Medieval Boundaries and an early Post-medieval Manor House at Beeches Manor, Reading Road, Wokingham, Berkshire (Paperback)

Excavations on the site of Beeches Manor revealed evidence for medieval, early post-medieval, and 19th?20th century occupation. The medieval occupation is represented only by enclosure ditches and a pit, over a time span which the pottery chronology is unable to help refine between the 11th and 15th centuries. A substantial house on the site, perhaps dating from the early 17th century, is known to have formed the core of a building destroyed by fire in 1961. This may be supposed to have been built by alderman John Whitlock, who owned the manor at least by 1628. Cartographic evidence from the 18th and early 19th century shows a larger complex of buildings on the site which included a brewhouse. The central portion of this house survived while the remainder of the complex was comprehensively demolished between 1817 and 1830. The core of the house was then extended and the gardens were re-landscaped, either at the same time or at least prior to 1909, to include a sunken lawn, a pond and several outbuildings, greenhouses and cisterns/wells.