A History of the County of Hampshire: Volume 4. Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1911.
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'Parishes: Stratfield Mortimer', in A History of the County of Hampshire: Volume 4, (London, 1911) pp. 56-57. British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/hants/vol4/pp56-57 [accessed 26 April 2024]
In this section
STRATFIELD MORTIMER
(MORTIMER WEST END)
Mortimer West End, once a tithing of the parish of Stratfield Mortimer (county Berks), was constituted an ecclesiastical parish in 1870, and a civil parish in 1894. It is situated 3 miles west from Mortimer station, on the Reading and Basingstoke branch of the Great Western Railway. The parish of Silchester bounds it on the south, and the county of Berkshire forms its northern, eastern, and western boundaries. The village is grouped round the church of St. Saviour and the vicarage, immediately to the north of a ford across the West End Brook, which rises in Kiln Pond, and runs due east. The Roman road running north from Silchester can still be traced in its course through this parish. In the east of Mortimer West End are many detached copses, and the north and west are composed wholly of woods and plantations, which altogether cover an area of 948 acres. The total area of the parish is 2,191 acres, including 710½ acres of arable land, and 395 acres of permanent grass. (fn. 1) The soil is gravelly and clay, and the subsoil clay. The chief crops are wheat, barley, and turnips.
Manor
Mortimer West End has always formed part of the manor of Stratfield Mortimer (co. Berks), the descent of which is given under that county. Mr. James Herbert Benyon of Englefield House, Reading, as lord of the manor of Stratfield Mortimer, is the principal landowner in the parish.
Church
The church of ST. SAVIOUR is a small building, which was erected in 1856. It consists of a chancel and a nave with a south organ chamber, west vestries, and a south porch. The walls are of flint with stone dressings, and the roofs are tiled. Over the west gable is a stone bell-cot containing one bell.
The plate is modern.
The registers date from 1860.
Advowson
Since the building of the church the advowson has belonged to the Benyon family. At the present day the living is a vicarage of the yearly value of £183 with residence, in the gift of Mr. James Herbert Benyon.
A Nonconformist chapel, known locally as the Mortimer Meeting-house, is situated in the extreme west of the parish near the Berkshire boundary