted mainly of common land but in 1863 the common land was enclosed and the majority of it was acquired separately by William Merry, who lived at Highlands and Frederick Allfrey, at Stanbury.<\/p>\n
The village evolved mainly as a ribbon development along the Basingstoke Road and some houses built in Victorian and Edwardian times can still be seen along the main road and around The Square.\u00a0 Most of these houses were built with bricks from the local brick kiln which was run by the Swain family.<\/p>\n
Originally, the village lay within the boundaries of the three ecclesiastical parishes of Shinfield, Swallowfield and Grazeley.\u00a0 On old maps of the area, a boundary stone is shown on the main road opposite the pond and a few yards to the north of what is now Spring Gardens.\u00a0 This stone marked the dividing line between the ecclesiastical parishes of Shinfield and Swallowfield.\u00a0 In 1908, the church of St Michael and All Angels was erected and following this, in 1913, the parish boundaries\u00a0 were realigned and Spencers Wood became a separate ecclesiastical parish in its own right.\u00a0 For civil administrative purposes Spencers Wood mostly comes under Shinfield Parish although some parts come under Swallowfield, which confuses me somewhat.<\/p>\n
In the 1880s, Spencers Wood grew rapidly; the population numbered some 600, a third of which were children, with the majority of adults working on the land or a domestic servants.\u00a0 A school was erected in 1890, by Frederick Allfrey, where the Library is today and closed in 1915, after the children were transferred to Lambs Lane School which had opened seven years earlier.
\nAt the turn of the century, a new Congregational Chapel was built in 1903 on Basingstoke Road replacing the old one built in 1837, at the bottom of Chapel Lane.\u00a0 The Institute, no longer there, followed the next year.\u00a0\u00a0 The village hall was erected in 1911 and celebrates its centenary this year.
\nThe M4 arrived circa 1970 dividing the parish and was followed by the Swallowfield Bypass separating Grazeley.\u00a0 Since then the parish has grown extensively and there is an enquiry in October about further development which we urge residents to attend to find out what is happening to our village.
\nLoddon Reach October 2011.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
October 2011\u2019s article for Loddon Reach is taken from the introduction composed by the late Barbara Debney of the Group\u2019s first book called Our Village of Spencers Wood.\u00a0\u00a0 The village originally lay within the boundaries of the Royal Windsor Forest.\u00a0 … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1924,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"kt_blocks_editor_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-loddon-reach-article","category-spencers-wood-village"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/swlhg.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/swlhg.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/swlhg.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/swlhg.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/swlhg.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=440"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/swlhg.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":897,"href":"http:\/\/swlhg.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440\/revisions\/897"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/swlhg.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/swlhg.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/swlhg.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/swlhg.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}