Dunce's Farm

 

A plan of 1728 shows the lands of Dunce's Farm surrounding the farmhouse on the road from Englefield to North Street, on the site now occupied by number 28, just on the North Street side of the A340 Pangbourne Road and therefore in Tilehurst parish. This is overlaid on a modern photograph below There were also some holdings in Langley Mead and Theale Mead, the common meadows of Tilehurst. In 1771 Dunt's Farm was offered for sale (along with Parker's Farm) when the owner, Edward Clarke, was declared bankrupt at his death. The same farm is shown as Dunt's Farm in the Tilehurst enclosure map of 1817 and as Dunts's on the plan for the new road in 1822. A title deed of 1824 refers to a messuage and 36 acres called Dunce's in Tilehurst so it obviously continued as a separate farm at that point in time. At some time later the land was absorbed into Wickcroft Farm.

 

In his will of 1760, according to a transcription, John Horn left his wife a property given as "Bunces", which has not been identified but may be a mis-transcription of "Dunces".  In the final Englefield enclosure beginning in 1809 John Horn gained some land from Richard Benyon "formerly part of Dunt's Farm", though this land is not shown as part of the farm in 1728.

 

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