is a
Town in
Berkshire ,
England located
3 Miles (5km) east of
Newbury and
15 Miles (24km) west of
Reading . It covers approximately
8.75 Square Miles (23 Km²) and has a population of 23,000 people (
2003 ). This number has grown rapidly over the last few decades from 5,000 in
1951 and 7,500 in
1961 . There is a large secondary school,
Kennet School , which ranks very well in the country.
It lies on the
River Kennet , the
Kennet And Avon Canal , the
A4 Road and the course of a
Roman Road . It is also served by
Thatcham Railway Station on the line between Newbury and Reading. Employment is provided by a number of light industrial units and it is also a
Dormitory Town for Newbury, Reading and
London .
The area has been occupied continuously from prehistoric times - the well-preserved remains of a
Mesolithic village dating from 7700 BC have been found in its vicinity. Indeed it is noted in the
Guinness Book Of Records as the oldest continuously inhabited place in England. There is also evidence of
Bronze and
Iron Age settlements and of a
Roman town.
The name may have been derived from that of a
Saxon chief called ''Tace'' (or perhaps ''Tac'' or ''Tec''), who established a
Village in around
500 . The settlement was known as ''Taceham'' - ''ham'' meaning village in Saxon. It is also possible that the name may have come from the Saxon ''thaec'' (
Thatch ). Wherever it came from, the name ''Taceham'' persisted until after the
Norman Conquest in
1066 before going through several minor changes until the current one was adopted in the
Sixteenth Century .
The town had a period of great prosperity around
1304 , when part of the building now known as the
Bluecoat School was constructed as a small
Chapel . At this time the population was larger than Newbury's but declined as a result of the
Black Death which decimated the area in
1348 . There is a
Norman Parish Church of
St. Mary which was largely reconstructed in
1857 . This is believed to be built on the same site as an earlier Saxon Church. It was also previously known as St. Luke's. A local attraction is the Nature Discovery Centre situated at
Thatcham Lake , a flooded gravel quarry.
The town is twinned with
Nideggen ,
Germany .
