Local History

A fascinating look at Thatcham’s history

The Council School

In 1847 the British School in Church Lane opened in no small part due to Mrs Sarah Barfield. The school became so popular that it was soon oversubscribed.

It was under Horatio Skillman, headmaster from 1882, that things changed. An inspection in 1910 found improvement needed. One such was a new playground, however there was both a lack of funds and ground to achieve this one issue. As such a new school was built. The British School closed for Easter on Thursday, 20 March 1913 with the new school, The Council School, opening on Tuesday, 1 April, 1913. Many of the staff moved to the new school, the school expanded and in 1964 the headteacher re-named the school to Francis Baily School in honour of the great astronomer.

King’s Head

The King’s Head is one of three stagecoach Inns in Thatcham, the other two being the White Hart and Coopers Cottage. The first record of the Inn dates to 1613 although it had probably been trading long before then. In 1784 the first Royal Mail Coach ran by the Inn, the innkeeper at the time was Edward Fromont. He was responsible for the Thatcham to Calne stage of the journey. Charlotte Fromont, Edwards daughter, took over until the 1840s. It was during the 1840s that part of the inn was sold off, a blacksmith was established, a house, and other parts sold off. This went from a large coaching inn supplying a number of horses, stabling and coach repair facilities, that would have covered a large portion of what is today Waitrose car park, and was split and downsized to what we see today.

Charities of Thatcham

The first charitable donation that we have a record of made in our local history dates to c.1413 and was made by Alice Bye. Alice gave a burgage tenement, typically a house on a long plot of land, to the churchwardens, John Bye and Thomas Bela, for charitable purposes.

Others soon followed and about 1420 Thomas Loundyes built an almshouse on south side of what is now Chapel Street. This was the start of the Loundyes charity with other properties granted to the churchwardens in 1446 after Thomas died.

By 1585 the Nine Shilling Houses, or at least the charity, had been formed. Charities continued to be created by the likes of John Hunt, Elizabeth Cox Baily and Reverend John Heardman. Many of these still exist in the form of Thatcham Parochial Charities.

Thatcham Market

There was a market in Thatcham which is believed to originate between 1100 and 1135, perhaps earlier. At this time Thatcham was classed as a town and by 1304 was also a borough. Thatcham had a rather successful market and apparently the envy of many surrounding settlements as in c.1160 the men of Newbury attacked the market. They overturned stalls and allegedly caused a pitched battle in the Broadway.

The monks at Reading Abbey appealed to the king who issued a further charter directing that the monks be allowed to hold their Thatcham market without interference and forbade the men of Newbury to do any injury to it. By 1539 the market was recorded as being worth nothing and soon stopped.