Norcot

Coordinates: 51°27′36″N 1°01′37″W / 51.460°N 1.027°W / 51.460; -1.027

Norcot
Osborne Road
Norcot  Norcot shown within Berkshire
OS grid reference	SU6873
Unitary authority	Reading
Ceremonial county	Berkshire
Region	South East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Reading
Postcode district	RG31
Dialling code	0118
Police	Thames Valley
Fire	Royal Berkshire
Ambulance	South Central
EU Parliament	South East England
UK Parliament	Reading East
List of places: UK • England • Berkshire

Norcot is an area of Tilehurst and a ward of Reading in the English county of Berkshire.

Location and origins

Norcot ward is the south-eastern sector of the Reading borough portion of Tilehurst. However, as a suburban area, Norcot centres on Norcot Road and the upper Oxford Road on Norcot Hill. It is partly in Norcot ward and partly in Kentwood. The original hamlet was near the junction of Norcot Road and Romany Lane and was largely made up of Norcot Farm in the north-east of old Tilehurst parish. The name means 'North Cottage' and is thus twinned with Southcote, below Tilehurst church and manor.

Buildings and structures

The Norcot Water Tower, built at the end of the 19th century, is somewhat older than the more prominent Tilehurst Water Tower. It is 50ft high, a Grade II listed building^[1] and since 2002 has been converted into a luxury apartment. Norcot School was built in 1906. In its lifetime, it was both a senior and a junior school. It closed in 1989. Like much of Tilehurst, Norcot Hill was used for the extraction of clay for brickmaking. In the 1920s, S. E. Collier's transported the clay via overhead cables to their main site in the Dee Road area of Tilehurst. St George's Church was built on the north-eastern edge of Norcot in 1886, largely to service the soldiers of the nearby Brock Barracks. Norcot Mission Church was started in 1929 to serve the new Norcot council estate. It started in a hut on land rented from the Pulsometer Engineering Works. The church moved to a permanent building in Brockley Close in 1972. The post office is on the Oxford Road.

References

1. ^ "Water Tower, Reading". British Listed Buildings. http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-39282-water-tower-reading. Retrieved 6 June 2011.