Margaret E Macculloch & David J Hall Family History Research - Arborfield, Berkshire England

Arborfield, Berkshire, England

'Arborfield is a small village 5 miles north-east of Reading, and three miles south-west of Oakingham, in the Hundred of Sonning, situate near the river of Loddon' says the information in The Post Office Directory of Berkshire published in 1854. 'The population in 1851, was 316, and the acreage 1,4000'.

Pevsner* says the mid-Victorian church of St Bartholomew designed by J. A. Picton in 1863 contains some of the furnishings from an earlier building. An example of this is William Standen's 'large tomb-chest' of 1639 which has 'two recumbent effigies, their small child lying across their feet. Alabaster, and feelingly carved'.

The nearby Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineering (REME) School of Electronic Engineering apparently met with Pevsner's approval in 1966: 'By J A Ford (Ministry of Public Building and Works), An excellent group, axial to one side, free to the other, Miesian† in style'.



* Pevsner, Nikolaus 'The Buildings of England Berkshire' (1966) Penguin Books, page 66.

† 'Mies Van Der Rohe Ludwig 1886-1969. German-born American architect considered a founder of the International Style. His steel-frame and glass buildings include the Seagram Building in New York City (1956-1959) and the Chicago Federal Center (1963-1968).' http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Miesian