History Of Berkshire
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History Of Berkshire
Historically, the English county of Berkshire has been bordered to the north by the ancient boundary of the River Thames. However there were major changes in 1974: the Vale of White Horse and parts of Oxfordshire south (locally, west) of the Thames were previously part of Berkshire, but were lost to the county in 1974. Conversely, the Slough area north of the Thames is historically part of Buckinghamshire, but became ceremonially part of Berkshire in 1974. Alfred the Great was born in Wantage, historically in Berkshire, but now in Oxfordshire for administrative purposes. Important historical abbeys include Abingdon Abbey and Reading Abbey. The Great Western Railway reached Didcot in 1839. MG (part of Morris Motors) was founded in Abingdon in 1929. Oscar Wilde was imprisoned in Reading Gaol after his court case. The county is known as the Royal County of Berkshire. This title was granted by Queen Elizabeth II to Berkshire County Council in 1957, via Sir Austin Strutt, Deputy ...
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Unitary Authority
A unitary authority is a type of local government, local authority in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Unitary authorities are responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a multiple tiers of local government. Typically unitary authorities cover towns or city, cities which are large enough to function independently of a council or other authority. An authority can be a unit of a county or combined authority. New Zealand In local government in New Zealand, New Zealand, a unitary authority is a territorial authorities of New Zealand, territorial authority (district, city or metropolitan area) that also performs the functions of a regions of New Zealand, regional council (first-level division). There are five unitary authorities, they are (with the year they were constituted): Gisborne District Council (1989), Tasman District Council (1992), Nelson City Council (1992), Marlborough Distric ...
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Battle Of Hastings
The Battle of Hastings was fought on 14 October 1066 between the Norman-French army of William, Duke of Normandy, and an English army under the Anglo-Saxon King Harold Godwinson, beginning the Norman Conquest of England. It took place approximately northwest of Hastings, close to the present-day town of Battle, East Sussex, and was a decisive Norman victory. The background to the battle was the death of the childless King Edward the Confessor in January 1066, which set up a succession struggle between several claimants to his throne. Harold was crowned king shortly after Edward's death but faced invasions by William, his own brother Tostig, and the Norwegian king Harald Hardrada (Harold III of Norway). Hardrada and Tostig defeated a hastily gathered army of Englishmen at the Battle of Fulford on 20 September 1066. They were in turn defeated by Harold at the Battle of Stamford Bridge on 25 September. The deaths of Tostig and Hardrada at Stamford Bridge left William as ...
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Earldom Of Wessex
Earl of Wessex is a title that has been created twice in British history – once in the pre-Conquest Anglo-Saxon nobility of England, and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. In the 6th century AD the region of Wessex (the lands of the West Saxons), in the south and southwest of present-day England, became one of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms (one of the components of the so-called Heptarchy); in the tenth century the increasing power of the Kingdom of the West Saxons led to a united Kingdom of England. First creation (c. 1019) Wessex was one of the four earldoms of Anglo-Danish England. In this period, the earldom of Wessex covered the lands of the old kingdom of Wessex, covering the counties of the south of England, and extending west to the Welsh border. During the reign of King Cnut, the earldom was conferred on Godwin at some time after 1020. Thereafter, Godwin rose to become, in King Edward's time, the most powerful man in the kingdom. Upon Godwin's death in 1053, t ...
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Norman Conquest
The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Normans, Norman, French people, French, Flemish people, Flemish, and Bretons, Breton troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Conqueror. William's claim to the English throne derived from his familial relationship with the childless Anglo-Saxon king Edward the Confessor, who may have encouraged William's hopes for the throne. Edward died in January 1066 and was succeeded by his brother-in-law Harold Godwinson. The Norwegian king Harald Hardrada invaded northern England in September 1066 and was victorious at the Battle of Fulford on 20 September, but Godwinson's army defeated and killed Hardrada at the Battle of Stamford Bridge on 25 September. Three days later on 28 September, William's invasion force of thousands of men and hundreds of ships landed at Pevensey in Sussex in southern England. Harold marched south to oppose ...
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Canute
Cnut ( ; ; – 12 November 1035), also known as Canute and with the epithet the Great, was King of England from 1016, King of Denmark from 1018, and King of Norway from 1028 until his death in 1035. The three kingdoms united under Cnut's rule are referred to together as the North Sea Empire by historians. As a Danish prince, Cnut won the throne of England in 1016 in the wake of centuries of Viking activity in northwestern Europe. His later accession to the Danish throne in 1018 brought the crowns of England and Denmark together. Cnut sought to keep this power base by uniting Danes and English under cultural bonds of wealth and custom. After a decade of conflict with opponents in Scandinavia, Cnut claimed the crown of Norway in Trondheim in 1028. In 1031, Malcolm II of Scotland also submitted to him, though Anglo-Norse influence over Scotland was weak and ultimately did not last by the time of Cnut's death.ASC, Ms. D, s.a. 1031. Dominion of England lent the Danes an importa ...
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Denchworth
Denchworth is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish about north of Wantage. It was part of Berkshire until the Local Government Act 1972, 1974 boundary changes transferred the Vale of White Horse to Oxfordshire. The United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 171. The parish is bounded by the Land Brook in the west and the Childrey Brook in the east. The Great Western Main Line between Reading, Berkshire, Reading and Swindon runs through the parish just south of the village, but there is no station. Manors The ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Abingdon Chronicle'' claims that Cædwalla of Wessex granted ''Deniceswurth'' to Abingdon Abbey late in the seventh century, and that this was confirmed by Coenwulf of Mercia early in the ninth century. The Domesday Book records that by 1086 Henry de Ferrers held the manor of ''Denchesworde'': "The same Henry de Ferrers holds Denchworth and Reiner holds of him. Aethelric held it TRE.TRE in Latin is ...
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Cherbury Castle
Chirbury () is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Chirbury with Brompton, in the Shropshire district, in west Shropshire, England. It is situated in the Vale of Montgomery, close to the Wales–England border ( at its nearest), which is to its north, west and south. The A490 and B4386 routes cross at Chirbury. It is the largest settlement in the Chirbury with Brompton civil parish, which according to the 2001 census had a population of 914, with the resident population of Chirbury at 348. The population of the civil parish had increased to 971 at the 2011 census. History The placename was recorded in 915 as ''Ċyriċbyrig'' in the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', and as ''Ċireberie'' in the Domesday Book of 1086, and means "the fort with a church". Its Welsh name, ''Llanffynhonwen'', means "the church of the white well" or "...of the holy well". Some French linguists have theorised that the name of Chirbury shares a common etymology with the city of Cherbour ...
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Penda Of Mercia
Penda (died 15 November 655)Manuscript A of the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' gives the year as 655. Bede also gives the year as 655 and specifies a date, 15 November. R. L. Poole (''Studies in Chronology and History'', 1934) put forward the theory that Bede began his year in September, and consequently November 655 would actually fall in 654; Frank Stenton also dated events accordingly in his ''Anglo-Saxon England'' (1943). 1 Others have accepted Bede's given dates as meaning what they appear to mean, considering Bede's year to have begun on 25 December or 1 January (see S. Wood, 1983: "Bede's Northumbrian dates again"). The historian D. P. Kirby suggested the year 656 as a possibility, alongside 655, in case the dates given by Bede are off by one year (see Kirby's "Bede and Northumbrian Chronology", 1963). The '' Annales Cambriae'' gives the year as 657Annales Cambriae at Fordham University/ref> was a 7th-century king of Mercia, the Anglo-Saxon kingdom in what is today the Midla ...
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Lambourn
Lambourn is a village and civil parish in Berkshire, England. It lies just north of the M4 Motorway between Swindon and Newbury, and borders Wiltshire to the west and Oxfordshire to the north. After Newmarket it is the largest centre of racehorse training in England, and is home to a rehabilitation centre for injured jockeys, an equine hospital, and several leading jockeys and trainers. To the north of the village are the prehistoric Seven Barrows and the nearby long barrow. In 2004 the Crow Down Hoard was found close to the village. History The most common explanation for the name of Lambourn refers to the lambs that were once dipped in the local river. Many spellings have been used over the centuries, such as Lamburnan (880), Lamburna (1086), Lamborne (1644) and Lambourne. It was also called Chipping Lambourn because of its popular market. The spelling was fixed as 'Lambourn' in the early 20th century, but even today, towards Soley, three successive signposts at nearby ...
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Frilford
Frilford is a hamlet and civil parish in the Vale of White Horse district of Oxfordshire, England. It is about west of Abingdon at the junction of the A415 and A338 roads. It was part of Berkshire until it transferred to Oxfordshire in the 1974 boundary changes. Archaeology The parish of Frilford has two significant archaeological sites: a Roman villa, and a cemetery on Frilford Heath that appears to include both Roman and Saxon burials. A further complex of remains, including a Roman shrine and amphitheatre, is often referred to as being in Frilford but lies to the south of the village, just inside the boundary of Marcham parish. Churches Frilford is part of the Church of England parish of Marcham. It has no Church of England parish church of its own, but a Congregational chapel was built at Frilford in 1841. Amenities Frilford Heath Golf Club is to the east of the village. Abingdon Preparatory School at Frilford, formerly Joscas, is a preparatory school. Transport ...
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Long Wittenham
Long Wittenham is a village and small Civil parishes in England, civil parish about north of Didcot, and southeast of Abingdon, Oxfordshire, Abingdon. It was part of Berkshire until the Local Government Act 1972, 1974 boundary changes transferred it from Berkshire to Oxfordshire, and from the former Wallingford Rural District to the new district of South Oxfordshire. Geography The village is on the outside of a meander in the River Thames, on slightly higher ground than the flood plain around it. The river navigation follows Clifton cut, not the meander. About to the east, across the river, is the Roman town of ''Dorcic'' – now Dorchester-on-Thames. To the south-east are neighbouring Little Wittenham which has a much smaller population but a much larger area and within this parish is Wittenham Clumps, also called the Sinodun Hills. History The village is supposedly named after a Saxon chieftain, named Witta, but there is evidence of an earlier settlement. Bronze Age Brita ...
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