Aldworth was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 by scribes whose orthography was heavily geared towards French, lacking k and w, regulated forms for sounds ð and θ and ending many hard consonant words with e, as Elleorde, hinting at El(d)ward, the Old English for Old Ward i.e. Old farmed out (let) land Scribes in the 12th century rendered it at least once as Aldewurda.[citation needed]
Geography
Aldworth is in a rural area between Reading, Newbury and Streatley. It includes the hamlet of Westridge Green.[n 1] It lies on the high ground of the Berkshire Downs, just off the B4009 road between Newbury and Streatley. The Ridgeway, an 87-mile (140 km) pre-Roman footpath crosses the north of the parish.
In medieval times there was a fortified manor house or castle;[citation needed] La Beche Castle once stood on the site of what is now Beche Farm in the parish.[citation needed] This was the main residence of the De La Beche family, after whom it was named.[citation needed] This well-known family of medieval knights had held high positions at court since at least 1260.[citation needed] The De La Beche family remained powerful landowners and knights in the 14th century.[citation needed] Many were retainers to the king, warders to the Tower of London, and sheriffs of Oxfordshire and Berkshire. The family was influential in the reigns of Edward II and Edward III, and embroiled in the royal intrigue of the time.[citation needed] Sir Phillip was imprisoned in Scarborough Castle from 1322 to 1327, but later pardoned by Edward III. His father, also Sir Phillip, had been imprisoned and later pardoned under Edward II.
Amenities
Long Copse in the south of the parish, with bluebells.
A small area in the south of the village bears woodland centuries old that is still coppiced and carpeted with bluebells. It is open to the public subject to informal permission. The Bell Inn is a 15th-century inn that has twice won a National Pub of the Year award. [2] Another pub, The Four Points, stands at a crossroads south of the village centre.
The church contains numerous effigies to the De La Beche family.[citation needed] The collection holds the largest number of medieval memorials to a single family in any parish church.[citation needed] The figures are supposed to be life-size representations, but some of the knights are over seven feet tall, which has led to them being known as the Aldworth Giants. They were long thought to have been erected in the 1340s by the influential Sir Nicholas De La Beche (sometimes erroneously called Lord De La Beche),[citation needed] but historians now prefer to date them variously in the Middle Ages.[citation needed] A large number of the effigies were damaged by Parliamentarianiconoclasts during the English Civil War of the 17th century. Many of the knights are missing the lower part of their legs, noses and arms, presumably because these were easy parts to break off. Parliamentarians may have seen the giants as a symbol of royalty, although many churches were ransacked in the same period.
