ALDERMARSTON MANOR, BERKSHIRE

Aldermaston Manor, Berkshire

The first family to call Aldermaston home were the FitzAchard’s who came over from France in the wake of the Norman conquest and established themselves in Aldermannestun, they stayed until 1361 when the Peter Achard died without a successor and so it passed to his son-in-law Thomas-de-la-Mare whose family in turn lasted only 130 years. The De la Mare family were held in such high regard that they were twice given the title of High Sheriff of Berkshire, along with future De la Mare’s being Knighted, with the last De la Mare, Robert, being a Knight of the Holy Sepulchre in 1490. Elizabeth De la Mare was the last of this line; she married into the Forster family who lasted a little longer than their previous occupiers. Again this family were given high office and took part in some of the most notable episodes in British history, one episode however shows how harsh this family could be when Humphrey II attacked a rival named Francis Parkyns in the nearby Padworth Manor, whilst Parkyns was eating his breakfast, he then went on to attack Francis’ brother, Richard, at Ufton Manor whilst he too was eating his breakfast, eventually Francis was dragged to Aldermaston and jailed in a cell behind the village pub.

During the English Civil Wars the area around Aldermaston was a key location to both sides and saw much action, in 1643 shortly after the First Battle of Newbury a Parliamentarian force was routed in Padworth Lane by troops belonging to Prince Rupert of the Rhine, the road is now known as Red Lane, for the amount of blood spilt that day. The house itself, or rather the owner, Humphrey III, was a Royalist and so in October 1644 the Parliamentarians came back to guard the nearby crossing of the River Kennet, though local actions took place the house was not scarred by the conflict, though with the loss of the Royalist cause the family lost the house for a short period, it being returned to the Forster’s in 1660 when King Charles II returned. By 1752 the house had passed on again when the male Forster line passed without a male heir, and so the estate and house was passed to Ralph Congreve, the husband of Sir Humphrey IV’s grand-neice. They changed the landscape of the house considerably by adding the lake, taking parts away and adding others, for example taking away part of the north-east Lodge to install a set of wrought-iron gates (which were won in a game of cards), these are known as the Charity gates, for the daughters of the Lord would sit by them and give alms to the poor.

On the 13th of January 1843 all this changed as a great fire tore through the building, ruining more than a third, the owner, William Congreve, died later that same year, never truly getting over the loss of his great house. The house and its remains then passed to the Court of Chancery and was bought from them in 1849 by Daniel Higford Davall Burr, who had been landed gentry in Gloucestershire for some time. Burr ordered a new house to be built, using as much of the previous house as possible, this previous house had always been known as Aldermaston Court, now the new house would be known as Aldermaston Manor. The Manor House was designed by Philip Charles Hardwick and built in the neoclassical style, prevalent in the day. Burr was a strange fellow indeed, keeping as his pet’s monkeys and snakes as well as all manner of exotic animals. Burr passed away in 1885 and gave Aldermaston to his son Higford, he in turn sold the property soon after to Charles Edward Keyser, a stockbroker, for the sum of £160,000. Over the years the estate lost its wealth, as did the Keyser family, in 1929 Charles Keyser died at Aldermaston, his children had little interest in the estates and so it was sold to a syndicate of three men known as Mr Cribble, Mr Booth and Mr Shepherd, they bought the lot for £100,000 yet it stood empty for ten years before the House was finally bought by the Associated Electrical Industries (AEI) for just £16,000.

AEI didn’t have long in their new home, in 1939 the warning sirens blazed out across Europe and Hitler’s jackbooted hordes swept across the land in a tidal wave of blood not seen for centuries. The British government requisitioned the estate, building RAF Aldermaston just to the south of the Manor, the Manor itself being home to various personnel, at first it was used by the Womens Land Army but then housed American’s belonging to the Head Quarters of the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) Ninth Tactical Air Command (IX TAC). So vital was this location that anti-aircraft batteries were established for a short time within the estate’s grounds. Post-War the house passed back to the AEI who used it for all manner of Electrical experiments, including the building of the first scientific commercial reactor named MERLIN, which was built between the house and the lake. For a short while the Airfield saw use in training commercial passenger aircraft pilots, before passing to the Atomic Weapons Establishment. The next owners of the house were Collier Macmillan Schools in 1965, in 1967 it was designated a Grade II listed building and sold on in 1980 to Blue Circles Industries, they restored the house and used it as a hotel and conference centre as well as offices. Today it is not just a popular location for a grand wedding, but also a place where ghost stories are reported, and not surprising, considering its history.

Various noise phenomena have been often reported here, knocks, bangs, groans and cries. No one can pin down any definite source of this activity, though it does happen. It is thought the only ghost ever seen is the wife of Daniel Higford Burr, who was named Anna-Margaretta Scobell, her husband re-developed Aldermaston in 1849. Some erroneous reports and attempts at history name the ghost as Mary Burr (nee Davis) who was actually the mother of the Daniel in question, she died in 1836 in Alvington Gloucestershire, never having visited Aldermaston as her son only bought the estate 13 years after her death. An air of malevolence is said to pervade over certain sections of the house, perhaps this could be related to Humphrey II’s totalitarian views on how his house was to be run, and how the people within were to act, however again no one has any cast-iron idea’s as to who causes such feelings within this grand location.