Former schools and air raid shelter in garden get heritage listing
Seven more heritage assets have been added to West Berkshire Council lists.
They are:
Luker Court, Ireland Drive, Newbury.
Built in 1909/10, the home of Newbury Girls’ Grammar School until 1975 and of St Bartholomew’s Comprehensive School until 2010, when it was converted to flats.
It is named after the first Girls’ School headmistress, Jane Luker, and championed the academic education of girls locally.
Red brick in Georgian style, it makes a major contribution to the streetscape.
The principal staircase is particularly impressive.
Wormestall Grange, Enborne Road, Newbury.
Built in 1885 as the home of St Bartholomew Boys’ Grammar School, previously located at the Litten.
In 1975 it merged with the Girls’ Grammar School to become a comprehensive, and in 2010 was converted to 14 flats.
Offering an academic education for boys locally, its alumni included many leading professional and commercial figures.
In late medieval gothic revival style, it makes a major contribution to the streetscape, said the panel.
John Morton’s Chapel, Turner’s Green, Bucklebury.
Former Congregational Chapel, built in 1840 for the Rev John Morton (1788-1871), and still known by his name.
John Morton was a local tenant farmer and preacher, whose successful opposition to the enclosure of Bucklebury Common was of great benefit to local people and is still remembered.
The interior contains the original pulpit and pews.
Air raid shelter, Little Corner, Briff Lane, Bucklebury.
1940s air raid shelter in a private garden, probably built for US officers who occupied the Little Corner bungalow.
Parish Room, Bushnells Lane, Stanford Dingley.
Built in 1903 as a club and reading room by Dr Watney of the Watney brewing family.
Until 1941 the home of a Boys Club supported by locally known figures, the photographer Kyrle Leng (1900-58) and the poet and writer Robert Gathorne-Hardy (1902-73).
Local listing will protect its character in the local Conservation Area.
It was refurbished in 2017 with a Greenham Trust grant.
Water pump on Jennett’s Hill (Cock Lane), Stanford Dingley.
Manufactured in 1900 by Joseph Evans & Sons and installed with a cast iron trough and 80-foot borehole by Callas, Sons, & May, for Bradfield RDC, probably because of an outbreak of typhoid.
An important survivor from a time when piped water was not available.
The Chapel, Thatcham Cemetery, London Road, Thatcham.
Built in 1887 by the noted local architect James H Money and still in use as the mortuary chapel.
The heritage assets selection panel is made up of independent heritage experts who are not members or officers of West Berkshire Council or members of the Heritage Forum Committee.
The panel members present were Ian Blake, Duncan Coe, Hettie Dix, Tony Higgott, Andrew Townsend and Dr Peter Wardle.
The final decision on each recommendation will be taken by the West Berkshire Council head of planning.
Local listing under the National Planning Policy Framework identifies a building or other heritage asset, not listed by English Heritage, to be of exceptional local significance and value.
Forty-seven West Berkshire heritage assets have already been locally listed under the process for local listing, which was approved by West Berkshire Council in 2012.
