Information AboutBracknell |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT BRACKNELL | |
| towns in berkshire | |
| bracknell forest | |
| new towns in the united kingdom | |
Bracknell is a Town in the Bracknell Forest borough of the English county of Berkshire . It lies 18 km (11 miles) to the south-east of Reading , 16 km (10 miles) southwest of Windsor and 55 km (34 miles) west of London . The town is surrounded, on the east and south, by the vast expanse of Swinley Woods and Crowthorne Woods. The town has absorbed parts of many local outlying areas including Warfield , Winkfield and Binfield . HISTORY 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. Bracknell is a Saxon word meaning 'Bracken-covered Hiding Place'. 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 Hole s. 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. In 1723 , the Grenadier Guards had a battle with the infamous bandits called the ' Wokingham Blacks' near the town. NEW TOWN Bracknell was designated a . 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 chosen over White Waltham , an alternative possibility, because the Bracknell site avoided encroaching on good quality agricultural land. It had the additional advantage of being on a railway line. The new town was planned for 25,000 people; it was intended to occupy 1,337 hectares of land on and around ‘Old Bracknell’ in the area now covered 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. New Town Development Corporation The town centre is a 1960s design, and considered by many to be in need of a major refurbishment. The Borough Council is therefore working in partnership with the Bracknell Regeneration Partnership ( Legal & General and Schroders ) to regenerate the town centre with new shops and facilities to be built. At the heart of each neighbourhood in Bracknell is a neighbourhood centre with a church, parade of shops, primary school, community centre and a pub. The neighbourhoods varied in size from 3000 to 9000. Pedestrianisation was a key idea, as was the construction of a ring road, and segregation of industrial areas from residential areas. New Town Neighbourhoods A feature of a number of the estates that causes great confusion for outsiders and newcomers alike is the fact 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 starting in Great Hollands , with As, through Ds, such as Donnybrook, in Hanworth , Js, such as 'Jameston' and 'Jevington' in Birch Hill , and beyond. But there is exception for streets in the Wimpy Homes area of Bracknell, Streets such as Hornby Avenue and Packenham Road are present here. The town has expanded way beyond its intended size into farmland to the south. Major expansion is again underway, to the west of the town at Peacock Farm, and a new neighbourhood on former Ministry of Defence RAF Staff College site. The Parks, Bracknell BUSINESS 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-Siemens Computers , Dell , Hewlett-Packard , Siemens , Honeywell , Cable And Wireless and Novell . It's 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 , Oracle Corporation , Sun Microsystems and Cognos . It is also home to the central Waitrose distribution centre and head office which is on a 70 acre site on the Southern Industrial Estate. Waitrose has operated from the town since the 1970's. 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 twelve-storey structure and it can be seen from over a mile away. 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 also due for demolition. 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. "Arlington Square", a 22 acre (8ha) business park (first stage completed in 1995), is home to several of the town's businesses. Others are on the Western and Southern industrial areas. LOCAL GOVERNMENT 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 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 Suburb s (see settlement table below) of varying dates, the oldest being Priestwood and, of course, Easthampstead Village. The former RAF Staff College buildings, now closed and part of the Joint Services Command And Staff College , were at Harmans Water . The south-western corner of the town remains rural around Easthampstead Park and the wooded Yew Tree Corner. A new housing development is being built at Peacock Farm. 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 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 . Bracknell has been used in the filming of many TV shows and films, such as Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone ( Martins Heron ) and Time Bandits ( Birch Hill ). IMDB - Movie Database 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. TRANSPORT Bracknell has two railway stations: Bracknell and Martins Heron on the main line between London's Waterloo Station and Reading , 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). 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. Most local bus services are provided by First Group . SPORT AND LEISURE Leisure Complex in nearby Binfield (photo by Andrew Smith)]] There is Bracknell Ski and Snowboard Centre is important as is the Look Out Discovery Centre with 2,600 acres of Crown Estate woodland. Look Out discovery centre SCHOOLS The area has various schools including: Brakenhale School, Easthampstead Park School, Garth Hill College, Ranelagh Church of England School and St Margaret Clitherow Primary School. REFERENCES EXTERNAL LINKS
|
|
|