Powerflush nearby to Burghfield



Burghfield is a village and large civil parish in West Berkshire, England, bordering Reading. Burghfield has a history that predates the Domesday Book and was once home to three manors: Burghfield Regis, Burghfield Abbas, and Sheffield (or Soefeld). Burghfield’s population has nearly doubled since the 1980s, thanks to the construction of many new housing estates, and the area’s employment (commuters) is dependent on Reading, Newbury, and Basingstoke, as well as the M4 corridor, which cuts through the area.

The M4 motorway divides most of the former sparsely populated fields of the hamlet of Pingewood, in the parish’s northwestern corner, which were converted into lakes after gravel extraction in the mid to late twentieth century, and their shores are used for water sports, fishing, and other leisure activities. They also provide a home for migrating geese, waterfowl, and other wildlife. A few higher pits/quarries in this area have been drained and clay-lined, and are now used as landfills. Burghfield has a plethora of amenities, the majority of which are sports clubs and facilities, including a leisure center.



We offer powerflushing service in these postcode areas::

RG31



HISTORY

The following is from David Nash Ford’s Royal Berkshire History:[18] “Burghfield was a Celtic settlement that existed prior to the arrival of the Romans. The [sic] are ancient earthworks scattered throughout the parish, particularly around Pingewood, that preserve the old Celtic word “pen,” which means “head, peak, tip, or end.” The ‘ge’ is a contraction of the Celtic word for wood, ‘coed.’ When the Saxons arrived in the 5th century, they didn’t understand the meaning and added their own descriptive word, ‘wood,’ to the end. Burghfield is Saxon for ‘Hill Field.’ The village is located on the slopes of Burghfield Hill, but the name seems improbable. The prefix could be a corruption of an earlier lost Celtic word, or it could refer to a Bronze Age burial barrow rather than a hill.” Burghfield appears to have been divided into two equal portions, each containing 112 hides of land, from very early times, and this division is likely the origin of the two manors of Burghfield that existed later. Other references trace the village’s changing name as follows:

Borgefelle (sixth century); Burgefeld, Berfeld (seventh and eighth centuries); Burefeld (fourteenth century); Burfield (16th to 18th centuries)



GEOGRAPHY

Burghfield parish had 4,309 acres of land in 1923, of which 1,660 acres were arable, 1,940 acres were permanent pasture, and 163 acres were woods and plantations. The land is low in the Kennet Valley, at an average altitude of a little more than 100 feet (30 m) above the ordnance datum, rising to a height of 302 feet in the south-west (92 m). Burghfield parish’s main settlements are located along Burghfield Road, the main road leading out of Reading.

Burghfield Bridge is the closest to Reading and is located by the crossing of the Reading Road over the River Kennet; this is followed by Burghfield Village, which is located after the crossing of the Burghfield Road over the M4 motorway, which runs through the north of the parish; Burghfield Hill is located in the southern upland part of the parish, naturally enough, at the top of Burghfield Hill; and Burghfield Common, which is named after the parish common land on which it was Great Auclum is the name given to the area of Burghfield Common to the south-east. Sulhamstead parish includes a portion of northwestern Burghfield Common.

The Kennet Valley, located in the parish’s northwestern corner, is surrounded by a number of man-made lakes, marshland, and willow scrub, with old water meadows and the Osier bed to the north of the river. Further south, between the M4 motorway and Burghfield Village, the terrain is flat, with farmland and pastureland interspersed with small stands of deciduous woodland. The slopes of Burghfield Hill are covered in grassland and some larger copses of deciduous woodland, and are cut by a number of partially wooded valleys and small streams such as Clayhill Brook.

The plateau gravels are home to grassland, deciduous woodland, and Scots pine, with remnants of heath land on Wokefield Common, which borders Burghfield Common to the south. The Parish’s grasslands are grazed by a diverse range of cattle, sheep, and horses. A network of footpaths and bridleways traverse the parish’s fields and open spaces, as well as through the woods. These paths and bridleways are popular with walkers and nature enthusiasts, and they serve as an important resource for the Parish. Other paths and “cut-throughs” allow pedestrians to move freely throughout the Parish, away from motorized traffic.