Berkshire
This article is about the English county of Berkshire. For other meanings see Berkshire (disambiguation).
Berkshire (/ˈbɑːrkʃər/) is a traditional and ceremonial county west of London in southern England.
Berkshire is also known as Royal Berkshire after the title was given to the county in an official act in the 1930s. The county is one of the oldest in England and its boundaries can be traced back to the time of King Alfred of Wessex. Following county reorganisation in 1974, Abingdon (the former administrative seat of the county) and Vale of the White Horse were added to Oxfordshire. In exchange, Slough was added to the county from Buckinghamshire. Reading became the new administrative seat. In 1998, as part of another national territorial reform, the County Council was abolished; since then the districts have been Unitary Authorities, but they do not have county status. Although Berkshire no longer has a county-level administration, it is still a non-metropolitan county.
Since Berkshire no longer exists as a political entity, on most maps the district boundaries are equated to the boundaries of the surrounding counties. There are also no longer any signs referring to Berkshire. This makes Berkshire a unique feature in England.
The name of the county comes from the Celtic: The great birch forest was the Bearroc (also Celtic for hilly). It was sold to King Cenwalh of Wessex. At that time the county consisted only of the northern and western parts of its present area.
Archaeological find
- Woman in Berkshire Quarry
Locations
- Ascot
- Bracknell, Bray
- Caversham, Cookham, Crowthorne
- Dorney
- Eastbury, Eddington, Englefield, Eton...
- Hungerford, Hurley
- Kintbury
- Lambourn, Littlewick Green
- Maidenhead
- Newbury
- Pangbourne
- Reading
- Sandhurst, Slough, Swallowfield
- Theale, Three Mile Cross, Twyford
- Welford, Windsor, Wokingham, Wraysbury...
