Coordinates: 51°24′58″N 0°44′56″W / 51.416°N 0.749°W / 51.416; -0.749

Bracknell
Bracknell  Bracknell shown within Berkshire
Population	50,131 (2001)
OS grid reference	SU870693
Civil parish	Bracknell
District	Bracknell Forest
Shire county	Berkshire
Region	South East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	BRACKNELL
Postcode district	RG12, RG42
Dialling code	01344
Police	Thames Valley
Fire	Royal Berkshire
Ambulance	South Central
EU Parliament	South East England
UK Parliament	Bracknell
List of places: UK • England • Berkshire

Bracknell is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Bracknell Forest in Berkshire, England. It lies 11 miles (18 km) to the southeast of Reading, 10 miles (16 km) southwest of Windsor and 30 miles (48 km) west of central London. The town has a population of 50,131.^[1]

The name Bracknell is first recorded in a Winkfield Boundary Charter of AD 942 as Braccan heal, and may mean "Nook of land belonging to a man called Bracca", from the Old English Braccan (genitive singular of a personal name) + heal, healh (a corner, nook or secret place).^[2] An early form of the town's name, Brakenhale, still survives as the name of one of its schools.

The town is surrounded, on the east and south, by the vast expanse of Swinley Woods and Crowthorne Woods. The urban area has absorbed parts of many local outlying areas including Warfield, Winkfield and Binfield.

History[link]

The town covers all of the old village of Easthampstead (though not all of the old parish) and the hamlet of Ramslade. Easthampstead has a very long history. There is a Bronze Age round barrow at Bill Hill. Easthampstead Park was a favoured royal hunting lodge in Windsor Forest and Catherine of Aragon was banished there until her divorce was finalised. It was later the home of the Trumbulls who were patrons of Alexander Pope from Binfield.

To the north-east of the town is to be found the Quelm Stone, a standing stone, and to the south-west is Caesar's Camp, an Iron Age hill fort.

One of the oldest buildings in the town is the 'Old Manor' public house, a 17th century brick manor house featuring a number of priest holes. Next door once stood the 'Hind's Head' coaching inn, where it is said Dick Turpin used to drink. It is believed that there were once underground tunnels between the two, along which the famous highwayman could escape from the authorities.

It was at Bracknell, in 1723, that a troop of mounted Grenadier Guards had a pitched battle with an infamous band of ruffians known as the Wokingham Blacks. They had been marauding around this area of Windsor Forest for over a year, but, after one of their number was forced to reveal the gang's whereabouts, the authorities finally caught some 29 men.

Surviving old pubs are the Old Manor, the Red Lion and the Bull, all timber-framed and dating from before the 18th century. In front of the Bull stands one of Bracknell's many unusual fountains: a large rotating granite ball suspended in a pool of water. Not far away, in Charles Square, is a large clock-fountain.

Oscar Wilde is said to have visited South Hill Park but this has never been verified. It is believed he wrote his short story; the Selfish Giant, whilst in the gardens. Furthermore he named a character Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest.

The oldest place of worship in the town is the parish church of St Michael and St Mary Magdalene in Easthampstead. There has been a church there since Saxon times, although the present building dates from the mid 19th century, except for the lower portions of the Tudor tower. Holy Trinity Church near the town centre was built in 1851.^[3]

• 

  The clock fountain in Charles Square

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  Bracknell and Wokingham College

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  Office building at sunset

• 

  Broadway

New town[link]

Bracknell was designated a new town in 1949,^[4] in the aftermath of the Second World War. The site was originally a village cum small town in the civil parish of Warfield in the Easthampstead Rural District. Very little of the original Bracknell is left. The location was preferred to White Waltham, which was also considered, because the Bracknell site avoided encroaching on good quality agricultural land. It also had the additional advantage of being on a railway line.

The new town was planned for 25,000 people; it was intended to occupy over 1,000 hectares (about 6 square miles) of land in and around 'Old Bracknell' in the area now occupied by Priestwood, Easthampstead, Bullbrook and Harman's Water. The existing town centre and industrial areas were to be retained with new industry brought in to provide jobs.^[5] However, the town has since expanded far beyond its intended size into farmland to the south, and major expansion is now, as of 2008, under way (Jennetts Park ^[6]) to the west of the town at Peacock Farm and on the site of the former RAF Staff College.^[7]

The town centre is a 1960s design, and considered by many to be in need of a major refurbishment. The Borough Council is working in partnership with the Bracknell Regeneration Partnership (Legal & General and Schroders) to regenerate the town centre with new shops and facilities.

At the heart of most Bracknell neighbourhoods is a church, a small parade of shops, a primary school, a community centre and a pub. There is a coffee shop run by a church in Crown Wood School (part of Easthampstead Baptist Church^[8]). The neighbourhoods varied in population from 3,000 to 9,000. The plans included pedestrianisation, the construction of a ring road, and segregation of industrial areas from residential areas.^[9][10]

A slightly confusing feature of some of the estates is that streets only have names, not titles - in Birch Hill, Crown Wood, Great Hollands and others there is no 'Road', 'Avenue', 'Street', just 'Frobisher', 'Jameston', 'Juniper', 'Jevington'. The residential streets are, however, named in alphabetical order in Great Hollands and Wildridings, with As, through Ds, such as Donnybrook, in Hanworth, Js, such as 'Jameston', 'Juniper' and 'Jevington' in Birch Hill.

Regeneration[link]

Because of Bracknell's age, it was decided that it should undergo renovation. Designs and plans were submitted and rejected first time round. The council went for a second attempt and were accepted, work was due to commence early in 2008 but due to the global credit crises it appears that plans have been postponed until a more suitable time, although in January 2009 it was still publicly stated as being planned. The cost is estimated at around £750 million. It is hoped that the regeneration will provide brand new services, a completely redeveloped town centre, 1,000 new homes and new police and bus stations.^[11][12]

Business[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

The Red Lion pub and the "3M Building", as seen in 2004.

The town was successful in attracting high-tech industries, and has become home to companies such as Panasonic, Fujitsu (formerly ICL), Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Siemens (originally Nixdorf), Honeywell, Cable and Wireless, Avnet Technology Solutions and Novell. Its success subsequently spread into the surrounding Thames Valley or M4 corridor, attracting IT firms such as Cable and Wireless, DEC (subsequently Hewlett-Packard), Microsoft, Sharp Telecommunications, Sun Microsystems and Cognos.

The Southern Industrial Area houses the head office of Waitrose.^[13] The 70-acre (280,000 m²) site which houses the Waitrose head office also houses the central distribution centre. Waitrose has operated from the town since the 1970s. The town is also home to the UK headquarters of BMW Group.^{[citation needed]}

Manufacturing industry has largely disappeared since the 1980s. Former significant sites included Clifford's Dairy in Downshire Way and British Aerospace (originally Sperry Gyroscope) now occupied by Arlington Square, a 22 acre (8ha) business park^[14] of which the first stage was completed in 1995. The Thomas Lawrence brickworks on the north side of the town was famous for 'red rubber' bricks to be found in the Royal Albert Hall and Westminster Cathedral, and in restoration work at 10 Downing Street and Hampton Court Palace.

The most visible landmark in the town centre is Winchester House, formerly owned by 3M and informally known as the "3M Building", as it had the 3M logo in large illuminated red letters in a prominent place at the top of the building. It is a 12-storey structure and it can be seen from miles around. Today it stands as a decaying monument and a bad example of brutalist architecture. It used to house the company's UK headquarters before being abandoned in favour of new premises in Farley Wood on the town's northern edge in 2004 – since then, the building has had the 3M logo removed and has been heavily vandalised inside. It is currently proposed for demolition and replacement with blocks of flats^[15] The town was also the home of Racal and Ferranti Computer Systems Ltd. The Met Office maintained a large presence in the town until 2003, when it relocated to Exeter in Devon; however, the junction of the A329 and A3095 is still known as the "Met Office Roundabout". Many businesses are located on the town's three industrial areas.

Local government[link]

Bracknell was made a civil parish in its own right in 1955. It has a town council. Under the Local Government Act 1972, the entire Easthampstead Rural District became the Bracknell District on 1 April 1974. It was granted borough status, when it changed its name to Bracknell Forest in 1988. When Berkshire County Council was abolished on 1 April 1998 (and the non-metropolitan county was reclassified as a ceremonial county), Bracknell Forest became one of the unitary authorities which together make up Berkshire.

Geography[link]

The town covers areas previously in the parishes of Easthampstead, Warfield, Binfield and Winkfield. The town's centre lies just north of the railway station with completely pedestrianized and much undercover shopping around Princess Square, Charles Square and the Broadway. There are 'out-of-town' shops, a multiscreen cinema and ten pin bowling complex at the Peel Centre. Just to the west are the Western and Southern industrial estates, either side of the railway line. There are many residential suburbs (see settlement table below) of varying dates, the oldest being Priestwood and, of course, Easthampstead village.

The former RAF Staff College buildings in Harmans Water, now closed, was part of the Joint Services Command and Staff College. This site is now, as of 2008, being redeveloped for housing by Wimpey, with an estimated 730 houses on the college's former site. The south-western corner of the town remains rural around Easthampstead Park and the wooded Yew Tree Corner. However, a new housing development called Jennett's Park is currently being built (from 2007) at Peacock Farm and on part of what was historically the grounds of Easthampstead Park. A considerable green area has been lost to houses. However, as of 2010, a new country park adjacent to the development is currently being created. There are large ponds at Farley Wood and the Easthampstead Mill Pond between Great Hollands and Wildridings, and two lakes at South Hill Park. The Bull Brook emerges above ground just within the bounds of the suburb of Bullbrook.

Arts[link]

In the south of the town is South Hill Park, a mansion dating from 1760, although much rebuilt, that now houses a large arts centre. The Wilde Theatre was opened in 1984, named after Oscar Wilde who created the character 'Lady Bracknell' in his play The Importance of Being Earnest. South Hill Park has been home to a number of major music festivals over the years:^[16]

• 1975 - 1990s Bracknell Jazz Festival
• 1970s - 1980s Bracknell Folk Festival ("The Handsome Mouldiwarp Festival")
• 1988 - Womad Festival
• 1980s - 1990s - Bracknell Music Festival / South Hill Park Festival
• 2000s - present - Big Day Out festival, a free, annual World Music and acoustic/folk festival

Bracknell has been used in the filming of many TV shows and films, such as Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Martins Heron) and Time Bandits (Birch Hill).^[17] Bracknell is given the name 'Laxton' in the TV detective series Pie in the Sky and Waterside Park was used for the exterior of the police HQ in the same series. Bracknell has also featured in the 1991 Roger Daltrey film Buddy's Song. The Offence (1972), a psychological thriller with Sean Connery and Ian Bannen, was filmed in Bracknell. There are scenes in the town centre, on Broadway, Charles Square and Market Street. The flat for Connery's character was filmed at the listed Point Royal, and the bulk of the outdoor scenes were taken around Wild Ridings, specifically Arncliffe, Crossfell, Mill Pond and Mill Lane.

Bracknell is featured in the PlayStation 3 title "Resistance: Fall of Man" set in 1951, as the location at which power conduits travel deep underground South East England to power the Chimeran fortresses. It also featured in the sequel "Resistance:2" with a similar role.

Tracy Beaker actress Dani Harmer was brought up in Bracknell.

Transport[link]

Bracknell has two railway stations, Bracknell and Martins Heron, both of which are on the Waterloo to Reading Line, originally built by the London and South Western Railway and now operated by South West Trains. As a consequence of the frequent service on this line, Bracknell is now a major commuter centre with its residents travelling in both directions (westwards to Reading and eastwards to London (Waterloo)).

The town has good road links and is situated at the end of the A329(M), mid-way between Junction 3 of the M3 and Junction 10 of the M4 motorways. A proposed motorway link between the M3 and the M4 – to be called the M31 – would have passed to the west of the town centre, but only the section that is now the A329(M) and the A3290 was built.^[18]

Local bus services are provided by First Berkshire & The Thames Valley, Courtney Coaches and Thames Travel.

Sport and leisure[link]

The dry ski slope at the John Nike Leisure Complex in nearby Binfield (photo by Andrew Smith)

Bracknell Town F.C. are members of the Southern Football League Division One South & West, and play their home matches at Larges Lane. The Bracknell Bees Ice Hockey Club are former national champions, who currently play in the English Premier League. The Bracknell Blazers are the 2009 BBF National League champions. The town is also represented by teams playing rugby,^[19] hockey^[20] and cricket.^[21]

The town has a large leisure centre, which includes swimming and athletics facilities, whilst there is also the Coral Reef Water Park, the Downshire Golf Complex, the Bracknell Lawn Tennis Club,^[22] and Esporta, the Royal County of Berkshire Club. The John Nike Leisuresport Complex houses a dry ski slope and an ice rink, and there are 2,600 acres (11 km²) of Crown Estate woodland at the Look Out Discovery Centre.^[23] A number of organisations are active in the area, including several troops of Scouts and the Bracknell Forest Lions Club, which was formed in 1968 to help those in need.^[24]

Education[link]

The area has various schools includinSt Joseph's Catholic Primary School, Brakenhale School, Easthampstead Park School, Garth Hill College and Ranelagh Church of England School. Bracknell and Wokingham College of further education is also based in the area.

The University of Reading is only 8 miles (13 km) to the northwest.

References[link]

External links[link]

Berkshire portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Bracknell

• Bracknell Forest Council
• Bracknell Town Council
• Royal Berkshire History: Bracknell
• Bracknell Town Centre
• Bracknell Regeneration
• The Bracknell Harbinger
• Great Hollands - Bracknell community website
• A video tour of some town centre buildings scheduled for demolition
• BFBC Report: "A Sustainable Transport Strategy to Support the Regeneration of Bracknell" (Tim Cuthbert, Jon Freer)PDF (~20MB)