History
Peasemore’s Interesting Past
The first reference to what became Peasemore Parish was in 951AD in King Edred’s Charter when the boundaries of the Parish were defined and described as part of the Chieveley Parish. The village is first recorded in the Domesday book, in 1086, as Praxemere, and again in 1166 as Pesemere, meaning the ‘pond by which peas grow’, from the Old English ‘pise’ – peas, and ‘mere’ – pond1. Peasemore is first recorded on a map, drawn by Rocque in 1761, and again on a copy by Willis in 1768. The road network has not much changed since and a circular enclosure, which may be evidence of an Iron Age settlement (an archeological research project headed by BARG is currently underway) is clearly visible on successive maps. A Neolithic stone axe head was discovered at Prince’s farm in the 1950’s [now at The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford] and a number of flint tools have been found at Warren Down. These have been authenticated by Newbury museum and suggest that the area has been occupied for at least five thousand years.
