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
      • Close
    • Middle Ages – The Late Middle Ages
      • Harwell Church
      • The Medieval Manors
      • Cruck Buildings
      • Close
    • 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
      • Close
    • 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 / Wild Flowers of Harwell

Wild Flowers of Harwell

Harwell has many wild flowers beautifying the fields, banks and hedgerows, giving great pleasure to a wanderer in this Downland village. In years gone by, Harwell was noted for wild orchids, which grew especially in Ham Mead, showing their gorgeous colour among many other present-day flowers such as kingcups, buttercups, cuckoopints, cowslips, headache flowers, morning stars, bluebells, violets and columbines.

In the spring there were catkins, gently letting their pollen blow in the breeze, and the hedgerows were covered in cow-parsley, primroses, hogweed, bindweed, forget-me-nots, coltsfoot, ragwort, gipsy-wort and red nettles. During the summer, wild herbs such as thyme, garlic and many others grew amongst blue speedwell, tomthumbs, moon daisies, yarrow, welted thistle and hogweed; the Ham fields were very swampy in places, but many a snake and lizard darted, searching the earth for food, while tadpoles and newts swam here and there in the streams trying to escape the children and their jam-jars.

On a warm day the scent of the honeysuckle filled the air while bees buzzed and darted from cornflower to campion, willow-herb, knapweed and many other plants. As one walked by the cornfields, the red poppy glowed amongst golden ears of corn, and many a petite pansy, calamine and vetch bloomed. During the autumn, large brown bullrushes were very popular with children, who often fell into the stream or nearby watercress bed, trying to reach them. Crab apples and blackberries were gathered for preserving at home, to help out the family income, or to sell at the local market stalls. Cowslips, elder, stinging nettles and dandelions were picked not only for winemaking, but also for medicinal purposes, as they were said to hold great healing properties. As the time drew near to Christmas and Harvest Festival, hips and haws, old man’s beard, dried grasses, holly, ivy and mistletoe were gathered for decorating the church or the home. Among the trees that grew for the most part were of course the famous cherry, apple, pear, plum, damson, greengage, elm, oak, ash, willow, chestnut, lime, maple, sycamore, spruce (larch), birch, elder, beech and yew.

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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