Wokefield


Wokefield is a civil parish in the West Berkshire district of Berkshire, England, south of the borough of Reading. The parish includes the hamlets of Grazeley Green, Goddard's Green and Bloomfield Hatch, and the 18th-century mansion of Wokefield Park. It includes part of the former parish of Sulhamstead Bannister Upper End and Grazeley. To the north are Burghfield, and Burghfield Common. to the east are Grazeley and Shinfield and to the south are Stratfield Mortimer and Mortimer Common. It lies between 40m and 95m above sea level.
Wokefield Park is an 18th-century country house, now a training centre surrounded by a golf course.

Geography

is an area of mixed woodland on the northern border of the parish. It has been declared a Wildlife Heritage Site by West Berkshire Council's Countryside Service, and is described as a quiet site with a network of paths leading through tall pine and broadleaf woodland, ponds, small areas of heather and rich wet gullies. Of particular significance are the heathland areas which support rare species including slowworms, grass snakes and adders. The site is jointly managed by the Countryside Service, the landowner and Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust. The main entrance is on Goring Lane on the outskirts of Burghfield. Several public bridleways and public footpaths cross the common.
Burghfield Brook lies at the northern border of Wokefield Common. A notable feature of this watercourse is Pullens Pond, formed where the brook is damned by a forest access road within the common. To the east of this area the brook continues into a small valley, Burghfield Slade, which contains a larger reservoir of water. It then continues to the northeast, leaving the parish, and feeds into Foudry Brook.
Lockram Brook runs northeast through the parish via Millbarn Pond, joining Burghfield Brook near Grazeley Green.
There are several smaller woods and coppices, including Pitchkettle Wood, Rookery Wood, Bell Copse and Pond Wood. Much of the rest of the parish is agricultural and there are several farms in the parish.