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

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.

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). 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.

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.

Coordinates: 51°25′01″N 0°44′49″W / 51.417°N 0.7469°W / 51.417; -0.7469

Bracknell Forest is one of six unitary authorities within Berkshire in southern England. It covers the two towns of Bracknell and Sandhurst as well as surrounding villages including Crowthorne and Binfield. It also includes the areas of North Ascot, Warfield and Winkfield. Parts of the borough border neighbouring boroughs such as Wokingham Borough Council and the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead. The south of the borough also borders onto Hampshire and Surrey.

Bracknell Forest was formed on 1 April 1974, as the non-metropolitan district of Bracknell. The district took on the territory of the former Easthampstead Rural District (in which the Bracknell new town had been developed). It changed its name in May 1988, at the same time as it was granted borough status.

On 1 April 1998, Berkshire County Council was abolished, as a consequence of the Banham Review, and Bracknell Forest Borough Council became a unitary authority. From 2008, references to 'borough' were phased out in favour of simply Bracknell Forest Council.