Crockham Heath

Crockham Heath is a hamlet in Berkshire, England.^[1][2] Crockham Heath is part of the civil parish of Enborne (where according to the grid ref the majority of the 2011 Census population was included). The settlement lies near to the A34 road, and is located approximately 3 miles (4.8 km) south-west of Newbury.

Crockham Heath
Hamlet
The Craven Arms public house near Crockham Heath
Crockham Heath Location within Berkshire
OS grid reference	SU435647
Metropolitan borough	West Berkshire
Metropolitan county	Berkshire
Region	South East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Newbury
Postcode district	RG20
Dialling code	01635
Police	Thames Valley
Fire	Royal Berkshire
Ambulance	South Central
UK Parliament	Berkshire
List of places UK England Berkshire 51°22′51″N 1°22′42″W

Civil War

Crockham Heath was mentioned as being one of two unenclosed pieces of land in the battlefield during the First Battle of Newbury in the English Civil War in 1648.^[3] It was used as an assembly point for a small number of Royalist soldiers and it was claimed that Prince Rupert routed the Parliamentary cavalry who had attempted to attack it to disrupt the Royal supply line.^[4] However, despite eyewitness accounts talking about a little heath south of Enbourne, the historian Walter Money argued that the heath could not have been Crockham Heath due to the fact it was too small and too low to have supplied an army located on a hill and could have been easily taken. Money argued that it meant Enbourne Heath.^[5]

Other sources claim that it was the Parliamentarians who had used Crockham Heath with Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex using it to camp the day before the battle though he camped in a nearby house. Some Victorian historians claimed they slept in battle order but there are no contemporary sources that make that claim.^[6]

Listed buildings

There are two listed buildings in Crockham Heath. One is a Grade II 18th century farmhouse listed in 1983^[7] and a Grade II listed pair of cottages on Church Lane.^[8] The names of men from Crockham Heath who fought during the First World War are inscribed on Newbury's War Memorial.^[9]

References

1. Ordnance Survey: Landranger map sheet 174 Newbury & Wantage (Hungerford & Didcot) (Map). Ordnance Survey. 2014. ISBN 9780319228739.
2. "Ordnance Survey: 1:50,000 Scale Gazetteer" (csv (download)). www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk. Ordnance Survey. 1 January 2016. Retrieved 18 February 2016.
3. Jon, Day (2007). Gloucester & Newbury, 1643: The turning point of the English Civil war. Pen and Sword. p. 150. ISBN 978-1473814646.
4. Gardiner, Samuel (1894). History of the Great Civil War, 1642-1649. Vol. 1. p. 214.
5. "Newbury". Historic England. Retrieved 21 March 2020.
6. Holms, Richard (2008). "An Aldebourne Incident". Battles of Newbury: Crossroads of the English Civil War. Casemate Publishers. ISBN 978-1844688524.
7. "CROCKHAMHEATH FARMHOUSE, Enborne - 1220249". Historic England. Retrieved 21 March 2020.
8. "33 AND 34, CHURCH LANE, Enborne - 1220247". Historic England. Retrieved 21 March 2020.
9. "West Berkshire War Memorials". West Berkshire War Memorials. Retrieved 21 March 2020.