Aldworth | |
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Aldworth ecclesiastical parish church. |
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Rolling fields of barley and other crops in Aldworth with patched woodland. |
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Aldworth shown within Berkshire | |
Area | 9.06 km2 (3.50 sq mi) |
Population | 296 (2011 census) |
• Density | 33/km2 (85/sq mi) |
OS grid reference | SU5579 |
Civil parish |
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Unitary authority | |
Ceremonial county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | Reading |
Postcode district | RG8 |
Dialling code | 01635 |
Police | Thames Valley |
Fire | Royal Berkshire |
Ambulance | South Central |
EU Parliament | South East England |
UK Parliament | |
Website | Aldworth Village Community Website |
Aldworth is a mostly cultivated village and civil parish in the English county of Berkshire, close to the modern northern county boundary with Oxfordshire. It is in the rural area between Reading, Newbury and Streatley. The parish includes one hamlet, Westridge Green, narrowly separated by a cultivated agricultural field of Aldworth.
Aldworth is on the high ground of the Berkshire Downs, just off the B4009 road between Newbury and Streatley; its north is crossed by The Ridgeway, a pre-Roman Britain 87-mile long-distance path. The parish church has very large medieval figures in white stone, seemingly life size representations of most of the people but they show some of the knights as over seven feet tall which has led to doubts about these tallest figures being life-sized.
The site of the Battle of Ashdown, where King Alfred defeated the Danes in January 871, is said by some authorities to have been located just outside the village in the vicinity of the Ridgeway and Lowbury Hill.
A small minority of the village, namely in it south, is centuries-old woodland, which is coppiced and features bluebells and is open to the public subject to informal permission. The north of Aldworth has one of the National Trails, The Ridgeway, a pre-Roman Britain 87-mile long-distance path.
Aldworth is a civil parish with an elected parish council. It is in the area of West Berkshire unitary authority. The parish council and unitary authority are responsible for different aspects of local government.