Bulmershe College

Bulmershe College was an education institution in the Reading suburb of Woodley, in the English county of Berkshire.Historically, Bulmershe has been the name of a manor and of two quite distinct country houses, one of which still stands but is now known as Bulmershe Manor.Bulmershe College opened for teaching in 1964 but merged with the University of Reading in 1989 to create the Bulmershe Court campus.HistoryOriginsBulmershe first appears in existing records in the 12th century as a place in the parish of Sonning. The first reference to it as a manor was in 1447 when it was granted to Reading Abbey. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the land was acquired by the poet William Gray. He probably built the first house here, the remains of which may be the basis of the present Bulmershe Manor.William Gray's wife, Agnes, was the widow of Robert Blagrave, a merchant of London and Reading and their son, John was Gray's heir. Through this the Blagrave family came to own Bulmershe Court, although both John Blagrave the mathematician and Daniel Blagrave the regicide resided at the family's other residence, at Southcote House in what is now the Reading suburb of Southcote.