117-707: Royal County may refer to: Berkshire in England County Meath in Ireland Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Royal County . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Royal_County&oldid=731482273 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
234-464: A beaker alongside the body. Later in the period, cremation was adopted as a burial practice with cemeteries of urns containing cremated individuals appearing in the archaeological record, with deposition of metal objects such as daggers. People of this period were also largely responsible for building many famous prehistoric sites such as the later phases of Stonehenge along with Seahenge . The Bronze Age people lived in round houses and divided up
351-658: A "plausible vector for the spread of early Celtic languages into Britain". There was much less migration into Britain during the Iron Age, so it is likely that Celtic reached Britain before then. The study also found that lactose tolerance rose swiftly in early Iron Age Britain, a thousand years before it became widespread in mainland Europe; suggesting milk became a very important foodstuff in Britain at this time. (around 750 BC – 43 AD) In around 750 BC iron working techniques reached Britain from southern Europe. Iron
468-474: A 100% win record. In 2010–11 the club finished bottom of National League 2S, with a single win and twenty-nine defeats. The club was founded in 1928 and in 1996 moved to a new purpose-built ground at Monks Lane, which has since hosted England U21 fixtures. The Bracknell Bees Ice Hockey Club are former national champions, who play in the English Premier League . Slough Jets also play in
585-485: A European rather than African introduction. The more advanced flint technology permitted more efficient hunting and therefore made Britain a more worthwhile place to remain until the following period of cooling known as the Wolstonian Stage , 352,000–130,000 years ago. Britain first became an island about 350,000 years ago. 230,000 years BP the landscape was reachable and Early Neanderthal remains discovered at
702-514: A chalk downland and area of outstanding natural beauty , occupy the west of the county. They are the source of the River Kennet , which flows east through Newbury before meeting the Thames at Reading. The Thames then forms Berkshire's northern border, flowing past Maidenhead, before entering the county and flowing past Slough and Windsor . The south-east of the county contains Swinley Forest ,
819-704: A dwelling. A further example has also been identified at Deepcar in Sheffield , and a building dating to c. 8500 BC was discovered at the Star Carr site. A group of 25 pits, aligned with a watercourse, laid out in straight lines, up to 500 metres long, has been found at Linmere, Bedfordshire. The older view of Mesolithic Britons as nomadic is now being replaced with a more complex picture of seasonal occupation or, in some cases, permanent occupation. Travel distances seem to have become shorter, typically with movement between high and low ground. In 1997, DNA analysis
936-408: A few actual settlement sites are known in Britain, unlike the continent. Cave occupation was common at this time. The construction of the earliest earthwork sites in Britain began during the early Neolithic (c. 4400 BC – 3300 BC) in the form of long barrows used for communal burial and the first causewayed enclosures , sites which have parallels on the continent. The former may be derived from
1053-753: A gradually warmer climate, perhaps reaching 17 degrees Celsius (62.6 Fahrenheit ) in summer, encouraging the expansion of birch trees as well as shrub and grasses. The first distinct culture of the Upper Palaeolithic in Britain is what archaeologists call the Creswellian industry, with leaf-shaped points probably used as arrowheads. It produced more refined flint tools but also made use of bone, antler, shell, amber , animal teeth, and mammoth ivory. These were fashioned into tools but also jewellery and rods of uncertain purpose. Flint seems to have been brought into areas with limited local resources;
1170-706: A major draw; the highlight is the Ascot Gold Cup . The most prestigious race is the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes run in July. Newbury Racecourse is in the civil parish of Greenham , adjoining the town of Newbury. It has courses for flat races and over jumps. It hosts one of Great Britain's 32 Group 1 races, the Lockinge Stakes . It also hosts the Ladbrokes Trophy , which
1287-802: A remnant of Windsor Forest now used as a forestry plantation . There is evidence of prehistoric settlement on the Berkshire Downs, including the Iron Age Uffington White Horse , now in Oxfordshire. In the Anglo-Saxon period the region was contested by Mercia and Wessex , and Alfred the Great was born in Wantage , also now in Oxfordshire. Windsor Castle , which would become the official country residence of
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#17327661224811404-583: A rich history in horse racing, the well drained, spongy grass, open downs and long flats make the Lambourn Downs ideal for training racehorses. This area of West Berkshire is the largest centre of racehorse training in the UK after Newmarket , and is known as the 'Valley of the Racecourse'. Reading F.C. is the only Berkshire football club to play professional football . Despite being founded in 1871,
1521-543: Is a ceremonial county and non-metropolitan county , one of four currently in England that have no council covering their entire area; rather it is divided into six unitary authorities. Berkshire County Council existed from 1889 until its abolition in 1998. The ceremonial county has a Lord Lieutenant and a High Sheriff . The Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire is Andrew Try, and the High Sheriff of Berkshire for 2018/19
1638-742: Is a centre for rugby union football . The Premiership team London Irish were for 20 years tenants at the Madejski Stadium before their move back to SW London at a new stadium in Brentford. Newbury's rugby union club, Newbury R.F.C. (the Newbury 'Blues'), is based in the town. In the 2004–05 season, the club finished second in the National Two division earning promotion to National One. Newbury had previously won National Four South (now renamed as National Three South) in 1996–97 with
1755-676: Is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of Berkshire at current basic prices published by the Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British pounds sterling . Reading has a historical involvement in the information technology industry, largely as a result of the early presence in the town of sites of International Computers Limited and Digital . These companies have been swallowed by other groups, but their descendants, Fujitsu and Hewlett-Packard respectively, still have local operations. More recently Microsoft and Oracle have established multi-building campuses on
1872-633: Is after the Sarsen Circle and trilithons were erected at Stonehenge . Several regions of origin have been postulated for the Beaker culture , notably the Iberian peninsula, the Netherlands and Central Europe. Beaker techniques brought to Britain the skill of refining metal . At first the users made items from copper , but from around 2150 BCE smiths had discovered how to smelt bronze (which
1989-554: Is available from before then. Palaeolithic (Old Stone Age) Britain is the period of the earliest known occupation of Britain by humans. This huge period saw many changes in the environment, encompassing several glacial and interglacial episodes greatly affecting human settlement in the region. Providing dating for this distant period is difficult and contentious. The inhabitants of the region at this time were bands of hunter-gatherers who roamed Northern Europe following herds of animals, or who supported themselves by fishing. There
2106-416: Is changing very fast and a clear picture across the whole of human occupation of Britain has yet to emerge. (Around 2200 to 750 BC) This period can be sub-divided into an earlier phase (2300 to 1200 BC) and a later one (1200 – 700 BC). Beaker pottery appears in England around 2475–2315 cal. BC along with flat axes and burial practices of inhumation . With the revised Stonehenge chronology, this
2223-490: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Berkshire The Royal County of Berkshire , commonly known as simply Berkshire ( / ˈ b ɑː r k ʃ ɪər , - ʃ ər / BARK -sheer, -shər ; abbreviated Berks. ), is a ceremonial county in South East England . It is bordered by Oxfordshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to
2340-400: Is different with the paternal Y-chromosome DNA, varying from 10 to 100% across the country, being higher in the east. This was considered to show a large degree of population replacement during the Anglo-Saxon invasion and a nearly complete masking over of whatever population movement (or lack of it) went before in these two countries. However, more widespread studies have suggested that there
2457-594: Is evidence from animal bones and flint tools found in coastal deposits near Happisburgh in Norfolk that early humans were present in Britain over 800,000 years ago. The archaeological site at Happisburgh lies underneath glacial sediments from the Anglian glaciation of 450,000 years ago. Paleo magnetic analysis shows that the sediments in which the stone tools were found have a reversed polarity- which means they are at least 780,000 years old. Plant remains as well as
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#17327661224812574-580: Is home to the Slough Ladies 1XI who play in the Women's Premier League, with five adult teams. In 2016, Bracknell and Wokingham Hockey Clubs merged to form South Berkshire Hockey Club. The team plays at Cantley Park in Wokingham and occasionally at Birch Hill, Bracknell. Other hockey teams in the county include Tadley, Yateley, Maidenhead, Windsor, and Newbury & Thatcham Hockey Clubs. Berkshire
2691-560: Is home to the central Waitrose distribution centre and head office, which is on a 70-acre (280,000 m ) site on the Southern Industrial Estate. Waitrose has operated from the town since the 1970s. The town is also home to the UK headquarters of Honda and BMW . Newbury is home to the world headquarters of the mobile network operator Vodafone , which is the town's largest employer with over 6,000 people. Before moving to their £129 million headquarters in
2808-589: Is home to the following universities: the University of Reading (which includes the Henley Business School ), Imperial College ( Silwood Park Campus), and the University of West London . It is also home to The Chartered Institute of Marketing , prestigious independent schools Ludgrove School , Eton College and Wellington College , and several grammar schools including Reading School , Kendrick School and Herschel Grammar School . See
2925-462: Is increasingly giving way to a more complex view of the changes and continuities in practices that can be observed from the Mesolithic period onwards. For example, the development of Neolithic monumental architecture, apparently venerating the dead, may represent more comprehensive social and ideological changes involving new interpretations of time, ancestry, community and identity. In any case,
3042-716: Is likely that these environmental changes were accompanied by social changes. Humans spread and reached the far north of Scotland during this period. Sites from the British Mesolithic include the Mendips , Star Carr in Yorkshire and Oronsay in the Inner Hebrides . Excavations at Howick in Northumberland uncovered evidence of a large circular building dating to c. 7600 BC which is interpreted as
3159-496: Is mostly based in the urban areas to the east and centre of the county: the largest towns here are Reading , Slough , Bracknell , Maidenhead , Woodley , Wokingham , Windsor , Earley , Sandhurst , and Crowthorne . West Berkshire is much more rural and sparsely populated, with far fewer towns: the largest are Newbury , Thatcham , and Hungerford . In recent years, Berkshire has seen consistent population growth, particularly in urban areas like Reading and Slough. Between 2011-21,
3276-474: Is much harder than copper) by mixing copper with a small amount of tin . With this discovery, the Bronze Age arrived in Britain. Over the next thousand years, bronze gradually replaced stone as the main material for tool and weapon making. Britain had large, easily accessible reserves of tin in the modern areas of Cornwall and Devon and thus tin mining began. By around 1600 BC the southwest of Britain
3393-612: Is no evidence of human occupation in Britain, probably due to inhospitable cold in some periods, Britain being cut off as an island in others, and the neighbouring areas of north-west Europe being unoccupied by hominins at times when Britain was both accessible and hospitable. This period is often divided into three subperiods: the Early Upper Palaeolithic (before the main glacial period), the Middle-Upper Palaeolithic (the main glacial period) and
3510-534: Is not established how early humans at Happisburgh would have been able to deal with the cold winters. It is possible that they migrated southwards during the winter but the distances are large. No evidence has been found for the use of fire during that period. At this time, Britain was a peninsula of Europe , connected by a chalk ridge running across to northern France and the English Channel did not yet exist. There were two main rivers in eastern Britain:
3627-477: Is rural, and its largest town is Newbury (33,841). For local government purposes Berkshire comprises six unitary authority areas: Bracknell Forest , Reading , Slough , West Berkshire , Windsor and Maidenhead , and Wokingham . The historic county included the parts of Oxfordshire south of the River Thames , which formed its northern border, but excluded Caversham and Slough . The Berkshire Downs ,
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3744-741: Is said to be the biggest handicap race of the National Hunt season apart from the Grand National . Windsor Racecourse , also known as Royal Windsor Racecourse is a thoroughbred horse racing venue located in Windsor . It is one of only two figure-of-eight courses in the United Kingdom. (The other is at Fontwell Park ). It abandoned National Hunt jump racing in December 1998, switching entirely to flat racing. Lambourn also has
3861-569: Is the only site in the British Isles to have produced late Neanderthal fossils. The earliest evidence for modern humans in North West Europe is a jawbone discovered in England at Kents Cavern in 1927, which was re-dated in 2011 to between 41,000 and 44,000 years old. The most famous example from this period is the burial of the " Red Lady of Paviland " (actually now known to be a man) in modern-day coastal South Wales , which
3978-677: Is used for thoroughbred horse racing. It is one of the leading racecourses in the United Kingdom, hosting 13 of the UK's 35 annual Group 1 races. The course is closely associated with the British Royal Family , being approximately 6 mi (10 km) from Windsor Castle , and owned by the Crown Estate . Ascot today stages twenty-five days of racing over the course of the year, comprising sixteen flat meetings held between May and October. The Royal Meeting, held in June, remains
4095-584: The Blackwater draining parts of two counties south, and the Kennet draining part of upland Wiltshire in the west. Heading west the reduced, but equally large, part of the county extends further from the Thames which flows from the north-north-west before the Goring Gap ; West Berkshire hosts the varying-width plain of the River Kennet rising to high chalk hills by way of and lower clay slopes and rises. To
4212-608: The British monarch , was built after the Norman Conquest . The county has been the site of several battles, particularly during the First English Civil War , when Reading and Wallingford were besieged two battles took place at Newbury, in 1643 and 1644 . The proximity of the east of the county to London led to development from the nineteenth century, when Slough became an industrial centre and Bracknell
4329-702: The Bytham River , flowing east from the English Midlands and then across the north of East Anglia, and the River Thames , which then flowed further north than today. Early humans may have followed the Rhine and thence around the huge north-facing bay into which the Thames and Bytham also flowed. Humans in Happisburgh were in a great valley downstream from the joining of the two great rivers. Reconstructing this ancient environment has provided clues to
4446-574: The English Premier League winning the title in 2007. Slough Jets also won the play-offs in 2005–06, 2007–08, 2009–10 & 2011–12. They also won the EPIH Cup in 2010–11. Slough Jets have been in the EPIHL since 1999. Phoenix Reading Hockey Club, based at Reading University, has six adult teams and a large junior development section. Reading Hockey Club and Sonning Hockey Club are situated close to each other near Blue Coats School. Slough Hockey Club
4563-539: The Labour Party ) with employed executives, whereas Labour Party local councillors run both Bracknell Forest and Reading , with Slough being run by the Conservative Party . After the 2024 United Kingdom general election , 5 of the elected Members of Parliament (MPs) were Labour, 3 Lib Dem and one conservative. The prime minister between 2016–19, Theresa May represented Maidenhead . This
4680-867: The List of places in Berkshire , List of settlements in Berkshire by population and the List of civil parishes in Berkshire Prehistoric Britain Several species of humans have intermittently occupied Great Britain for almost a million years. The earliest evidence of human occupation around 900,000 years ago is at Happisburgh on the Norfolk coast, with stone tools and footprints probably made by Homo antecessor . The oldest human fossils, around 500,000 years old, are of Homo heidelbergensis at Boxgrove in Sussex . Until this time Britain had been permanently connected to
4797-626: The M4 motorway , on the south side of Sonning Bridge , on the A404 southbound by Marlow, and northbound on the A33 past Stratfield Saye . A flag for the historic county of Berkshire was registered with the Flag Institute in 2017. All of the county is drained by the Thames. Berkshire divides into two topological (and associated geological) sections: east and west of Reading . North-east Berkshire has
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4914-755: The Maeshowe types. The earliest stone circles and individual burials also appear. Different pottery types, such as grooved ware , appear during the later Neolithic (c. 2900 BC – c. 2200 BC). In addition, new enclosures called henges were built, along with stone rows and the famous sites of Stonehenge , Avebury and Silbury Hill , which building reached its peak at this time. Industrial flint mining begins, such as that at Cissbury and Grimes Graves , along with evidence of long-distance trade. Wooden tools and bowls were common, and bows were also constructed. Changes in Neolithic culture could have been due to
5031-512: The Neolithic Revolution , as it is called, introduced a more settled way of life and ultimately led to societies becoming divided into differing groups of farmers, artisans and leaders. Forest clearances were undertaken to provide room for cereal cultivation and animal herds. Native cattle and pigs were reared whilst sheep and goats were later introduced from the continent, as were the wheats and barleys grown in Britain. However, only
5148-630: The Pontnewydd Cave in Wales have been dated to 230,000 BP , and are the most north westerly Neanderthal remains found anywhere in the world. The next glaciation closed in and by about 180,000 years ago Britain no longer had humans. About 130,000 years ago there was an interglacial period even warmer than today, which lasted 15,000 years. There were lions, elephants hyenas and hippos as well as deer. There were no humans. Possibly humans were too sparse at that time. Until c.60,000 years ago there
5265-842: The Sea Peoples harried the entire Mediterranean basin around this time. Some scholars consider that the Celtic languages arrived in Britain at this time, but other elements of the Celtic cultural package derive from the Hallstatt culture . In an archaeogenetics study, Patterson et al. (2021) uncovered a migration into southern Britain during the 500-year period 1,300–800 BC. The newcomers were genetically most similar to ancient individuals from Gaul , and had higher levels of EEF ancestry. During 1,000–875 BC, their genetic marker swiftly spread through southern Britain, making up around half
5382-645: The Thames Valley from the Hannington TV transmitter. Those parts of Berkshire closest to London such as Maidenhead , Windsor and Slough , receive BBC London and ITV London from the Crystal Palace TV transmitter. The county’s local radio stations are BBC Radio Berkshire , Heart South and Greatest Hits Radio Berkshire & North Hampshire . Berkshire hosts more Group 1 flat horse races than any other county. Ascot Racecourse
5499-436: The Vale of White Horse district, and Didcot and Wallingford added to South Oxfordshire district. 94 (Berkshire Yeomanry) Signal Squadron still keep the Uffington White Horse in their insignia, even though the White Horse is now within the ceremonial county of Oxfordshire. The original Local Government White Paper would have transferred Henley-on-Thames from Oxfordshire to Berkshire: this proposal did not make it into
5616-576: The Younger Dryas , and may have been unoccupied for periods. (c. 9,000 to 4,300 BC) The Younger Dryas was followed by the Holocene , which began around 9,700 BC, and continues to the present. There was then limited occupation by Ahrensburgian hunter gatherers, but this came to an end when there was a final downturn in temperature which lasted from around 9,400 to 9,200 BC. Mesolithic people occupied Britain by around 9,000 BC, and it has been occupied ever since. By 8000 BC temperatures were higher than today, and birch woodlands spread rapidly, but there
5733-488: The long house , although no long house villages have been found in Britain — only individual examples. The stone-built houses on Orkney — such as those at Skara Brae — are, however, indicators of some nucleated settlement in Britain. Evidence of growing mastery over the environment is embodied in the Sweet Track , a wooden trackway built to cross the marshes of the Somerset Levels and dated to 3807 BC. Leaf-shaped arrowheads, round-based pottery types and
5850-464: The mass migrations that occurred in that time. A 2017 study showed that British Neolithic farmers had formerly been genetically similar to contemporary populations in the Iberian peninsula, but from the Beaker culture period onwards, all British individuals had high proportions of Steppe ancestry and were genetically more similar to Beaker-associated people from the Lower Rhine area. The study argues that more than 90% of Britain's Neolithic gene pool
5967-445: The Beaker people of the lower-Rhine area. There is evidence of a relatively large scale disruption of cultural patterns (see Late Bronze Age collapse ) which some scholars think may indicate an invasion (or at least a migration) into Southern Great Britain c. the 12th century BC. This disruption was felt far beyond Britain, even beyond Europe, as most of the great Near Eastern empires collapsed (or experienced severe difficulties) and
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#17327661224816084-414: The Bill as introduced. On 1 April 1998 Berkshire County Council was abolished under a recommendation of the Banham Commission , and the districts became unitary authorities . Unlike similar reforms elsewhere at the same time, the non-metropolitan county was not abolished. Signs saying "Welcome to the Royal County of Berkshire" exist on borders of West Berkshire, on the east side of Virginia Water , on
6201-431: The British language differed little from that of the Gauls. Among these people were skilled craftsmen who had begun producing intricately patterned gold jewellery, in addition to tools and weapons of both bronze and iron. It is disputed whether Iron Age Britons were "Celts", with some academics such as John Collis and Simon James actively opposing the idea of 'Celtic Britain', since the term was only applied at this time to
6318-400: The Chilterns, and often contain layers of chalk rock. Less consolidated Palaeogene clays , sands , gravels and silts of the Lambeth , Thames and Bracklesham Groups overlie these rocks in some areas. These hills, and the valleys that surround them, were shaped by the rivers Kennet , Lambourn , Pang and Enborne , and the Quaternary sands and gravels they brought with them and (in
6435-514: The Continent by a chalk ridge between South East England and northern France called the Weald-Artois Anticline , but during the Anglian Glaciation around 425,000 years ago a megaflood broke through the ridge, and Britain became an island when sea levels rose during the following Hoxnian interglacial . Fossils of very early Neanderthals dating to around 400,000 years ago have been found at Swanscombe in Kent , and of classic Neanderthals about 225,000 years old at Pontnewydd in Wales. Britain
6552-504: The Late Upper Palaeolithic (after the main glacial period). There was limited Neanderthal occupation of Britain in marine isotope stage 3 between about 60,000 and 42,000 years BP. Britain had its own unique variety of late Neanderthal handaxe, the bout-coupé , so seasonal migration between Britain and the continent is unlikely, but the main occupation may have been in the now submerged area of Doggerland , with summer migrations to Britain in warmer periods. La Cotte de St Brelade in Jersey
6669-473: The Mediterranean region did during prehistory. By around 4000 BC, the island was populated by people with a Neolithic culture. This neolithic population had significant ancestry from the earliest farming communities in Anatolia , indicating that a major migration accompanied farming. The beginning of the Bronze Age and the Bell Beaker culture was marked by an even greater population turnover, this time displacing more than 90% of Britain's neolithic ancestry in
6786-515: The Mesolithic environment was bounteous, the rising population and the ancient Britons' success in exploiting it eventually led to local exhaustion of many natural resources. The remains of a Mesolithic elk found caught in a bog at Poulton-le-Fylde in Lancashire show that it had been wounded by hunters and escaped on three occasions, indicating hunting during the Mesolithic. A few Neolithic monuments overlie Mesolithic sites but little continuity can be demonstrated. Farming of crops and domestic animals
6903-448: The Norman Conquest, when William the Conqueror established Windsor as a royal residence. On 1 April 1974, Berkshire's boundaries changed under the Local Government Act 1972 . Berkshire took over administration of Slough and Eton and part of the former Eton Rural District from Buckinghamshire. The northern part of the county came under governance of Oxfordshire , with Faringdon , Wantage and Abingdon and their hinterland becoming
7020-613: The UK headquarters is still based there. Bracknell is a base for high-tech industries, with the presence of companies such as Panasonic , Fujitsu (formerly ICL ) and Fujitsu-Siemens Computers , Dell , Hewlett-Packard , Siemens (originally Nixdorf ), Honeywell , Cable & Wireless , Avnet Technology Solutions and Novell . Firms spread into the surrounding Thames Valley or M4 corridor , attracting IT firms such as Cable & Wireless , DEC (subsequently Hewlett-Packard ), Microsoft , Sharp Telecommunications , Oracle Corporation , Sun Microsystems and Cognos . Bracknell
7137-592: The UK headquarters of Mars, Incorporated are based in Slough . The European head offices of major IT companies BlackBerry , CA Technologies , are in the town. The town is home to the National Foundation for Educational Research , which is housed in The Mere. Other major brands with offices in the town include Nintendo , Black & Decker , Amazon , HTC , SSE plc and Abbey Business Centres . Dulux paints were manufactured in Slough by AkzoNobel , which bought Imperial Chemical Industries in 2008. Manufacturing ceased in 2018 with operations moving elsewhere, however
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#17327661224817254-433: The ancestry of subsequent Iron Age people in this area, but not in northern Britain. The "evidence suggests that, rather than a violent invasion or a single migratory event, the genetic structure of the population changed through sustained contacts between Britain and mainland Europe over several centuries, such as the movement of traders, intermarriage, and small scale movements of family groups". The authors describe this as
7371-439: The archaeological record, although some flint blade types remained similar to their Palaeolithic predecessors. The dog was domesticated because of its benefits during hunting, and the wetland environments created by the warmer weather would have been a rich source of fish and game. Wheat of a variety grown in the Middle East was present on the Isle of Wight at the Bouldnor Cliff Mesolithic Village dating from about 6,000 BC. It
7488-542: The area after which it was named). The heaths and woodland south and east of Bracknell are mostly covered by (Eocene) Bracklesham Group sands and clays, and Quaternary sands, silts and gravels. After the Thames broke through the Goring Gap that river and its tributaries the Loddon , Emm Brook , Blackwater and (to some extent) Wey shaped the geography of eastern Berkshire but have not yet eroded away its Eocene cover. According to 2003 estimates there were 803,657 people in Berkshire, or 636 people/km . The population
7605-417: The area to the west of Reading and the western edge of the Chiltern Hills . The lower (early) Cretaceous rocks are sandstones and mudstones (now visible only on the slopes of Walbury Hill ) whilst those of the upper (late) Cretaceous are the various formations that comprise the Chalk Group . In Berkshire, White Chalk Formation beds tend to be shallower than those further west ( Wiltshire ) or those in
7722-666: The beach at Happisburgh in 2013 of a mixed group of adult males, females and children. However there are no human fossils found. Homo antecessor is the most likely candidate species of ancient human as there are remains of roughly the same age at Gran Dolina at Atapuerca. Homo antecessor lived before the ancestors of Neanderthals split from the ancestors of Homo sapiens 600,000 years ago. Summer temperatures at Happisburgh were an average of 16-17 degrees C and average winter temperatures were slightly colder than present day temperatures, around freezing point or just below. Conditions were comparable to present-day southern Scandinavia. It
7839-399: The beginnings of polished axe production are common indicators of the period. Evidence of the use of cow's milk comes from analysis of pottery contents found beside the Sweet Track. According to archaeological evidence from North Yorkshire , salt was being produced by evaporation of seawater around this time, enabling more effective preservation of meat. Pollen analysis shows that woodland
7956-423: The case of the Kennet) left behind when they changed course. The early Eocene London Clay (Thames Group) generally gets thinner as we proceed westwards, though the thickness of beds can vary considerably over short distances. Where rivers have cut through these beds Lambeth Group layers are found (notably, the Palaeocene Reading Formation , used for brick-making since Roman times but now increasingly scarce in
8073-428: The club did not join the Football League until 1920, and first played in the top tier of English football in the 2006–07 season . Newbury was home to A.F.C. Newbury , which was one of only two football clubs to be sponsored by Vodafone (the other being Manchester United ). In 2006 Vodafone ended its sponsorship of the club, following which the club collapsed. A local pub team from the Old London Apprentice took over
8190-422: The continent, or whether a Beaker cultural "package" of goods and behaviour (which eventually spread across most of Western Europe) diffused to Britain's existing inhabitants through trade across tribal boundaries. A 2017 study suggests a major genetic shift in late Neolithic/early Bronze Age Britain, so that more than 90% of Britain's Neolithic gene pool was replaced with the coming of a people genetically related to
8307-419: The county's downlands , south and east of which the London Clay spans almost the whole county, and in the south-east corner sandy Palaeogene heath covers the London Clay. This is an oversimplification, however. A gently folded succession of sedimentary rocks dating from the Cretaceous period, with some surviving Palaeogene cover and extensive Quaternary deposits, characterise the downlands, which cover
8424-529: The county's early history is recorded in the Chronicles of the Abingdon Abbey , which at the time of the survey was second only to the crown in the extent and number of its possessions, such as The Abbey, Sutton Courtenay . The abbot exercised considerable judicial and administrative powers, and his court was endowed with the privileges of the hundred court and freed from liability to interference by
8541-557: The directories company Hibu . The insurance company Prudential has an administration centre in the town. PepsiCo and Holiday Inn have offices. As with most major cities, Reading also has offices of the Big Four accounting firms Deloitte , Ernst & Young , KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers . The 110-year old charity, Berkshire Vision is also located within Reading city centre. The global headquarters of Reckitt Benckiser and
8658-492: The economy of Slough in east Berkshire. Abingdon Abbey once had dairy-based granges in the south-east of the county, Red Windsor cheese was developed with red marbling. Some Berkshire cheeses are Wigmore, Waterloo and Spenwood (named after Spencers Wood ) in Riseley ; and Barkham Blue, Barkham Chase and Loddon Blewe at Barkham . Local news and television programmes are covered by BBC South and ITV Meridian for
8775-593: The end of this ice age during a warm period from 14,700 to 12,900 years ago (the Bølling-Allerød interstadial known as the Windermere Interstadial in Britain), although further extremes of cold right before the final thaw may have caused them to leave again and then return repeatedly. The environment during this ice age period would have been largely treeless tundra , eventually replaced by
8892-650: The first people to resettle Northern Europe , following the retreat of ice sheets from the Last Glacial Maximum , about 10,000 years ago. It has also been found in other Mesolithic remains in Germany, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Sweden, France and Spain. Members of U5 may have been one of the most common haplogroups in Europe, before the spread of agriculture from the Middle East . Though
9009-658: The following Anglian Stage is likely to have driven humans out of Britain altogether and the region does not appear to have been occupied again until the ice receded during the Hoxnian Stage . This warmer time period lasted from around 424,000 until 374,000 years ago and saw the Clactonian flint tool industry develop at sites such as Swanscombe in Kent. The period has produced a rich and widespread distribution of sites by Palaeolithic standards, although uncertainty over
9126-659: The giant Channel River . The climatic deterioration which culminated in the Last Glacial Maximum , between about 26,500 and 19,000–20,000 years ago, drove humans out of Britain, and there is no evidence of occupation for around 18,000 years after c.33,000 years BP. Sites such as Cathole Cave in Swansea County dated at 14,500BP, Creswell Crags on the border between Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire at 12,800BP and Gough's Cave in Somerset 12,000 years BP, provide evidence suggesting that humans returned to Britain towards
9243-593: The grassy and wooded bends a large minority of East Berkshire's land mirrors the clay belt, being of low elevation and on the left (north) bank of the Thames : Slough, Eton, Eton Wick, Wraysbury, Horton, and Datchet. In the heart of the county Reading's northern suburb Caversham is also on that bank, but rises steeply into the Chiltern Hills . Two main tributaries skirt past Reading, the Loddon and its sub-tributary
9360-489: The ground temporarily and now compete in the Hellenic Football League as Newbury F.C. There are several amateur and semi-professional football clubs in the county. These include Maidenhead United , Slough Town , Hungerford Town , Thatcham Town , Ascot United , A.F.C. Aldermaston , Sandhurst Town , Windsor F.C. , Wokingham & Emmbrook F.C. , Bracknell Town F.C. and Reading City . Reading
9477-452: The landscape. Stone rows are to be seen on, for example, Dartmoor . They ate cattle, sheep, pigs and deer as well as shellfish and birds. They carried out salt manufacture. The wetlands were a source of wildfowl and reeds. There was ritual deposition of offerings in the wetlands and in holes in the ground. There has been debate amongst archaeologists as to whether the "Beaker people" were a race of people who migrated to Britain en masse from
9594-417: The later arrival in the archaeological record of an archaic Homo species called Homo heidelbergensis around 500,000 years ago. These early peoples made Acheulean flint tools (hand axes) and hunted the large native mammals of the period. One hypothesis is that they drove elephants , rhinoceroses and hippopotamuses over the tops of cliffs or into bogs to more easily kill them. The extreme cold of
9711-484: The limited evidence available, burial seemed to involve skinning and dismembering a corpse with the bones placed in caves. This suggests a practice of excarnation and secondary burial, and possibly some form of ritual cannibalism . Artistic expression seems to have been mostly limited to engraved bone, although the cave art at Creswell Crags and Mendip caves are notable exceptions. Between about 12,890 and 11,650 years ago Britain returned to glacial conditions during
9828-595: The low calciferous (limestone) m-shaped bends of the Thames south of which is a broader, clayey, gravelly former watery plain or belt from Earley to Windsor and beyond, south, are parcels and belts of uneroded higher sands, flints, shingles and lightly acid soil and in the north of the Bagshot Formation , north of Surrey and Hampshire . Swinley Forest (also known as Bracknell Forest), Windsor Great Park , Crowthorne and Stratfield Saye Woods have many pine, silver birch, and other lightly acid-soil trees. East of
9945-401: The lower Bytham river, and not the Thames which had now moved further south. Pakefield had mild winters and warm summers with average July temperatures of between 18 and 23 degrees C. There were wet winters and drier summers. Animal bones found in the area include rhinos, hippos, extinct elephants,giant deer, hyaenas, lions and sabre-toothed cats. Sites such as Boxgrove in Sussex illustrate
10062-569: The new county town in 1867, taking over from Abingdon , which remained in the county. Under the Local Government Act 1888 , Berkshire County Council took over functions of the Berkshire Quarter Sessions , covering the administrative county of Berkshire, which excluded the county borough of Reading . Boundary alterations in the late 19th century and early 20th century were relatively rare, but included ceding
10179-502: The north-east, Greater London to the east, Surrey to the south-east, Hampshire to the south, and Wiltshire to the west. Reading is the largest settlement and the county town . The county has an area of 1,263 km (488 sq mi) and a population of 911,403. The population is concentrated in the east, the area closest to Greater London, which includes the county's largest towns: Reading (174,224), Slough (164,793), Bracknell (113,205), and Maidenhead (70,374). The west
10296-564: The outskirts of Reading. Other technology companies with a presence in the town include Huawei Technologies , Agilent Technologies , Audio & Design (Recording) Ltd , Bang & Olufsen , Cisco , Comptel , Ericsson , Harris Corporation , Intel , Nvidia , Rockwell Collins , Sage , SGI , Symantec , Symbol Technologies , Verizon Business , Virgin Media O2 , Websense , Xansa (now Sopra Steria ), and Xerox . The financial company ING Direct has its headquarters in Reading, as does
10413-523: The outskirts of the town in 2002, Vodafone used 64 buildings spread across the town centre. As well as Vodafone, Newbury is also home to National Instruments , Micro Focus , EValue , NTS Express Road Haulage, Jokers' Masquerade and Quantel . It also is home to the Newbury Building Society , which operates in the region. In Compton , a small village, roughly 10 miles from Newbury , a chemical manufacturing company called Carbosynth
10530-439: The parts of the borough of Oxford south of the Thames in 1889, and gaining Caversham from Oxfordshire in 1911. The administrative county's full legal name was "Berks" rather than "Berkshire" until 1967, when the government changed the name to Berkshire at the county council's request. Berkshire received the title "Royal County" in 1957 due to the presence of Windsor Castle. The area has historical ties to royalty dating back to
10647-416: The population increased by 6.7%, largely due to migration and economic opportunities in the region. Reading has experienced significant growth due to its reputation as a technology and business hub. In 1831, there were 146,234 people living in Berkshire; by 1901 the population had risen to 252,571 (of whom 122,807 were male and 129,764 were female). Below were the largest immigrant groups in 2011. Berkshire
10764-443: The presence of extinct species of vole, mammoth, red deer, horse and elk indicate a date between 780,000 and 990,000 years old. The evidence is that the early humans were there towards the end of an interglacial during that date range. There are two candidate interglacials - one between 970,000 and 935,000 years ago and the second from 865,000 and 815,000 years ago. Numerous footprints dating to more than 800,000 years ago were found on
10881-615: The process. This is documented by recent ancient DNA studies which demonstrate that the immigrants had large amounts of Bronze-Age Eurasian Steppe ancestry , associated with the spread of Indo-European languages and the Yamnaya culture . No written language of the pre- Roman inhabitants of Britain is known; therefore, the history, culture and way of life of pre-Roman Britain are known mainly through archaeological finds. Archaeological evidence demonstrates that ancient Britons were involved in extensive maritime trade and cultural links with
10998-626: The relationship between the Clactonian and Acheulean industries is still unresolved. Britain was populated only intermittently, and even during periods of occupation may have reproduced below replacement level and needed immigration from elsewhere to maintain numbers. According to Paul Pettitt and Mark White: This period also saw Levallois flint tools introduced, possibly by humans arriving from Africa . However, finds from Swanscombe and Botany Pit in Purfleet support Levallois technology being
11115-467: The rest of Europe from the Neolithic onwards, especially by exporting tin that was in abundant supply. Although the main evidence for the period is archaeological, available genetic evidence is increasing, and views of British prehistory are evolving accordingly. Julius Caesar's first invasion of Britain in 55 BC is regarded as the start of recorded protohistory although some historical information
11232-578: The route first visitors took to arrive at what was then a peninsula of the Eurasian continent. Archaeologists have found a string of early sites located close to the route of a now lost watercourse named the Bytham River which indicate that it was exploited as the earliest route west into Britain. Chronologically, the next evidence of human occupation is at Pakefield on the outskirts of Lowestoft in Suffolk 48 kilometres south of Happisburgh. They were in
11349-473: The sheriff. Berkshire and Oxfordshire had a common sheriff until the reign of Elizabeth I , and the shire court was held at Grandpont . The assizes were formerly held at Reading, Abingdon, and Newbury, but by 1911 were held entirely at Reading. Berkshire has been the scene of notable battles. Alfred the Great 's campaign against the Danes included the battles of Englefield , Ashdown and Reading . Newbury
11466-720: The south, the land crests along the boundary with Hampshire ; the highest parts of South-East and Eastern England taken together are here. The highest is Walbury Hill at 297 m (974 ft). To the north of the Kennet are the Berkshire Downs . This is hilly country, with smaller and well-wooded valleys: those of the Lambourn , Pang , and their Thames sub-tributaries. The open upland areas vie with Newmarket, Suffolk for horse racing training and breeding centres and have good fields of barley, wheat, and other cereal crops. Berkshire’s surface can be divided into three bands:
11583-753: The stone tools found in the caves of Devon , such as Kent's Cavern , seem to have been sourced from Salisbury Plain , 100 miles (161 km) east. This is interpreted as meaning that the early inhabitants of Britain were highly mobile, roaming over wide distances and carrying 'toolkits' of flint blades with them rather than heavy, unworked flint nodules, or else improvising tools extemporaneously. The possibility that groups also travelled to meet and exchange goods or sent out dedicated expeditions to source flint has also been suggested. The dominant food species were equines ( Equus ferus ) and red deer ( Cervus elaphus ), although other mammals ranging from hares to mammoth were also hunted, including rhino and hyena. From
11700-411: Was adopted in Britain around 4500 BC, at least partly because of the need for reliable food sources. The climate had been warming since the later Mesolithic and continued to improve, replacing the earlier pine forests with woodland . (c. 4,300 to 2,000 BC) The Neolithic was the period of domestication of plants and animals, but the arrival of a Neolithic package of farming and a sedentary lifestyle
11817-515: Was Graham Barker. The six unitary councils formed a joint Berkshire Prosperity Board in February 2024 and submitted an expression of interest in forming a non-mayoral combined authority in September 2024. As of the 2023 local elections, Liberal Democrat groups of local councillors run the unitary authorities of West Berkshire , Windsor and Maidenhead and Wokingham (in coalition with
11934-411: Was a cold spell around 6,200 BC which lasted about 150 years. The plains of Doggerland were thought to have finally been submerged around 6500 to 6000 BC, but recent evidence suggests that the bridge may have lasted until between 5800 and 5400 BC, and possibly as late as 3800 BC. The warmer climate changed the arctic environment to one of pine , birch and alder forest; this less open landscape
12051-474: Was at this time still joined to the Continent by a land bridge known as Doggerland , but due to rising sea levels this causeway of dry land would have become a series of estuaries, inlets and islands by 7000 BC, and by 6200 BC, it would have become completely submerged. Located at the fringes of Europe, Britain received European technological and cultural developments much later than Southern Europe and
12168-598: Was carried out on a tooth of Cheddar Man , human remains dated to c. 7150 BC found in Gough's Cave at Cheddar Gorge . His mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) belonged to Haplogroup U5 . Within modern European populations, U5 is now concentrated in North-East Europe , among members of the Sami people , Finns , and Estonians . This distribution and the age of the haplogroup indicate that individuals belonging to U5 were among
12285-476: Was claimed by academics that a post-glacial land bridge existed between Britain and Ireland, however this conjecture began to be refuted by a consensus within the academic community starting in 1983, and since 2006 the idea of a land bridge has been disproven based upon conclusive marine geological evidence. It is now concluded that an ice bridge existed between Britain and Ireland up until 16,000 years ago, but this had melted by around 14,000 years ago. Britain
12402-558: Was dated in 2009 to be 33,000 years old. The distribution of finds shows that humans in this period preferred the uplands of Wales and northern and western England to the flatter areas of eastern England. Their stone tools are similar to those of the same age found in Belgium and far north-east France, and very different from those in north-west France. At a time when Britain was not an island, hunter gatherers may have followed migrating herds of reindeer from Belgium and north-east France across
12519-412: Was decreasing and grassland increasing, with a major decline of elms. The winters were typically 3 degrees colder than at present but the summers some 2.5 degrees warmer. The Middle Neolithic (c. 3300 BC – c. 2900 BC) saw the development of cursus monuments close to earlier barrows and the growth and abandonment of causewayed enclosures, as well as the building of impressive chamber tombs such as
12636-430: Was designated a new town . Software development and high-tech industry dominate the economy in the east, but the west remains an agricultural region. According to Asser 's biography of King Alfred , written in 893 AD, Berkshire takes its name from a wood of box trees , which was called Bearroc (a Celtic word meaning "hilly"). This wood, perhaps no longer extant, was west of Frilsham , near Newbury . Much of
12753-688: Was experiencing a trade boom as British tin was exported across Europe, evidence of ports being found in Southern Devon at Bantham and Mount Batten . Copper was mined at the Great Orme in North Wales. The Beaker people were also skilled at making ornaments from gold , silver and copper , and examples of these have been found in graves of the wealthy Wessex culture of central southern Britain. Early Bronze Age Britons buried their dead beneath earth mounds known as barrows , often with
12870-418: Was founded, in 2006. Since 2019, it has merged with a Swiss company called Biosynth AG to form a key global organisation within the fine chemical industry and operates under name Biosynth Carbosynth . Biosynth Carbosynth, along with its acquired companies, vivitide and Pepscan rebranded to Biosynth in 2022. London Heathrow Airport , in the neighbouring London Borough of Hillingdon, is a major contributor to
12987-474: Was important. It is generally thought that by 500 BC most people inhabiting the British Isles were speaking Common Brythonic , on the limited evidence of place-names recorded by Pytheas of Massalia and transmitted to us second-hand, largely through Strabo . Certainly by the Roman period there is substantial place and personal name evidence which suggests that this was so; Tacitus also states in his Agricola that
13104-553: Was less conducive to the large herds of reindeer and wild horse that had previously sustained humans. Those animals were replaced in people's diets by pig and less social animals such as elk , red deer , roe deer , wild boar and aurochs (wild cattle), which would have required different hunting techniques. Tools changed to incorporate barbs which could snag the flesh of an animal, making it harder for it to escape alive. Tiny microliths were developed for hafting onto harpoons and spears. Woodworking tools such as adzes appear in
13221-551: Was less of a division between Western and Eastern parts of Britain with less Anglo-Saxon migration. Looking from a more Europe-wide standpoint, researchers at Stanford University have found overlapping cultural and genetic evidence that supports the theory that migration was at least partially responsible for the Neolithic Revolution in Northern Europe (including Britain). The science of genetic anthropology
13338-479: Was replaced with the coming of the Beaker people. Analysis of the mitochondrial DNA of modern European populations shows that over 80% are descended in the female line from European hunter-gatherers . Less than 20% are descended in the female line from Neolithic farmers from Anatolia and from subsequent migrations. The percentage in Britain is smaller at around 11%. Initial studies suggested that this situation
13455-532: Was stronger and more plentiful than bronze , and its introduction marks the beginning of the Iron Age . Iron working revolutionised many aspects of life, most importantly agriculture . Iron tipped ploughs could turn soil more quickly and deeply than older wooden or bronze ones, and iron axes could clear forest land more efficiently for agriculture. There was a landscape of arable, pasture and managed woodland. There were many enclosed settlements and land ownership
13572-670: Was the site of English Civil War battles: the First Battle of Newbury , at Wash Common in 1643, and the Second Battle of Newbury , at Speen in 1644. Donnington Castle was reduced to a ruin in the aftermath of the second battle. Another Battle of Reading took place on 9 December 1688. It was the only substantial military action in England during the Glorious Revolution and ended in a decisive victory for forces loyal to William of Orange . Reading became
13689-582: Was unoccupied by humans between 180,000 and 60,000 years ago, when Neanderthals returned. By 40,000 years ago they had become extinct and modern humans had reached Britain. But even their occupations were brief and intermittent due to a climate which swung between low temperatures with a tundra habitat and severe ice ages which made Britain uninhabitable for long periods. The last of these, the Younger Dryas , ended around 11,700 years ago, and since then Britain has been continuously occupied. Traditionally it
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