Harwell: Village for a thousand years

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  • Harwell Book – Full text of ‘Village for a thousand years’
    • Introduction
      • Contents
    • Beginnings – The Beginnings of Harwell
      • The Beginnings of Harwell
      • The Charters
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    • Middle Ages – The Late Middle Ages
      • Harwell Church
      • The Medieval Manors
      • Cruck Buildings
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    • Tudors – Tudors to Charles II
      • The Tudor period
      • Berkshire Farmers and their Homes
      • The Harwell Mug
      • Harwell: The Family Name
      • Trade Tokens
      • In the Civil War
      • Close
    • Charities – Harwell Charities
      • John Loder
      • Christopher Elderfield
      • Poor’s Orchard
      • William Wells
      • J. King
      • Frances Geering
      • Matthew Eaton
      • Robert Loder
      • Bag(g)’s Tree
      • An Old Harwell Recipe
      • Close
    • 19th C – Harwell in the Nineteenth Century
      • Enclosures
      • The Great Fire of Harwell
      • Fire at Didcot Station
      • Harwell and the Early Posts
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    • People – Some Nineteenth Century Families, Houses and Personalities
      • The Manor of Bishop’s Harwell, or Lower Manor, after the Middle Ages.
      • Bob Lay, Bob Lay, Bob Lay
      • The Bosley Family
      • John Lay of Prince’s Manor 1815 – 1888
      • From a book sold for the Blewbury Village Organ Fund in 1874.
      • Thomas James Pryor
      • The Day Family
      • The Hitchman Family
      • Other Old Harwell Families
      • Pillar House, Harwell
      • A Country Doctor (Dr Richard Rice)
      • Kelly’s Directory reports on the Harwell of 1891
      • The School
      • A Pictorial Miscellany
      • Close
    • 20th C – The Early Twentieth Century
      • Stanley Day
        • The Turn of the Century
        • A Visit to Harwell
      • Tape Recordings
        • A Houseboy at Harwell
        • Eliza Hutchings
        • Harwell Bakeries
        • The Eggs
        • Old Neighbours
        • Fire at King’s Farm (c.1908)
        • Will It Light?
        • Miss Irene Clarke’s memories.
      • Poem by H.S. Baker
      • Close
    • WWII – The Second World War
      • Guinea Pig Club
      • Eric Greenwood
      • Harwell in Wartime
      • School Life in Wartime
      • The Harwell Players
      • Close
    • 1945 -1985 – The Post War Years
      • The Atomic Energy Research Establishment.
      • Harwell Parish Council
      • Water and Sewage
      • Nursing Service
      • School Life after the War
      • The Winterbrook Youth Club
      • The Public Houses
      • The Whit Monday Feast
      • Wild Flowers of Harwell
      • The Bee Orchid
      • Village Footpaths
      • St Matthew’s Church Today
      • Harwell Women’s Institute
      • Harwell Bowls Club
      • Harwell Football Club
      • Close
    • Cherries – Harwell Cherries
      • Robert Loder
      • Cherries (1965)
      • Gordon Bosley
      • John Masefield: The Cherries
      • Close
    • Appendices
      • Appendix I the Harwell Charters
        • Introduction to The Harwell Charters
        • Charter No 1
        • Charter No 2
        • Charter No 3
        • Appendix I Charter References
      • Appendix II Buildings
      • Appendix III Glossary
      • Appendix IV Contributors
      • Appendix V References
      • Close
    • Close
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You are here: Home / 1945 -1985 / Village Footpaths

Village Footpaths

The nature and use of the footpaths has changed considerably over the last two hundred years. Whereas most tracks, or Rights of Way as they are now called, are now used for pleasure, in days gone-by they were used as the normal route to get to places. For instance, the route to Abingdon was along Abingdon Path from the end of Barrow Road and there are villagers who can remember using this. Livestock was driven to Abingdon Market along Cow Lane from the end of Townsend, farm vehicles went to Chilton along Holloway and pub-goers went to the Packhorse and on to Steventon diagonally across the present Grove Farms from Talbots Lane. Nearly all people now travel to these places by vehicles over metalled roads.

The maintenance of the road system was taken over by the Local Government in the mid-1900s whereas the Rights of Way were not formally acknowledged until 1952 when the Register of them was set-up. Any Way which can be proved to have been used by the public for twenty years can be registered.

Not too much is known about the footpaths and ways within the village until the nineteenth century. Before that there was a much stronger road system to the east of the village with the road from Didcot curling south along the east side of the village to the Church (1752 map). That appears to have been lost until the Cleave from Burr St to King’s Lane was reopened in the present century. The Parish Award map of 1852 [?] does not show this part of the Cleave but most of the others are as they were then.

In recent times, some paths have been formally diverted but one of interest was lost almost completely in the present century. The Twitchings ran parallel to the High St from Church Lane to the Crispin and was used presumably because the High St was muddy and dangerous due to its use by horses and carts. The section from King’s Lane to the Crispin still exists and the point where it started in Church Lane can still be seen. Neighbouring landowners began to take other sections in 1908. The Parish Council minutes record that one person built a wall across it, as a result of which the Council sold sections of the path, probably without any power to do so, for 1d per foot.

The other factor which has had a great effect upon the tracks from the village are the various large establishments which have been built around the Parish: first the railway to the north, followed by the military depots on the far side of the railway which became the Trading Estate and the Power Station, then the aerodrome which became AERE to the south and finally the new A34 road. The Winnaway to the aerodrome was christened the Burma Road by the airmen, a name which stuck for many years. Fortunately there are still many people who wish to use the registered footpaths.

The byways remembered by older inhabitants seem very different. Captain Hazel used to walk from Rowstock House to the village returning across the orchards along “The Withies” joining the Abingdon-Newbury Road by the small thatched cottage (now much enlarged). No doubt one encountered on these paths the odd vagabond or packman, maybe an old Romany on the edge of the village making his rush mats or a weary traveller asleep in the hayricks. Many of the walks were very pretty running alongside the thatched clunch walls, where bees made their home and children picked with sticks to see what mischief they could do.

Comments

  1. WAYNE BICKERDIKE says

    August 18, 2018 at 03:53

    I remember walking the “Burma Road” from AERE Harwell to Harwell village when we would go to evensong at St Matthews church in 1968.

    It came out near the Chequers pub which was the first pub in Harwell I went in, as a 16 year old!

    Reply

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« The Bee Orchid
St Matthew’s Church... »

Harwell is a village in south Oxfordshire, England, although until 1974 it was a Berkshire village. Harwell was first mentioned in 985, before the Doomsday Book.
This website presents the full text of the book (ISBN 0 9510668 0 3 ) published in 1985 to celebrate the village millennium.
"Harwell ~ Village for a thousand years"

Additional information about Harwell Village (History Notes, photos and more) can be found at harwellvillage.uk

Website © 2005–2023 maintained and managed by David Marsh on behalf of Harwell Parish Council
Copyright © 1985–2023 in the text of the book is vested in Harwell Parish Council