recommendations you might have for visitors stopping by the village.
Greetings from Athens, Georgia in the United States. In a couple of weeks, my wife and I are celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary by fulfilling a lifelong dream to visit England. I am excited about touring London and seeing the history there, but I am probably most excited to visit the village from which I get my name. My genealogy is easily traced to the Virginia colony, but we have no direct records dating back to our English roots. Still, I am thrilled to visit the place that very well be where my people came from.
I hope you’ll forgive my inquiring as to any recommendations you might have for visitors stopping by the village. We intend to see Saint Matthew’s church, of course, we’ll take any opportunity to wander around any of the recreational paths, and I am personally kind of taken with visiting the Harwellian because no such thing would ever exist here in Georgia. But is there anything we should make a point to do or see? We intend to make a day trip out of it, most likely on Friday, May 6.
Please use the comments below to highlight your own recommendation for what to see in Harwell Village.
David says
St Matthews website has a summary history of the church, with links to more detail. Hopefully someone can suggest specific things to look for of interest to a Harwell descendant.
Check the Harwellian website for when they are open – I think Friday’s might be a good day for coffee in the morning and even a lunch.
In England we have two concepts: Conservation Areas and Listed Buildings.
A Conservation Area defines an area which need extra protection from a planning (zoning) perspective to make sure that any changes are in keeping with the existing area. The Harwell conservation area essentially marks the area of the village as it was at the end of WWII (~1945). Use this to make sure you wander around the older streets of the village.
A “listed building” is one which has been placed on a legal list which provides a method of defining and protecting old buildings. Being aware of which buildings are listed will help you find the genuinely older buildings in amongst the newer houses. [List of Harwell listed buildings]. Harwell possibly has more listed buildings than most of the surrounding villages, but don’t assume that they are all clustered picturesquely in the centre if the village. Over time many buildings have not survived, and in 1851 a great fire swept down the high street destroying many settlements, so there are lots of newer building all mixed in with the old.
You won’t need a checklist to see plenty if you walk up Church Lane to St Matthews, and back round Wellshead. Look out for Prince’s Manor Farm, and for its cob walls. On the High Street, almost opposite Church Lane, look for Lime Tree House, maybe the oldest in the village. And a few yards away, near the war memorial, look for the alms houses.
You could spend a few hours exploring the village and looking for more listed buildings, but I suggest walking up the Holloway, an ancient track, part of a north-south “highway”. You don’t need to go far to rise above the village with open views back over the Thames Valley. You’ll get a feel for why the village is here – it’s one of a series of spring-line villages on the southern edge of the Thames Valley, where springs provided a year round water source. (The Harwell spring rises close to St Matthews).
Another way of looking at the village might be to use one of the Village Christmas Photo Competitions, set in 2010 and 2013. Find them here along with the village newsletters. Obviously things change, so some of the questions/answers may not exist any more. But I suggest using the 2010 quiz and printing the answers, including the map with the answers. And then as you wander around, use the map and the photos to identify interesting, and sometime just quirky, features of the village.
Jason Harwell says
Thank you very much for these wonderful recommendations, David! We are so looking forward to visiting your wonderful village!
Kath Luker says
Hi Jason I have lived in Harwell for 75 years and part of the Village history group
Have you considered that you may not be associated with Harwell Oxfordshire and that you might have links to Harwell Doncastor
Liz Roberts says
Hello from St Matthew’s! With a bit of notice (not only to have time off work but also to check the building is not already booked for use for a service) we would love to show you the church and take you for lunch at the village pub if you have time. Please contact me via the Parish Administrator, Deborah Evans, at de.hcchurches@gmail.com.
If you’re on Facebook /Harwell St Matthew’s Friends has heritage content and /Harwell Village Community (private group requiring a request to belong) covers all the day-to-day of life in our little community.
I hope to meet you in person! Liz Roberts for the Friends of St Matt’s Harwell.
Liz Roberts says
Another thought, Jason: are you aware of the Facebook group Harwell/Harvell Genealogy? Another link to pursue for family trees and so on, perhaps?
Jason Harwell says
Thank you so much for this suggestion, Liz! I was not aware of this group, but I will be looking into it!
Debbie Greenfield says
The Harwellian will be open on Friday from 11am to 11pm.
We have an excellent coffee machine and a simple lunch (filled rolls) is available from 12noon.
On Friday evenings we do bar food (burgers and chips) from 6 to 8.30pm.
You could also have a pint of locally brewed real ale (not actually warm as Americans imagine but not ice cold either 😂)
We now have a wonderful picture wall with photos of old Harwell village.
If it’s nice weather then you can sit in our outside garden area and watch everyone enjoying the recreation ground.
I will be there from 11am to 12 noon and would be delighted to welcome you.
Jason Harwell says
As a general note of follow up on this thread, I wanted to express our sincerest and heartfelt gratitude to everyone in Harwell for your wonderful hospitality and suggestions. Jana and I had the best visit and are looking forward to visiting again in the future. Special thanks to Mr. Tony Hughes for giving us a fantastic tour of St. Mathews (despite our being late from the bus) and to Liz Roberts for a wonderful lunch at the Hart of Harwell. While we didn’t make it to the Harwellian this trip or get to wander around quite as much as we would have liked, I suppose we’ll just have to come back! Thanks again. Jason