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Arborfield
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Properties
  Related sites:
Bearwood Estate Maps for Hurst (Liberty of Newland) and Arborfield 'Rough Music' - an article from 'Berkshire Old and New', No. 1, 1983 |
The Bearwood Walke In 1630, hunting at Bearwood was not as good as it might have been because stocks of game were low. So when the King (Charles I) sold off part of Windsor Forest, he decided to replenish the herd. Because he feared that they would wander off, he ordered Sir Francis Knolly and Richard Arrowsmith, joint keepers of the Bearwood Walke, to fence the animals in. One hundred and twenty acres of forest were enclosed and a lodge built for the keepers - (built in the 16th Century, some people believe that Langley Pond Farmhouse could have been one of the royal hunting lodges, due to the one complete roof as only a person with wealth could have afforded that type of structure) but this was resented by the people of Newland, Sindlesham and Winnersh. They had lost their rights of “free chase”, enjoyed when the Bishop of Salisbury held the land. One night, after dark, the people met together and “riotously pulled the fence down” They also petitioned to have the lodge removed. When the Civil War came (1642-9), the Royal landlords had more urgent things to worry about than hunting rights at Bearwood. During this war most of the deer were killed off and the lodge was demolished in 1655. The land at Bearwood remained part of the forest of Windsor and the people of the area reclaimed their rights. Thomas Pride's Map of 1790 shows Bearwood as 'Bare Wood', whereas the Enclosure map of 1817 spells it 'Bere Wood', as you can see here when you visit the 'Berkshire Enclosure' web-site. Sindlesham Model Village Although Sindlesham is outside the parish, Bearwood mansion itself is in the old Liberty of Newland. When John Walter III, proprietor of 'The Times', bought the estate, he built a model village at Sindlesham arranged around a green. The Shell Book of English Villages says it "was laid out in the 1860's and 1870's in a Victorian version of Jacobean, with red brick and gables manufactured from clay and timber on the 17,500 estate, to go with Bear Wood - the vast mansion". It continues: "Robert Kerr's plans for the big house included such contemporary necessities as gaming room, brushing room, deed room and butler's corridor; while the estate village had its own pub [the Walter Arms], church and one of several schools in the neighbourhood for which the philanthropic John Walter footed the bill". For more details of the Estate as it was in 1911, see the Sale Document by clicking here. On the other side of Winnersh, John Walter had his own
railway station then known as 'Sindlesham Halt', though now renamed as "Winnersh".
He paid for St. Paul's Church in Wokingham plus a school and large
Rectory at Shute End in Wokingham (the Rectory now forms part of the
Wokingham District Council office complex, while the old school is now a
Teachers' Centre).
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