Arborfield Hall was a large country house on the banks of the

River Loddon The River Loddon is a tributary of the River Thames in southern England. It rises at Basingstoke in Hampshire and flows northwards for to meet the Thames at Wargrave in Berkshire. Together, the Loddon and its tributaries drain an area of . Th ...

near the village of

Arborfield Arborfield is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Arborfield and Newland, in the Borough of Wokingham in Berkshire, England. It is about south-east of Reading, about west of Wokingham. It lies about west of the village o ...

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; abbreviated ), officially the Royal County of Berkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Oxfordshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the north-east, Greater London ...

History

The site originally contained a manor house, which was occupied by the Bullock family from the early 13th century. This was acquired by Edmund Standen in 1589 and passed to his son, William Standen, who rebuilt the house in the Jacobean style in 1603; a stable block was added in 1654. The manor house was sold to Pelsant Reeves, a

Master in Chancery The Court of Chancery was a court of equity in England and Wales that followed a set of loose rules to avoid a slow pace of change and possible harshness (or "inequity") of the common law. The Chancery had jurisdiction over all matters of eq ...

, in 1730 and it remained in the Reeves family until a descendant, George Dawson, demolished it in 1832. George Dawson commissioned a new hall in 1837 but sold it to Sir John Conroy, Controller of the Household of the

Duchess of Kent Duchess of Kent is the principal Courtesy titles in the United Kingdom, courtesy title used by the wife of the Duke of Kent. There have been four titles referring to Kent since the 18th century. The current duchess is Katharine, Duchess of Kent ...

, in 1842. The new hall was bought by Thomas Hargreaves, a businessman who became

High Sheriff of Berkshire The High Sheriff of Berkshire, in common with other counties, was originally the King's representative on taxation upholding the law in Anglo-Saxons, Saxon times. The word Sheriff evolved from 'shire-reeve'. The title of High Sheriff#United King ...

, in 1855 and it remained in the Hargreaves family until 1926. The hall was then bought at auction by the Allsebrook family. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the hall was requisitioned by the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

. It was then acquired by the

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public research university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as the University Extension College, Reading, an extension college of Christchurch College, Oxford, and became University College, ...

and demolished in 1955.

References

{{Authority control Country houses in Berkshire Borough of Wokingham Jacobethan architecture Demolished buildings and structures in Berkshire