Harwell

Harwell today

Harwell village sits on ground sloping gently north towards the Thames, with a small stream rising at Wellshead by the church. Its long High Street has a large number of old timber-framed, brick and thatched houses, and the centre is a conservation area. At the time of writing the village has a pub, the White Hart, a primary school, a village hall and a recreation ground, and holds the Harwell Feast each year. The A417 passes just south of the village and the A34 to the west; Didcot Parkway is the nearest station.

The name Harwell is best known today for Harwell Campus, the science and technology site on the downs to the south. Despite the name, most of the campus, like the RAF airfield before it, lies in Chilton parish, with part in East Hendred and only a small part in Harwell. New housing on the Didcot side of the A34, at Great Western Park and Valley Park, was separated from Harwell in April 2023 to form the new parish of Western Valley.

History

Name and early records

The name appears as Harawill and Haranwell in 10th-century charters; it is usually explained as the spring or stream by a grey (or boundary) hill. A 10th-century land grant already names the Icknield Way as one of Harwell’s boundaries, and the old track still crosses the south of the parish.

Domesday and the manors

In 1086 Harwell had 56 households. The larger holding, later Bishop’s Manor, belonged to the Bishop of Winchester, who had held it before the Conquest; the rest belonged to Roger d’Ivry, whose land included a church. Roger’s part became Prince’s Manor, which passed through the honour of St Valery to Richard, Earl of Cornwall, and back to the Crown. In 1316 Edward II granted it for life to Margaret, widow of Piers Gaveston, whose arms survive in the east window of the church; some accounts say Gaveston held it himself. The Black Prince later gave the church and then the manor to his college of St Nicholas in Wallingford Castle.

Houses, cherries and almshouses

Harwell has some of the oldest houses in the Vale. Lime Tree House dates from about 1250 and Gable and Tibbleton Cottages from about 1295. Bayllols Manor at Middle Farm is a 14th-century hall house with two medieval barns, Cherry Barn and a cruck barn. Cherries were grown here from at least the early 17th century, and Harwell cherries were sold at Abingdon market. Geering’s Almshouses, a single-storey brick range, were built in about 1723 from a charity set up in 1715. After the second Battle of Newbury in 1644 the Parliamentarian Earl of Manchester spent three nights in the village. The common meadows were enclosed in 1802. According to local histories, a fire in 1852 destroyed many cottages and farm buildings along the High Street.

The church

St Matthew’s was begun around 1200, and the nave, transepts and west tower of that church survive. The chancel was rebuilt around 1320 with large traceried windows and carved heads. In the churchyard is a cross with a medieval base.

RAF Harwell and the atomic age

RAF Harwell opened on the downs south of the village in 1937. In the Second World War it was a bomber training and airborne forces base, and aircraft from Harwell carried pathfinder paratroops on the night before D-Day. In 1946 the airfield became the Atomic Energy Research Establishment, Britain’s main centre for nuclear research, and the site has since grown into Harwell Campus. The parish moved from Berkshire to Oxfordshire in 1974.

Things to see

• St Matthew’s church, 13th and 14th century (Grade I).
• Geering’s Almshouses of about 1723 on the High Street (Grade II*).
• Lime Tree House and Gable and Tibbleton Cottages, medieval timber-framed houses (Grade II*), seen from the street.
• Bayllols Manor, Cherry Barn and the cruck barn at Middle Farm (Grade II and II*).
• The Icknield Way (Ickleton Road) across the south of the parish.