Touchen End, formerly written ''Touchen-end'', is a village in the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of Parish (administrative division), administrative parish used for Local government in England, local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below district ...

of Bray in the English county of

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Be ...

. It is situated about south of

Maidenhead Maidenhead is a market town in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in the county of Berkshire, England, on the southwestern bank of the River Thames. It had an estimated population of 70,374 and forms part of the border with southern Bu ...

and west of Windsor and lies on the border of Bray and Waltham parishes.

History

The earliest record of a settlement is from 1274 when it was called Twychene however by 1360 it was registered as a

tithing A tithing or tything was a historic English legal, administrative or territorial unit, originally ten hides (and hence, one tenth of a hundred). Tithings later came to be seen as subdivisions of a manor or civil parish. The tithing's leader or sp ...

called Iwhurst. A man called John de Iwhurst first moved to the area in 1293 and his family remained until at least 1540. By 1607 Twychene was part of Fines Bailiwick, an area of Windsor Forest owned by the Manor of Feens and Woolley. An ancient road from Touchen End to the Manor at

Thicket can be identified running through Paley Street, Heywoods Manor and Breadcroft Lane.

Toponymy

The settlement's earliest name, Twychene, is possibly a corruption of 'two chain' where chains were stretched across road junctions to enable a toll to be levied. As the village lies on the junction of the A330 and the B3024 this is a plausible explanation. Another theory is that the Touchen End has evolved from a shortening of Tutchin Lane End meaning a

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depi ...

at the fork of a road, twicen(e) being Old English for fork of a road. In the years since 1274 the village has been recorded on maps and referred to in

document A document is a written, drawn, presented, or memorialized representation of thought, often the manifestation of non-fictional, as well as fictional, content. The word originates from the Latin ''Documentum'', which denotes a "teaching" o ...

s which show the evolution of the name:

Holy Trinity Church

The village expanded in the mid-19th century with the building of an Anglican church –

Holy Trinity The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God the ...

– which is mentioned in Pevsner, and an adjoining National School. The church was built in 1862 in the 14th-century style and is constructed of red brick with stone dressings and a tiled roof, the architect was John Turner.The Buildings of England, Berkshire.

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, '' The Buildings of England'' ...

. 1966 The stained glass windows "of a simple

Grisaille Grisaille ( or ; french: grisaille, lit=greyed , from ''gris'' 'grey') is a painting executed entirely in shades of grey or of another neutral greyish colour. It is particularly used in large decorative schemes in imitation of sculpture. Many g ...

pattern" and fittings were designed by William White. Within five years the church was so overcrowded that a south

aisle An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, certain types of buildings, such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, parl ...

was built, paid for by public subscription including a donation from

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previ ...

.''Notebook of Revd. J.E. Austin Leigh''.

Berkshire records Office The Royal Berkshire Archives is the record office for the county of Berkshire in the United Kingdom. It is located in Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of Letter (alphabet), letters, symbols, etc., especially b ...

document number DP/23 In later years, it served as a

chapel of ease A chapel of ease (or chapel-of-ease) is a church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently. Often a chapel of ease is deliberately b ...

St Michael Michael (; he, מִיכָאֵל, lit=Who is like El od, translit=Mīḵāʾēl; el, Μιχαήλ, translit=Mikhaḗl; la, Michahel; ar, ميخائيل ، مِيكَالَ ، ميكائيل, translit=Mīkāʾīl, Mīkāl, Mīkhāʾīl), also ...

's, Bray until it was deconsecrated in the early 1970s. It is now, along with the school buildings, a private residence. The south

was demolished at the time of conversion and the east window, given by

David Blackmore David Blackmore (December 19, 1909 – June 15, 1988) was a Welsh cricketer.https://cricketarchive.com/subscribe He was a right-handed batsman who played first-class cricket for Glamorgan. He was born and died in Swansea Swansea (; cy, Abe ...

, is now in a

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correc ...

chapel A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common typ ...

Long Crendon Long Crendon is a village and civil parish in west Buckinghamshire, England, about west of Haddenham and north-west of Thame in neighbouring Oxfordshire. The village has been called Long Crendon only since the English Civil War.Birch, 1975, ...

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-eas ...

.''History of Touchen End''. R.Fontaine The graveyard attached to

remains in use under the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or ...

of Bray and is notable for the grave of

William Thomas Forshaw Major William Thomas Forshaw VC (20 April 1890 – 26 May 1943) was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth fo ...

VC.

References

External links

Touchen End's entry on David Nash Ford's Royal Berkshire HistoryHoly Trinity on Church Plans Online
{{authority control Villages in Berkshire Bray, Berkshire