Stratfield Mortimer, Berkshire

Description
Stratfield Mortimer, a village and a parish in Berks, 7 1/2 miles SSW from Reading. There is a station on the G.W.R., and a post, money order, and telegraph office (R.S.O.) Acreage, 3032; population of the civil parish, 1236; of the ecclesiastical, 1397. There is a parish council consisting of nine members. The manor belongs to the Benyon family. Wokefield House is a handsome mansion standing in a park of 210 acres. Mortimer Hill, Mortimer House, Mortimer Lodge, Oakfield, and Warennes Wood are chief residences. Cattle fairs are held here on 27 April and 6 Nov. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Oxford, in the gift of Eton College. The church, rebuilt in 1869, is a building of stone in the Gothic style, consisting of chancel, nave, aisles, N and S porches, and a lofty western tower and spire. It contains some ancient brasses and monuments. A second church (St John's) was erected in 1882 on Mortimer Common, and enlarged in 1895. There is also a small Primitive Methodist chapel. Some valuable charities produce about £200 a year, and there is a dispensary supported by voluntary contributions. The village club is a most commodious edifice built in 1892. Wokefield is a tithing 1 mile W.