Welcome to Aldermaston History Online

Aldermaston History Online is the  community heritage archive for the Aldermaston area, on the Hampshire/West Berkshire border in England. On this site you can explore, comment and contribute to the fascinating collection of local history and heritage material that includes photos, documents, articles and personal stories. Any comment or contribution you are able to provide will extend the historical record of the life and times of the Aldermaston area.

Aldermaston History Group maintains & updates the website as an on-going project. The Group also holds meetings throughout the year with talks, visits and exhibitions on local history. More information on the Group and it’s activities can be found on the Group website.

Our thanks to National Lottery players who supported, through a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the creation of this website.

Latest comments

  • Duke of Edinburgh Opens Merlin Reactor (1959)

    Dr. Middleton, many thanks for your offer to visit and we’d very much like to take you up on it. I’ll email you privately to make arrangements.

    By Chris Boott (23/08/2023)

  • Aldermaston Businesses- Cricket Bats

    Hi Rob,
    Thanks for your question.

    I believe that the company that grows and processes the willow in Aldermaston is Surridge Willow Ltd (surridgewillow.co.uk).

    The Surridge brand of cricket bats was sold to Dunlop Slazenger but has been bought by SDL Group Ltd of Burnley (check out Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Surridge), who use The Surridge Sport brand and here is a link to their cricket bat page https://www.surridgesport.com/en/cricket-bats.

    I am not qualified to confirm if all bats are made with Aldermaston willow. Hopefully someone will confirm this or you’ll be able to find out.

    Chris

    By Chris Boott (23/08/2023)

  • Duke of Edinburgh Opens Merlin Reactor (1959)

    Hi there. My name is Dr Glenn Middleton. My father worked at the AEI laboratory in the instrument workshop supporting the Scientists. I vividly remember many visits there as a young lad from about 1953 to its closure in 1963. I have a small archive of some research activities (including photos of the Van De Graaff generator under construction shown on your website, and a photo of HRH Duke of Edinburgh opening the Merlin Reactor) given to me by one of my father’s colleagues, which I would be happy to show you. I can recall several visits there meeting various Scientists, including Jacob Bronowski. I met the Director Dr T E Allibone several times at Christmas parties.
    Please contact me if you would like me to visit to hear more.

    By Dr Glenn Middleton (12/08/2023)
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