History of the Villages

Sulhamstead and Ufton Nervet have long and fascinating histories. There's evidence of people living here from the Neolithic era to the Bronze Age, through the long period of Roman occupation to Saxon times.
The villages suffered during the plague of the Black Death, but survived and prospered through the growth of agriculture, the industrial revolution and the eventual introduction of the railways in the 19th century.

Sulhamstead means "Narrow Valley Homestead" and was the name given to the area by the first Saxon settlers. Sulhamstead Abbots is so called because it was under the jurisdiction of the Abbot of Reading.
The other parish within the village, Sulhamstead Bannister comes from John Banastre, the knight whose family lived there in the 12th century.

Ufton or "Offetone" is recorded in the Doomsday Book survey of 1086. Nervet was added in the 13th century, after its then owner Richard Neyrvet.

Please find below a pdf image of the original fire reports from the Reading Mercury on the 18th and 25th of July 1914.