Great Hollands
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Great Hollands is a
suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...
of
Bracknell Bracknell () is a town and civil parish in Berkshire, England, the westernmost area within the Greater London Built-up Area, Greater London Urban Area and the administrative centre of the borough of Bracknell Forest. It lies to the east of Re ...
in Berkshire, England. It takes its name from a medieval field-name of
Easthampstead Easthampstead is a former village and now a southern suburb of the town of Bracknell, in the civil parish of Bracknell, in the Bracknell Forest district, in the ceremonial county of Berkshire, England. The old village can still be easily ident ...
parish, which it was previously in. Building of the estate began around 1967 as the town continued to expand. The estate lies approximately south-west of the town centre, to the west of the A3095 road. Great Hollands is in one
ward Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...
- Great Hollands. Facilities include a shopping centre, library, community centre, the William Twigg public house and Great Hollands Primary Schoo

There are a number of light industrial units near the shopping centre.


History

The development of Great Hollands neighbourhood was originally closely linked with the growth of the Bracknell company, Sperry, which was at the time Bracknell's largest employer. The only memory now left of this company is the concrete gyroscope, which is situated on one of the roundabouts on the Wokingham Road, opposite which Sperry's main building once stood. The site is now the Arlington Square Complex. In the mid 1960s Sperry built an extension to its Bracknell factory so that the work of its Brentford branch could be transferred here. Houses were needed for employees, and, as a result, the development of Great Hollands neighbourhood had to be pushed ahead faster than was originally intended. The first houses were completed in 1967 but the acceleration in the building of the houses led to a longer than usual wait for the provision of other services and facilities. Great Hollands was, at that time, the furthest neighbourhood from the town and the bus service was somewhat inadequate. Some of the first people to move to Great Hollands complained of the delay in the provision of a primary school, shops (especially a chemist) and public telephones. Temporary shops were provided (two houses in Abbotsbury were used - one a Londis store, and the other a newsagent). A community centre was improvised in converted premises (East Lodge). The population of Great Hollands had passed the 3000 mark before the neighbourhood centre known today began to take shape. Sixteen shops opened during 1971, followed somewhat later by the William Twigg public house and, later still, by a primary school. In its fully developed form, Great Hollands has a number of features which distinguish it from some of Bracknell's original housing estates. There was a large proportion of private housing built. The neighbourhood centre was planned more comprehensively and included a small amount of light industry. The primary school, a community centre and a branch of the library were all constructed. In 1976 the town's first purpose-built health centre opened its doors in the Great Hollands neighbourhood centre. Traffic segregation, which was originally started when Wildridings was constructed, was considerably extended along the same lines in Great Hollands. The neighbourhood streets branched off a circular road called Ringmead and they were all named in alphabetical order: Abbotsbury, Ambassador, Appledore and so on ending with Yardley. Many of the names were very familiar ones to the Londoners who moved here as they were the old names of the London telephone exchanges.


References


External links


Great Hollands Community websiteGreat Hollands Local Councillor
{{Bracknell Forest Bracknell