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Just Catalogued January 2022

Posted in Behind the Scenes on 24 Jan 2022

Here we round up all the items and collections that have recently been catalogued at the Berkshire Record Office together with references in brackets. You can use our online catalogue to find out more about these and other items in our collections. Click here to search our online catalogue.

New for local history

Papers of the Head, Best and Pottinger families, 1677-1938, relating to their estates at Bagnor, Speen (including the mill now home to the Watermill Theatre); Donnington Grove, Shaw-cum-Donnington; and other property in Chieveley and Didcot (D/EZ198). You can read more about this collection in another article. Below is an image from the collection of a young boy sat on a seesaw with some dogs.

Papers of the Barrington family of Shrivenham, 1813-1906 (D/EZ143) mainly relate to the building of their mansion Becket (later Beckett) House, 1829-1832.  This collection also includes the memoir of Memoir by Augusta Maclagan (nee Barrington) (1836-1915), which is full of interesting anecdotes.

18th century papers of the Perkins family of Ufton Court, Ufton Nervet (D/EZ31), mainly consist of draft deeds, but include a letter from a lawyer in 1746 containing the amusing comments 'it is a constant rule with me to read papers of consequence the last thing I doe before I goe to bedd, then they come fresh into my memory when I awake, I digest them on my Pillow...  I am always in Pain when I am making a will or conveying a Roman Catholick [sic] Estate’; Catholic families like the Perkins were restricted in how they could leave their property at this period.

The large collection of records from the Faringdon solicitors Crowdy Rose whose origins date back to at least 1823 (D/ECR). The collection contains all sort of items from deeds. to letters to plans such as this extract below from the plan of Walter Turrel’s estate, Fernham, 1750 (D/ECR/P9).


We have also catalogued a fascinating collection of the Transport and General Workers' Union records relating to the Windsor Safari Park Dispute, 1977-1978 (D/EX2785). Windsor Safari Park was opened in 1970 on what is now the site of Legoland, as a rival to Longleat Safari Park in Wiltshire.  It had a collection of animals, and a dolphin and killer whale show (Seaworld).  The industrial dispute arose in 1977 when a number of animal keepers were sacked for joining the union amid concerns about the treatment of the animals.  You can read more about this story here.

The records of Reading Trades Union Council, 1970s-2016 (D/EX2767), cast light on industrial conflict in the area more generally, as the organisation was involved with various strikes in the 1970s, including the high-profile strike of Chix workers (who were mainly Asian women) in Slough, 1979-1980. It also campaigned actively against apartheid in South Africa and in support of striking miners in the 1980s. It also set up the Reading Centre for the Unemployed with funding from Berkshire County Council in 1982.  Also of interest are the records of the Reading Miners’ Support Committee, 1984-1985 (D/EX1046).  There may be no coal mines locally, but this organisation provided financial assistance to miners on strike in other parts of the United Kingdom and their families (particularly those in South Wales), during the yearlong Miners' Strike.  Members also picketed Didcot Power Station.

New for family history  

Coroners’ records have now been listed up to 1945 for Reading Borough, and Maidenhead and Reading districts (COR/RB, COR/M and COR/R).

The following parish registers are now available:

  • Arborfield: baptisms, 1974-2018; burials, 1974-2009; banns, 1986-2010 (D/P6)
  • Ascot Heath: banns,1989-2012 (D/P185)
  • Barkham: baptisms, 1986-2017; burials, 1985-2010; banns, 1978-2012 (D/P13)
  • Bradfield: marriages, 1989-2018 (D/P22)
  • Buckland: marriages, 2002-2015 (D/P27)
  • Caversham St John: banns, 1979-1988 (D/P162E)
  • Caversham St Peter: banns, 2001-2012 (D/P162)
  • Chaddleworth: marriages, 2001-2013 (D/P32)
  • Childrey: marriages, 1981-2012; banns, 1923-2008 (D/P35)
  • Chilton: marriages, 1990-2010 (D/P36)
  • Cholsey: marriages, 1988-2008 (D/P38)
  • Crowthorne: baptisms, 1997-2006; marriages, 2003-2012; burials, 1968-2010; banns, 1995-2012 (D/P102B)
  • Drayton: marriages, 1999-2013; banns, 1987-2015 (D/P48)
  • Faringdon: baptisms, 1989-2008; marriages, 2010-2015 (D/P53)
  • Harwell: marriages, 1962-2008 (D/P64)
  • Hinton Waldrist: marriages, 1992-2009 (D/P70)
  • Kingston Lisle: marriages, 1964-1981 (D/P115B)
  • Letcomeb Bassett: marriages, 1981-2017 (D/P80)
  • Letcombe Regis: marriages, 1981-2010 (D/P81)
  • Longworth: marriages, 2009-2018 (D/P83)
  • Marlston: marriages, 2003-2014 (D/P28B)
  • Midgham: marriages, 1984-2012 (D/P130C)
  • Newbury St Nicolas: marriages, 1988-2015 (D/P89) 
  • Purley: baptisms, 1984-2004 (D/P93)
  • Radley: baptisms, 1992-2004; marriages, 1998-2016 (D/P95)
  • Reading Christ Church: baptisms, 1998-2013 (D/P170)
  • Sandhurst: marriages, 1977-1986 (D/P102)
  • Great Shefford: marriages, 2004-2015 (D/P108)
  • Shottesbrooke: marriages, 1981-2003 (D/P111)
  • Sparsholt: marriages, 1972-2016 (D/P115)
  • Stanford Dingley: marriages, 1998-2015 (D/P117)
  • Stanford in the Vale: marriages, 1971-2007 (D/P118)
  • Sunningwell: marriages, 1997-2016 (D/P127)
  • Sutton Courtenay: marriages, 2005-2016 (D/P128)
  • Waltham St Lawrence: baptisms, 1971-1994; marriages, 1990-2003 (D/P141)
  • Wasing: marriages, 1982-2010 (D/P146)

You can use our online catalogue to find out more about these and other items in our collections. Click here to search our online catalogue.