Tadley
Tadley is a small town right on the north border of Hampshire, where it borders Berkshire in the south of England. In 1998, its population was 8,300 (source).Originally the parish was heathland and common land covered in gorse and blackberries, with a few scattered settlements. Bricks used to be made at Tadley Common and the manufacture of besom brooms was, and still is, another local industry. Relics of these industries can be seen in the names of houses in the village such as Kiln House and Broom Cottage.
A congregational chapel was founded in Tadley in 1662; this may be identified with a chapel which was converted into the first village school in 1820.
In recent years Tadley has become a township, with residential estates covering the former heath lands. Development has occurred on either side of the Hampshire/Berkshire border following the growth of the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston in the 1950s and the designation of Basingstoke as a London overspill town in the 1970s.
Tadley's border used to overlap in to the neighbouring county of Berkshire, but since the borders have been moved so that all of the town is now in Hampshire.
Tadley considers itself the home of the besom broom industry. This is the sort of broom that witches are traditionally said to carry around with them. The brooms that are used on the Queen's premises are manufactured in Tadley.
North of Tadley is the large atomic weapons plant, AWE Aldermaston, where many anti-nuclear demonstrationss have taken place through the years. The plant is one of the area's largest employers, and a large number of houses were built in Tadley during the 1950s/1960s to accommodate AWE workers. The plant is built on the site of a World War II airfield; Tadley streets such as Hangar Lane bear witness to its former usage.
Tadley does not really have many places of interest to visit, although there is a Roman wall and amphitheatre at nearby Silchester, the site of a major Roman settlement, Calleva Atrebatum.