SANDLEFORD FARM : NEWBURY : CO. BERKS

FR BER 20

1874 - 1945

The donor's family were originally tenant farmers at Chipley, co. Somerset. In 1873 they moved to co. Berks, first as sheep and cattle farmers and later as dairy farmers. A dairy shop selling cream and butter was opened in 1886,possibly linked with a dairy and cheese cooperative organisation. Sandleford Farm, which had been in continuous occupation for some 300 years, was the home farm for Sandleford Priory Estate. One third of it was arable: about 140 acres were devoted to corn. In the time of the donor's grandfather, there were 18-20 acres of water meadow on the farm. The Grandfather's two brothers, Charles and Thomas Butler, were both farmers, the latter at Manor Farm, Shalford, near Guildford, co. Essex. Another brother built motor cars in the early years of this century. He owned the first petrol cycle in Britain, and installed a refrigeration plant in a boat. The donor, an only son, has one daughter. His father, Stanley Webb Butler, was also an only son Farm size etc 341 acres in 1887, subsequently rising to 500 acres and falling after 1931 to about 300 acres; gravel soils; tenants on the Sandleford Priory estate; since 1947 the farm has belonged to a property company

Papers of Sandleford Farm, Newbury, Berkshire

10 series

Newbury, Agriculture, animal husbandry