Wasing

Wasing is an agricultural and woodland village and parish in West Berkshire, England owned almost wholly by the Dugdale Baronets. In minor local administration such as footpaths and field sports facilities its few people convene their own civil parish occasionally but share many facilities with Brimpton which was its civil parish at the time of the United Kingdom Census 2011.

For the former railway point and community in Canada, see Wasing, Ontario.
St Nicholas' Church

Geography

It has fields on the Berkshire-Hampshire border and is approximately 7.5 miles (12.1 km) south-east of Newbury, its post town. Its nearest village with general amenities is Aldermaston and nearest town is Tadley. The village is generally elevated, but it also has fields. Its western boundary is the River Enborne, which flows through the range of downs starting at the south of the parish which rises to the highest point in the south-east, Walbury Hill 5 miles (8.0 km) west.

Wasing has a site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) just on the edge of the hamlet, called Wasing Wood Ponds.[1]

Wasing Place

Wasing Place, Wasing Park, and the Wasing Estate, including woodland, are largely owned and managed by Joshua Dugdale, who inherited them from his father, Sir William Dugdale, 2nd Baronet, in 2014.[2] Its manor is centred on a manor house which was purchased in 1759 by the London nautical publisher John Mount. He built the mansion Wasing Place, completed in 1770, which became the home of his descendants the MPs, William Mount, William George Mount and Sir William Mount. The house was rebuilt after a fire in 1945.[3]

Wasing, cattle in the park, summer 2013, looking approximately along the line of the Roman road from Speen to Silchester.

The tall, white Georgian manor house has a 180° panorama. Its park to the north and it are listed, in the initial category, Grade II[4] and the adjacent church, remaining almost a private chapel due to its isolation, is at Grade I, the highest category.[5] Accordingly, these buildings host weddings, business functions, private dining and events. Groups are permitted to shoot partridge and pheasant or go fishing in private woodside ponds on a paid basis. Paths off the public rights of way are available for walking and riding subject to the purchase of annual permits.

For four consecutive years, the Wasing Estate played host to the Glade Festival, an electronic dance music festival which originally started out as a stage at Glastonbury Festival. The annual festival takes place over three days in the summer and attracted around 13,000 people in 2005.

References
  1. Magic Map Application
  2. Pitcher, Claire Joshua Dugdale on restoration projects at Wasing Estate and his love for filmmaking, Berkshire Life, 14 September 2015
  3. "The thirty landowners who own half a county". Who owns England?.
  4. Historic England. "Details from listed building database (1000511)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 1 January 2015.
  5. Historic England. "Details from listed building database (1117257)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 1 January 2015. St Nicholas's church - grade I listing with parts in an unadulterated 12th century state.

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