Aldworth is a mainly farmland village and civil parish in the English county of Berkshire, near the boundary with Oxfordshire, in a rural area between Reading, Newbury and Streatley. It includes the hamlet of Westridge Green. It lies on the high ground of the Berkshire Downs, just off the B4009 road between Newbury and Streatley. The north of it is crossed by The Ridgeway, an 87-mile (140 km) pre-Roman footpath. The parish church has large medieval figures in white stone, seemingly life-size, though some knights have an unlikely height of over seven feet. The Battle of Ashdown, where King Alfred defeated the Danes in January AD 871, is said by some to have been fought near The Ridgeway and Lowbury Hill.

A small area in the south of the village bears woodland centuries old that is still coppiced and carpeted with bluebells. It is open to the public subject to informal permission. The north of Aldworth is traversed by one of the National Trails, The Ridgeway, a pre-Roman Britain footpath 87 miles (140 km) long.

The Bell Inn, Aldworth, is a 15th-century inn that has twice won a National Pub of the Year award. Another pub, The Four Points, stands at a crossroads south of the village centre.

In medieval times there was a fortified manor or castle; La Beche Castle once stood on the site of what is now Beche Farm in the parish. This was the main residence of the De La Beche family, after whom it was named. This well-known family of medieval knights had held high positions at court since at least 1260.

The De La Beche family remained powerful landowners and knights in the 14th century. Many were retainers to the king, warders to the Tower of London, and sheriffs of Oxfordshire and Berkshire. The family was influential in the reigns of Edward II and Edward III, and embroiled in the royal intrigue of the time. Sir Phillip was imprisoned in Scarborough Castle from 1322 to 1327, but later pardoned by Edward III. His father, also Sir Phillip, had been imprisoned and later pardoned under Edward II.

The Church of England parish church of Saint Mary the Virgin contains numerous effigial monuments to the De La Beche family. The collection holds the largest number of medieval memorials to a single family in any parish church. The figures are supposed to be life-size representations, but they recreate some of the knights as over seven feet tall, which has led to them being known as the "Aldworth Giants". They were long thought to have been erected in the 1340s by the most influential member of the family, Sir Nicholas De La Beche (sometimes erroneously called Lord De La Beche), but historians now prefer to date them to various times in the Middle Ages.

A large number of the effigies were damaged by Parliamentarian iconoclasts during the English Civil War of the 17th century. Many of the knights are missing the lower part of their legs, noses and arms, presumably because these were easy parts to break off. Parliamentarians may have seen the giants as a symbol of royalty, although many churches were ransacked in the same period.