English Heritage sites near Welford Parish
DONNINGTON CASTLE
4 miles from Welford Parish
The striking twin-towered 14th-century gatehouse of this castle, later the focus of a Civil War siege and battle, survives amid impressive earthworks.
CHISBURY CHAPEL
9 miles from Welford Parish
This pretty thatched and flintwalled 13th century chapel survived after the Reformation in 1547 by being used as a barn as part of Chisbury Farm.
UFFINGTON CASTLE - WHITE HORSE AND DRAGON HILL
11 miles from Welford Parish
Three atmospheric sites lie along the Ridgeway. Uffington 'Castle' is a large Iron Age hillfort, Dragon Hill a natural mound associated in legend with St George.
WAYLAND'S SMITHY
11 miles from Welford Parish
A fine and atmospheric Neolithic chambered long barrow 2km (11/4 miles) along the Ridgeway from the Uffington White Horse: it was once believed to be the habitation of the Saxon smith-god Wayland.
LUDGERSHALL CASTLE AND CROSS
15 miles from Welford Parish
The ruins and earthworks of a royal castle dating mainly from the 12th and 13th centuries, frequently used as a hunting lodge. The remains of the medieval cross stand in the centre of the village.
SILCHESTER ROMAN CITY WALLS AND AMPHITHEATRE
16 miles from Welford Parish
Originally a tribal centre of the Iron Age Atrebates, Silchester became the large and important Roman town of Calleva Atrebatum.
Churches in Welford Parish
Wickham: St Swithun
Church Hill
Wickham
Newbury
07954 117093
Wickham was granted to the Monastery of Abindgon in 686 AD by Ceadwalla, King of Wessex and until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in Henry VIII's reign the Priests of the Parish were monks. The patronage is now the gift of the Bishop of Oxford.
The Chapel stands on the site of a Roman Camp and was widely restored by William Nicholson during the last century, although the Tower was almost untouched during this work. The Tower, which is the oldest in Berkshire, was originally build as a watch and beacon tower.
When William Nicholson restored the chapel in 1845 he unusually added papier mache elephants from the Paris Exhibition.
The organ is a three manual Bevington given in 1842 while the Mid-Victorian font is copy of an older one in Bradford Abbas in Dorset, with a cover worked in New Zealand and shown at the Crystal Palace Exhibition in 1862.
A glass case in the church houses a chasuble which is thought to be one mentioned in 1552, along with a chalice pall from a church in Jerez, Spain which was embroidered in 1885.
Wickham is part of the parish of Welford with Wickham which is, in turn, a member of the West Downland Benefice. Services are held on the third sunday of each month at Welford church (details on their site).
Visitors are always welcome at any of the churches in the West Downland Benefice - Brightwalton with Catmore, Chaddleworth, Fawley, Leckhampstead, Great Shefford with Shefford Woodlands and Welford with Wickham.
Pubs in Welford Parish
Five Bells
Baydon Road, Wickham, RG20 8HH
(01488) 657300
fivebellswickham.co.uk/
Halfway Inn
Bath Road, Halfway, RG20 8NR
(01488) 508080
the-halfway-inn.com/