Place:Speen, Berkshire, England

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NameSpeen
Alt namesSpinaesource: Wikipedia
Sponesource: Domesday Book (1985) p 37
TypeVillage
Coordinates51.417°N 1.333°W
Located inBerkshire, England
source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
source: Family History Library Catalog


the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Speen is a village and civil parish in the unitary district of West Berkshire and county of Berkshire, England. The parish is about north west of Newbury.

It sits on the Ermin Street/Ermin Way, the main Corinium Dobunnorum/Cirencester to Calleva Atrebatum/Silchester Roman road. The English Civil War Second Battle of Newbury took place at Speen on 27 October 1644. Speenhamland in the parish, now part of Newbury, was the eponymous home of the Speenhamland System of outdoor relief.

The village contains the oldest church in Berkshire, the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin which is originally a Saxon church, and nearby is the Ladywell which is rumoured to be a pagan well with healing powers.

Next to the church and Ladywell are the impressive ramparts surrounding Speen House, the village manor house which is mostly of late 18th century date, but which is thought to date from the seventeenth century. There is evidence that the ramparts are associated with the Roman village of Spinae, but it is more likely that they are associated with a later medieval manor house.

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