SULHAMSTEAD BANNISTER
Silhamsted (xii cent.); Silhamstede Banastre
(xiii cent.); Michaels, Mighelle (xvi cent.); Sullamsted Bannester (xviii cent.); Meales (xix cent.).
The parish of Sulhamstead Bannister is divided
into two distinct portions, called the Upper End and
the Lower End. The former contains 576½ acres,
the latter 555½ acres. There are 251 acres of arable
land, 300 acres of permanent grass and 135 acres of
woods and plantations. (fn. 1)
The Upper End is a long and narrow strip of land
lying between two portions of Sulhamstead Abbots
parish. In the north the land lies at an altitude of
a little over 150 ft. above the ordnance datum, rising
to 300 ft. at the southern end. The Kennet and
Avon Canal and some tributaries of the Kennet
flow across the parish. The Reading to Newbury
road passes through the north of the Upper End,
'Mile House' standing near it. The Great Western
railway runs between the canal and the road, the
nearest station being at Theale, 2 miles south-east.
The church of St. Michael or Meales, with the school,
and Meales Farm, once the manor-house, stand near
together.
The Brazenhead Cottages, so called from the brass
knocker which still remains, are two cottages formed
from one house which was probably built late in the
16th century. It has a double-gabled front and is
covered with plaster, apparently upon half-timber
walling. The roofs are tiled and the chimneys are
picturesquely set diagonally and square. The house
was sold by William Wilder to William Parr, who
in 1639 sold it to the Kendrick charity, Reading.
Restoration of the house was carried on in 1913.
The Lower End of the parish is bounded on the
east by Shinfield parish, but the western boundary is
irregular, cutting across Wokefield Park and taking in
Goddard's Green and Oakfield. On the north-west
Burghfield Brook forms the boundary for some
distance. The land lies at an altitude of between
150 ft. and 200 ft. above the ordnance datum. For
a very short distance the Basingstoke branch of the
Great Western railway passes through the parish, the
nearest station being 3 miles distant at Mortimer.
The soil is London Clay in the whole of the Lower
End and the southern part of the Upper End; there
is alluvium in the bed of the Kennet and by the
Reading Road Woolwich and Reading Beds are found.
Fragments of Roman pottery were dug up at Oakfield
Park, and it is suggested that it may have been
the site of a pottery for common ware. (fn. 2) In the north
of the Upper End, between the railway and the
Kennet, there are ditches which are supposed to mark
the site of a camp. (fn. 3)
The parish was inclosed under an Act of Parliament
of 1811, (fn. 4) with the parish of Sulhamstead Abbots, the
award bearing the date 9 July 1817. (fn. 5)
Nephull and Phillips Inholmes are place-names
found in this parish. (fn. 6)
MANORS
The manor of SULHAMSTEAD
BANNISTER is not mentioned in the
Domesday Survey, but it afterwards
passed to Robert Achard, who obtained a grant of the
royal manor of Aldermaston from King Henry I.
Sulhamstead is not mentioned in this charter, (fn. 7) but
Robert Achard seems to have held it in that reign. (fn. 8)
The manor was held under the Achards, who were
lords of the manor of Aldermaston (q.v.), until the
14th century. Their successors the Delamares held
the manor by knight service of the king in chief. (fn. 9)
The history of the underlords of Sulhamstead
Bannister Manor is very obscure, but it is probable
that the family of Bannister, who gave their name
to the parish and held the advowson of the church,
held a manor from an early date. At all events,
they were important free tenants holding considerable
property in the parish. In the reign of Henry I
Robert Achard enfeoffed three knights named Alard
de Banactune, John de Banactune and Hugh Brutinolle
with part of his demesne. (fn. 10) It is possible that Banactune
is a corrupt form of Bannister. William son of John
Bannister made various grants of land to Reading
Abbey at the beginning of the 13th century. (fn. 11) Later
in the century John Bannister was in seisin of one
knight's fee in Sulhamstead. (fn. 12) He is probably not to
be identified with the John Bannister who died in
1242. (fn. 13) Philip de Covele, a tenant of John Bannister,
granted certain of his lands in Sulhamstead to Reading
Abbey (fn. 14) about this date, and the latter, in the time
of Abbot Richard, (fn. 15) remitted the rent from this land
paid by the abbey. From this time the Bannister
family continued to hold land in the parish for more
than two centuries, (fn. 16) but this holding does not seem
ever to be called a manor.
In 1292 Robert Achard, lord of Aldermaston,
obtained a grant of free warren in his demesne lands
of Sulhamstead Bannister. (fn. 17) From the Achards the
manor of Aldermaston passed to the Delamares. (fn. 18)
Sulhamstead Bannister is not mentioned, however,
among the manors held by Sir Thomas Delamare on
his death about 1404. (fn. 19)
The descent of the manor is obscure at this date.
Sir Thomas Delamare's descendant Thomas Delamare
died in 1493, his lands passing eventually to his sister
Elizabeth, who is usually said to have brought the
manor of Sulhamstead Bannister to her husband Sir
George Forster. (fn. 20) No proof of the descent of any
manor in the Forster family, however, is forthcoming
(though it is clear that they owned land in the
parish) (fn. 21) until 1607, when the manor of Sulhamstead Bannister was in the hands of Sir George
Forster's great-great-grandson Sir William Forster. (fn. 22)
On the other hand, property described as the manor
of Sulhamstead Bannister was in the hands of Sir
John Langford on his death in 1509, when it passed
to his daughter and heiress Anne. (fn. 23) She brought it
by marriage to William Stafford, and he settled it in
1534 on his son Thomas Stafford, who died in 1584. (fn. 24)
Sir Reade Stafford, his son, held it at his death in
1605, and it descended to his nephew Sir Edward. (fn. 25)
The Forster manor was held by Humphrey Forster,
the son of Sir William, in 1618, when he sold it to
William Wilder. (fn. 26) The latter held it for ten years,
selling it in 1628 to William Brackeston, (fn. 27) whose
descendants held it for many years. (fn. 28) In 1714
Edward Brackeston sold Sulhamstead Bannister Manor to
John Ball, (fn. 29) who died in
1742. (fn. 30) Before 1746 it had
come into the hands of John
Jennings, whose mother Elizabeth was daughter and heiress
of John Ball. (fn. 31) It was sold
in 1750 to Joel Stephens, (fn. 32)
whose nephew Joel Stephens,
a minor, had succeeded to it
before 1759. (fn. 33) The latter
sold it in 1774 to William
Thoyts (fn. 34) ; the estate was sold
after the death of Major
W. R. M. Thoyts in 1910
to the present lord of the
manor, Sir William G. Watson, bart. (fn. 35)
Thoyts of Sulhamstead. Azure a fesse between three molets of six points or with two symbols sable of the planet Venus on the fesse.
Court Rolls of Aldermaston, of which Sulhamstead
Bannister was a tithing, for the 15th century are preserved in the Record Office. (fn. 36) View of frankpledge,
the right of free warren and free fishery are mentioned
as appurtenant to the manor in 1618. (fn. 37)
Although the name of MIGHEALS or MEALES,
derived from the church of St. Michael, has been
found as a local name for the whole parish of Sulhamstead Bannister, it was applied generally to the
farm or manor of Meales, near the church. It was
held under the Achards and Delamares and their
successors, Sir William Forster being overlord in the
17th century. In 1484 John son of Robert Kentwood
held Meales under the name of Sulhamstead Manor, (fn. 38)
and it followed the descent of Kentwood Manor in
Tilehurst parish (fn. 39) (q.v.). It was called the manor of
Meales in 1542, and passed to the family of Fettiplace,
and thence by the marriage of Anne daughter of
Nicholas Fettiplace to Edmund Dunch. (fn. 40) His son
Sir William Dunch died seised in 1610 of a messuage,
lands and tenements called Meales. (fn. 41) His heir was
his son Edmund, a minor, (fn. 42) and Meales appears to
have been acquired soon after by the lords of the
main manor, since in 1617–18 Sir William Forster
died seised of Meales Farm. (fn. 43) It was bought in
1775 by William Thoyts, and from that time it
has descended with Sulhamstead Bannister. (fn. 44)
An estate known as the manor of PAYNTERS was
held by Edward Barret of Belhus in Aveley (co.
Essex) in the 16th century, being sold by him to
Richard Hannington in 1565. (fn. 45)
CHURCH
The church of ST. MICHAEL, which
was almost entirely rebuilt about 1815,
is a rectangular building measuring internally 50 ft. 3 in. by 23 ft. 3 in.
The walls are of plastered brick and the east end
is divided into a chancel 19 ft. by 15 ft. with a north
chancel aisle divided from it by a wooden colonnade.
All the windows have wood frames, and are mostly
of lancet shape with the exception of the two east
windows, which are 'traceried,' and the side windows
of the chancel and aisle are square-headed and of
two lights each. The ceilings of this portion of the
building are of pointed barrel shape, but that of the
nave is flat. The entrance is in the middle of the
west wall and has a porch. The walls are coated
with cement externally and are strengthened by
buttresses between the windows. At the west end
is a gallery, supported on iron pillars, with a painted
deal front. Over the west end of the nave roof is a
plain wood bell-turret, with pointed lights to the
bell-chamber, and a pyramidal lead roof. The font
is a curiously rude round one of plastered brick.
The communion rails are of the 17th century.
Over the chancel arch are hung the royal arms of
William and Mary.
The earliest gravestone is one to James Fayrer,
Fellow of Queen's College, Oxford, and rector of this
parish, who died in 1687. Another stone is to the
Rev. A. Atkinson, rector, who died in 1748, and there
are 19th-century mural monuments to members of
the Thoyts family.
There are two bells, the first bearing the date only,
1637; on the second is a shield with a bell, between
the initials IC—those of Joseph Carter of Reading—
and the date 1587. The inscription on it is 'Prayse
ye the lorde.'
The plate is modern.
The registers before 1812 are as follows: (i)
baptisms 1654 to 1700, marriages 1654 to 1699,
burials 1654 to 1701; (ii) baptisms 1660 to 1812,
marriages 1660 to 1753, burials 1661 to 1812;
(iii) marriages 1754 to 1804; (iv) marriages 1804
to 1811.
ADVOWSON
The advowson of the church was
held by the Bannister family, and
granted as the daughter church of
Aldermaston by John Bannister to the alien priory of
Monk Sherborne, a cell of the abbey of St. Vigor
at Cerisy in Normandy. (fn. 46) The grant of Aldermaston
Church to the abbey is said to have been made by
William Achard, living in 1166. (fn. 47) The sub-lords of
Sulhamstead Bannister afterwards claimed the right of
presentation, and in 1202 William Bannister brought
a lawsuit against the Prior of Sherborne. (fn. 48) He finally
quitclaimed all his right in the advowson, of which
the priory was in seisin in 1291. (fn. 49) The king presented to the benefice several times during the 14th
century, when the alien priory was in his hands
during the Hundred Years' War, (fn. 50) but the priory
was not finally dissolved till the 15th century. (fn. 51)
Edward IV granted its possessions to the hospital of
St. Julian at Southampton in 1462. (fn. 52) The custody
of the hospital had been granted by Edward III in
1343 to Queen's College, Oxford, and at the Dissolution all the possessions of the hospital passed to the
college. (fn. 53) At this time the benefice appears to have
been held with the rectory of Sulhamstead Abbots, (fn. 54)
but the advowson of the latter church did not come
into the possession of Queen's College till the 17th
century. (fn. 55) The two rectories appear to have been
held by the same incumbent in the 17th century, (fn. 56)
and were consolidated into one benefice at the expense of Myles Cooper, rector in 1782. (fn. 57) At the
present day the advowson belongs to the Provost and
Fellows of Queen's College, Oxford. No vicarage
was ordained, but the Prior of Sherborne drew a
pension from the rectory of Sulhamstead Bannister,
no tithes being payable from the pension. (fn. 58)
For the endowed charities in this parish see p. 310.