Wokingham, Berkshire Family History Guide

Wokingham is an Ecclesiastical Parish and a market town in the county of Berkshire, created in 1812 from a chapelry in Sonning Ancient Parish.

Alternative names: Oakingham

Parish church:

Parish registers begin:

Parish registers: 1674
Bishop’s Transcripts: 1580

Nonconformists include: Baptist, Independent/Congregational, Primitive Methodist, and Wesleyan Methodist.

Table of Contents

Adjacent Parishes

Parish History

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

WOKINGHAM, or Oakingham, a town, a parish, a sub-district, and a district, in Berks. The town stands on the London and Reading railway, at the junction of the line to Red Hill, within the limits of Windsor forest, 7 miles SSE of Reading; gave the title of Baron to Prince George of Denmark, husband of Queen Anne; retained the ancient custom of bull-baiting till about 1840.

It is a seat of petty-sessions and a polling place; possesses a corporation, under an ancient charter, and not regulated by the new act; occupies an elevated and healthy situation.

It consists of several irregularly-built streets, meeting in a central market place; and has a head post-office, a r. station with telegraph, two chief inns, a town hall with lofty clock tower, built in 1860 at a cost of £3,500, a handsome old church, recently restored, another church in the decorated English style, with tower and spire 170 feet high, built in 1864, a Baptist chapel in the Italian Gothic style, built in 1861, a Wesleyan chapel, an endowed school with £44 a year, two other public schools, alms houses with £32, an hospital and chapel for 16 poor pensioners, at Luckley-Green, a workhouse, aggregate charities £430, a weekly market on Tuesday, and fairs on 11 Oct. and 2 Nov. Pop. in 1861, 2,404. Houses, 472.

The parish comprises 8,141 acres. Real property, £16,733; of which £89 are in gasworks. Pop. in 1851, 3,752; in 1861, 4,144. Houses, 807. Bearwood is the seat of J. Walter, Esq.; and Marchfield House, of Mrs. Laws. Both the head living and that of St. Paul are rectories in the diocese of Oxford. Value of the former, £1,700; of the latter, £190. Patron, the Bishop of Oxford; of the latter, J. Walter, Esq.

The sub-district contains 6 parishes. Acres, 23,107. Pop., 7,807. Houses, 1,581.

The district includes Wargrave sub-district, and comprises 42,226 acres. Poor rates in 1863, £10,274. Pop. in 1851, 13,668; in 1861, 14,465. Houses, 2,925. Marriages in 1866, 99; births 452, of which 22 were illegitimate; deaths, 277, of which 86 were at ages under 5 years, and 13 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 698; births, 4,113; deaths, 2,475.

The places of worship, in 1851, were 13 of the Church of England , with 4,478 sittings; 5 of Independents, with 962 s.; 6 of Baptists, with 1,070 s.; 2 of Wesleyans, with 240 s.; and 5 of Primitive Methodists, with 325 attendants. The schools were 18 public day-schools, with 1,353 scholars; 16 private day-schools, with 257 s.; 19 Sunday schools, with 1,343 s.; and 1 evening school for adults, with 40 s.

Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].

Bankrupts

Below is a list of people that were declared bankrupt between 1820 and 1843 extracted from The Bankrupt Directory; George Elwick; London; Simpkin, Marshall and Co.; 1843.

Gardiner William, Wokingham, Berkshire, grocer, Nov. 1, 1839.

Parish Records

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Administration

County: Berkshire
Civil Registration District: Wokingham
Probate Court: Court of the Peculiar of the Dean of Salisbury
Diocese: Pre-1836 – Salisbury, Post-1835 – Oxford
Rural Deanery: Pre-1846 – Salisbury, Post-1845 – Reading
Poor Law Union: Wokingham
Hundred: Sonning
Province: Canterbury