Guide to R Ural England BERKSHIRE
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Looking for somewhere to stay, eat, drink or shop? www.findsomewhere.co.uk 1 Guide to Rural England BERKSHIRE A historic building B museum and heritage C historic site D scenic attraction E flora and fauna F stories and anecdotes G famous people H art and craft I entertainment and sport J walks Looking for somewhere to stay, eat, drink or shop? www.findsomewhere.co.uk 2 LOCATOR MAP Guide to Rural England Grove Didcot Beaconsfield Chalfont West Wantage Wallingford St Peter Challow Ardington Marlow Wooburn Green Henley-on- Cookham Ashbury Thames Farnham Stoke Poges Moulsford Royal Maidenhead Slough Goring Crays Pond Binfield Lambourn Heath Hare Hatch Beedon Pangbourne Eton Baydon Twyford Windsor Reading BERKSHIRE Bradfield Hermitage Bracknell BERKSHIRE Staines Hungerford Newbury Thatcham Ascot Kintbury Three Mile Wokingham Great Padworth Cross Bedwyn Aldermaston Crowthorne Headley Tadley Silchester Addlestone Camberley Burghclere Kingsclere Lightwater Baughurst Hatley Woking Hannington Wintney Basingstoke Hook Farnborough Hurstbourne Litchfield Tarrant Fleet Towns and Villages Aldermaston pg 15 Donnington pg 6 Sandhurst pg 22 Aldworth pg 17 Dorney pg 22 Slough pg 25 Arborfield pg 15 East Ilsley pg 4 Sonning pg 13 Ascot pg 20 Eton pg 24 Swallowfield pg 15 Basildon pg 17 Finchampstead pg 15 Thatcham pg 11 Beenham pg 16 Greenham pg 11 Twyford pg 21 Binfield pg 21 Hampstead Norreys pg 6 Wargrave pg 21 Bisham pg 25 Hungerford pg 7 Whitchurch pg 16 Boveney pg 22 Hurst pg 14 Wickham pg 7 Bracknell pg 21 Lambourn pg 4 Windsor pg 18 Bray pg 22 Maidenhead pg 23 Winterbourne pg 6 Combe pg 10 Newbury pg 5 Wokingham pg 14 Compton pg 4 Pangbourne pg 16 Woodley pg 14 Cookham pg 23 Reading pg 12 Woolhampton pg 16 Datchet pg 25 Runnymede pg 25 A historic building B museum and heritage C historic site D scenic attraction E flora and fauna F stories and anecdotes G famous people H art and craft I entertainment and sport J walks Looking for somewhere to stay, eat, drink or shop? www.findsomewhere.co.uk 3 Berkshire Guide to Rural England The Royal County of Berkshire receives its honorific title because one of the Queen’s three official residences, BERKSHIRE Windsor Castle, lies within its boundaries. The most important landmark in the east of the county, the 900-year-old castle is the county’s major tourist attraction. Berkshire extends over some 485 square miles in the valley of the middle Thames and is divided into six main districts. Dun Mill Lock, Kennet & Avon Canal The western area of the county is important for racing and the training of again be travelled its full length, providing a racehorses, with a top-class course at wide variety of leisure activities for thousands Newbury, and the training centres of of visitors each year. Lambourn and East Ilsley. The central region of Berkshire is Another feature of West Berkshire is the dominated by Reading, a thriving commuter number of communication routes that flow town with excellent links to both London and across the region linking London with the West the West Country. Though seeming to be very Country, dominated today by the M4 motorway. much a product of the past two centuries, it The ancient Ridgeway Path, England’s oldest has a long and interesting history. road, follows the county border with The Thames, forming the northern county Oxfordshire, and the Kennet and Avon Canal, border with Oxfordshire, has, especially along completed in 1810, crosses southern England its southern banks, many delightful villages, from Bristol to join the River Thames at which became fashionable thanks to the Reading. Entering the county at Hungerford, Victorian and Edwardian passion for boating, this major waterway passes through a charming and they remain fashionable to this day. rural landscape as it winds through villages and Across Windsor Great Park, the remains of market towns. The canal prospered until the a royal hunting forest, lies Ascot racecourse, arrival of the Great Western Railway in 1841, founded in 1711 by Queen Anne. Five days in after which it inevitably declined; by the 1950s it June see the worlds of fashion and was largely unnavigable. After a full clearing and horseracing meet at the highest level at the restoration programme, the canal can now once Royal Ascot meeting. A historic building B museum and heritage C historic site D scenic attraction E flora and fauna F stories and anecdotes G famous people H art and craft I entertainment and sport J walks Looking for somewhere to stay, eat, drink or shop? www.findsomewhere.co.uk 4 Lambourn flat and current incumbents Barry Hills, Clive Guide to Rural England Coc, Marcus Tregoning and Nicky Henderson. A Church of St Michael C Seven Barrows Lambourn’s medieval Church of St I Lambourn Trainers’ Association Michael is one of the finest parish churches in Berkshire. Originally Norman and Lying up on the Berkshire Downs, in the constructed on the cruciform plan, it has been extreme west of the county, this village, greatly altered and extended, though the west which has the feel of a small town, is best end still has its Norman doorway, complete known as a major centre for the training of BERKSHIRE with zigzag ornamentation. The lychgate was racehorses. More than 1200 horses are dedicated to the memory of William Jousiffe, trained here and there are more than 100 who brought horses from Newmarket to miles of gallops. The Lambourn Trainers’ Lambourn in the 1870s and thus established a Association brings together racehorse still-flourishing industry. trainers and individuals and organisations To the north of the village are Lambourn involved in the training of racehorses in the Seven Barrows, one of the most impressive Lambourn area. It organises guided tours of Bronze Age burial sites in the country and the stables and trips to the gallops to view actually comprising no fewer than 32 barrows. the horses going through their paces. Lambourn has been home to some of the greatest trainers in the history of the racing Around Lambourn game, including Fred Winter and Fulke Walwyn over the jumps, Peter Walwyn on the EAST ILSLEY 10 miles E of Lambourn off the A34 This attractive downland village has managed to retain several interesting features, in particular the winding mechanism of the now long disused village well by the pond. It was because of sheep that the village chiefly prospered – from the early 1600s East Ilsley held fortnightly sheep fairs that were second only in size to Smithfield, London. At their peak in the 19th century, permanent pens were erected in the main street to contain the animals and, on one day, it was recorded that 80,000 sheep were penned. During the 19th century the station in the nearby village of Compton became an important centre for the passage of sheep to and from the great East Ilsley sheep market, but the decline in the sheep trade resulted in the closure of the station. St Michael’s Church - Lambourn About a mile south of Compton lie the A historic building B museum and heritage C historic site D scenic attraction E flora and fauna F stories and anecdotes G famous people H art and craft I entertainment and sport J walks Looking for somewhere to stay, eat, drink or shop? www.findsomewhere.co.uk 5 remains of an Iron Age fort, Perborough Guide to Rural England Castle, while to the northeast, just above the Ridgeway, is Lowbury Hill, where traces of a Roman temple and a Roman military outpost can be seen. Today, along with its neighbour West Ilsley, the village is associated with racehorses, which use the gallops on the downs as their training grounds. BERKSHIRE Kennet & Avon Canal, Newbury Newbury elaborately decorated nave roof have survived. A Church of St Nicholas I Kennet & Avon Canal After the Civil War, the town’s clothing B West Berkshire Museum I Racecourse industry declined. However, the 18th century This crossroads town has, for many years, saw the construction of turnpike roads and dominated the rural area of West Berkshire. Newbury became a busy coaching stop on the Prospering during the Middle Ages, and road from London to Bath. The town further afterwards on the importance of the woollen opened up to travellers and the needs of industry, the town became famous as the carriers with the completion of the Kennet Cloth Town. Among the various characters and Avon Canal in 1810. Newbury Lock, who made their money out of the weaving of built in 1796, was the first lock to be built the wool the best known is John Smallwood, along the canal and it is also the only one to always known as Jack of Newbury and the have lever-operated ground paddles (the “richest clothier England ever beheld”. Asked sluices that let in the water), which are known to raise two horsemen and two footmen for as Jack Cloughs. Henry VIII’s campaign against the Scots, Jack Back in the centre of the town, in the raised 50 of each and led them himself. Market Square, is the West Berkshire However, they only got as far as Stony Museum, housed in two of the town’s most Stratford in Buckinghamshire before news of historic buildings, the 17th-century cloth hall the victory of Flodden reached them and they and the adjacent 18th-century granary, a store turned for home. once used by traders travelling the canal. The Evidence of the town’s wealth can be seen history of the canal is explained, and other in the splendid ‘wool’ Church of St exhibits include crafts and industries, the two Nicholas, which was constructed between Battles of Newbury (1643 and 1644) during 1500 and 1532.