THATCHAM

Contents

History

See also

External links

History

'Thatcham' is a town in Berkshire, England located 3 miles (5km) east of Newbury and 15 miles (24km) west of Reading. It covers approximately 8.75 square miles (23 km²) and has a population of 23,000 people (2003). This number has grown rapidly over the last few decades from 5,000 in 1951 and 7,500 in 1961. There is a large secondary school located in southern Thatcham, Kennet Comprehensive School, which ranks very well in the country.
It lies on the River Kennet, the Kennet and Avon Canal, the A4 road and the course of a Roman road. It is also served by Thatcham railway station on the line between Newbury and Reading. Employment is provided by a number of light industrial units and it is also a dormitory town for Newbury, Reading and London.
The area has been occupied continuously from prehistoric times - the well-preserved remains of a Mesolithic village dating from 7700 BC have been found in its vicinity. Indeed it is noted in the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest continuously inhabited place in England. There is also evidence of Bronze and Iron Age settlements and of a Roman town.
The name may have been derived from that of a Saxon chief called ''Tace'' (or perhaps ''Tac'' or ''Tec''), who established a village in around 500. The settlement was known as ''Taceham'' - ''ham'' meaning village in Saxon. It is also possible that the name may have come from the Saxon ''thaec'' (thatch). Wherever it came from, the name ''Taceham'' persisted until after the Norman Conquest in 1066 before going through several minor changes until the current one was adopted in the sixteenth century.
The town had a period of great prosperity around 1304, when part of the building now known as the Bluecoat School was constructed as a small chapel. At this time the population was larger than Newbury's but declined as a result of the Black Death which decimated the area in 1348. There is a Norman parish church of St. Mary which was largely reconstructed in 1857. This is believed to be built on the same site as an earlier Saxon Church. It was also previously known as St. Luke's. A local attraction is the Nature Discovery Centre situated at Thatcham Lake, a flooded gravel quarry.
To many people in the UK, the name "Thatcham" is most strongly associated with the approval ratings for car security systems issued by the Motor Insurance Repair Research Centre located near the town (see link below). For instance, "Thatcham Cat 1" (or just "Cat 1" is the approval for a combined car alarm and immobiliser, "Thatcham Cat 2" is for a standalone immobiliser and "Thatcham Cat 3" is for additional physical security devices such as steering wheel locks.
In July 2007, Thatcham was flooded during a period of sustained heavy rain, during which 3 times the average July monthly rainfall hit the town in just 24 hours. While the rivers did not burst, the quantity of water flowing down the hills from Cold Ash and Bucklebury made many roads impassable and stranded hundreds of pupils at Kennet Comprehensive School on the last day of term. Many homes were completely flooded out in this period, with many being forced to move out.
The town is twinned with:

★ Nideggen in Germany

See also

★ HMS Thatcham, a Ham class minesweeper

External links

★ Thatcham Historical Society

★ Old Bluecoat School

★ Thatcham Town Council

★ Thatcham Vision

★ Thatcham The Motor Insurance Research Repair Centre