Berkshire Places (5) : Bracknell

The town of Bracknell is at the east of the county but also on the western edge of the Greater London Urban Area.

Bracknell has Saxon origins, being first recorded in 942CE. The name back then was Braccan Heal, which may have meant Bracca's Land. By the Middle Ages there were two Bracknells, or Bracknoll at the time. Old and new market villages. Dick Turpin is said to have frequented one of the village pubs. The two villages were combined into a single town in the 19th century. The town saw rapid growth with the manufacture of bricks a major industry.

After the Second World War, Bracknell was designated a New Town, thousands of new houses were built to rehouse people who had lost their homes during the war and German bombing. Bracknell has expanded beyond the original plans and now has a population of well over 100,000. 

The town is host to the headquarters of a number of large companies including 3M, Fujitsu and Waitrose.

Berkshire Places (4) : Sandhurst

Sandhurst is a town on the south eastern edge of the county.

The town has Anglo-Saxon origins, the name is probably derived from the sandy soils and hursts (or tree covered hills) in the area. However, Sandhurst is not mentioned until 1175. For centuries Sandhurst remained a small farming village on the edge of Windsor forest.

The big change came to Sandhurst in the 19th century when the Royal Military College moved to there from Marlow in 1812. This helped the village grow into a town with expansion continuing into the 20th century with the building of new housing estates.

Sandhurst gained a railway station in the 1850s though this was only temporary, the current Sandhurst station dates from 1909.

Berkshire Places (3) : Reading

The county town of Berkshire, Reading, has it's origins in the 9th century Saxon settlement of Readingas, though there has been settlement in the area for a lot longer. Readingas probably comes from a Saxon tribe of the same name. In 871, Reading was the scene of a battle by the forces of King Ethelred and Alfred the Great against a Danish army.

In the early Norman period Reading was already a notable place, with six mills listed in the Domesday Book. Reading Abbey was founded by King Henry I in 1121, he was later buried in the Abbey grounds. Reading was the largest town in Berkshire by the early 16th century, and amongst the richest towns in the country. In 1867 it replaced Abingdon as the county town of Berkshire.

Good transport links, including the river Kennet and later the railways helped Reading grow as a manufacturing and business hub. Three industries very important to Reading in the 19th and 20th centuries were known as the three Bs: beer, bulbs (as in plant roots) and biscuits. Nowadays, Reading is the location of many major company headquarters, helped by the proximity of London and Heathrow Airport.

Berkshire Places (2) : Crowthorne

Crowthorne is a village at the south eastern edge of the county.

Until the second half of the nineteenth century Crowthorne was a small hamlet with just a handful of dwellings. The name comes from a local landmark known as Crow Thorn. The centre of the hamlet was at the junction of the Roman road, the Devil's Highway and a road between Sandhurst and Bracknell.

In the 1860s the opening of Wellington College and Broadmoor Hospital helped Crow Thorn greatly expand. It was proposed to give the fast growing settlement a new name in the 1890s, Albertville after Prince Albert was proposed, but in the end Crowthorne was chosen.

Crowthorne railway station was opened in 1859 to serve the college. In latter years Crowthorne has also gained the Transport Research Laboratory. A notable manufacturing company C.F. Taylor produced parts for aviation and road vehicles. it later became part of British Aerospace.

Berkshire Places (1) : Woolhampton

Woolhampton is a village in the south central part of Berkshire between Newbury and Reading.

The village has Saxon origins, the original name of the village was Ollavintone and may be derived from the Old English for Ridge Place. Woolhampton is located on the Kennet valley and nowadays is passed by the Kennet & Avon Canal.

Woolhampton was a stop on the stagecoach route to the west known as the Bath Road. The village had a number of coaching inns but only one, The Angel, survives as a public house. Woolhampton railway station was opened in 1847, however due to the possibility of confusion with Wolverhampton (apparently!) the station was renamed to Midgham in 1873, Midgham is a separate village about two miles away from Woolhampton.