Wokingham

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Wokingham
Image:dot4gb.svg
Statistics
Population: 30,403 (Parish, 2001)
Ordnance Survey
OS grid reference: SU804685
Administration
Parish: Wokingham
Unitary authority: Wokingham
Region: South East England
Constituent country: England
Sovereign state: United Kingdom
Other
Ceremonial county: Berkshire
Historic county: Berkshire
Services
Police force: Thames Valley Police
Fire and rescue: {{{Fire}}}
Ambulance: South Central
Post office and telephone
Post town: WOKINGHAM
Postal district: RG40
Dialling code: 0118
Politics
UK Parliament: Wokingham
European Parliament: South East England

Wokingham is a small market town and civil parish in Berkshire in the south east of England, close to Reading and Bracknell. It covers an area of 557 acres and, according to the 2001 census, has a population of 30,403. It is the seat of the Wokingham local government district.

Contents

[edit] Geography

Wokingham is located on the Emm Brook in the Loddon Valley in central Berkshire. It sits between Reading and Bracknell and was originally in a band of agricultural land on the western edge of Windsor Forest. Suburbs include Emmbrook, Matthewsgreen, Dowlesgreen, Woosehill, Limmerhill and Eastheath. Older names include Woodcray and Luckley Green.

The soil is a rich loam with a subsoil of sand and gravel.

Northern Wokingham, centred on Ashridge, was always officially a detached part of Wiltshire. This area extended well into the town centre until transferred to Berkshire in 1844. The ancient parish was divided in 1894 into urban and rural civil parishes, Wokingham Without forming the latter.

[edit] History

Wokingham means 'Wocca's people's home'. Wocca was apparently a Saxon chieftain who also owned lands at Wokefield in Berkshire and Woking in Surrey. In Victorian times, it was known as Oakingham and the acorn with oak leaves is the town's symbol.

The courts of Windsor Forest were held at Wokingham and the town had the right to hold a market from 1219. It has remained a small market town all its life. From the 14th to the 16th centuries, it was well known for its bell foundry which supplied many churches across the south of England.

Wokingham was once famous for its bull-baiting. In 1661 George Staverton left a bequest in his will giving two bulls to be tethered in the Market Place and baited by dogs on St Thomas' Day (21 December) each year. The bulls were paraded around the town a day or two before the event and then locked in the yard of the original Rose Inn which was situated on the site of the present-day Superdrug store. People travelled from miles around to see the dangerous spectacle. A number of dogs would be maimed or killed during the event and the bulls were eventually destroyed. The meat and leather were distributed amongst the poor people of the town. Some of the spectators also sustained fatal injuries. In 1794 on the morning after the bull-baiting Elizabeth North was found dead and covered with bruises. In 1808 55-year-old Martha May died after being hurt by fighters in the crowd. The cruel 'sport' was prohibited by the Corporation in 1821 but bulls were still provided at Christmas and the meat distributed to the poor. Bull-baiting was banned by Act of Parliament in 1833.

In 1723, the 'Black Act' was passed in Parliament to make it an offence to black one's face in order to commit criminal acts. It was named after an infamous band of ruffians, known as the 'Wokingham Blacks' who terrorised the local area.

[edit] Government

Wokingham was one of the boroughs left unreformed by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835, and was reformed subsequently in 1883. Wokingham merged with the Wokingham Rural District in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972 to form the non-metropolitan district of Wokingham, which has been a unitary authority since 1998. It consists of 54 elected councillors and is presided over by one councillor who is elected annually to be the Chairman of the Council. The District Council Offices are based at Shute End in the town of Wokingham.

A successor parish continued in existence in Wokingham and is governed by Wokingham Town Council. The council is elected every four years and consists of twenty-five councillors representing Emmbrook, Evendons, Norreys and Wescott, the four wards of the town. Every year, they elect one of their number as Mayor. The present town hall was erected in 1858.

The Wokingham constituency's MP is the Conservative John Redwood and he has represented the town since 1987.

[edit] Institutions

[edit] Charities

[edit] Churches

[edit] Manors

  • Evendon's Manor
  • Ashridge Manor (now in St Nicholas Hurst)
  • Beche's Manor (burnt down 1953)
  • Buckhurst Manor (now St. Anne's Manor)
  • Norreys' Manor

[edit] Schools

[edit] Secondary schools

Wokingham is served by four state secondary schools. The Emmbrook School and St Crispin's School are mixed-sex comprehensive schools, both of which have specialist status as Maths and Computing Colleges. The Holt School, founded in 1931 in the Dower House of Beche's Manor, is a girls' school and is a specialist Language College. The Forest School is a boys' school and is a specialist Business and Enterprise College. It is located in Winnersh but it shares the same catchment area as the Holt and the majority of the pupils are from Wokingham. A small number of Wokingham pupils gain places at Reading School and Kendrick School, the two single-sex grammar schools in Reading.

[edit] Private schools

[edit] Primary schools

[edit] Literature

In the 18th century, the ballad of Fair Molly Mogg was written in Wokingham. Molly was the barmaid daughter of the publican of the old Rose Inn (not on the site of the present one). She was well known to local Binfield man, Alexander Pope, who, during a storm, found himself stranded at the inn with his friends, Gay, Swift and Arbuthnot. They wrote the ballad extolling her virtues to pass the time.

The character of Tom the chimney sweep in Charles Kingsley's classic childhood story The Water Babies was based on the life and times of a Wokingham boy called James Seaward, who was a boy sweep in Victorian times. In his later years Seaward swept the chimneys at Charles Kingsley's home at the Rectory in Eversley, Hampshire. Seaward was elected Alderman of Wokingham from 1909 until his death in 1921. He had 12 children and many of his descendants still live locally. The Water Babies are the subject of Wokingham's first public sculpture, installed in 1999, which graces the upper level entrance to Wokingham Library.

[edit] Notable people

[edit] Sport and leisure

  • There are public parks at Barkham Road Recreation Ground, Cantley Park, Chestnut Park, Elizabeth Road Recreation Ground, Elms Field, Riverside Walk and Waverley Park.
  • There are leisure centres at the Carnival Pool, Pinewood and St. Crispin's. The latter includes a King George's Field in memory of King George V.
  • The local football team is Wokingham and Emmbrook F.C.
  • Wokingham Library is in Denmark Street.
  • Wokingham Cricket Club (founded 1825) play at their ground on Wellington Road.

[edit] Twin towns

Wokingham is twinned with:

[edit] Further reading

  • Goatley, K. Wokingham: The Town of my Life. Reading: Conservatree Print and Design, 2004. ISBN 0-9534735-9-7.
  • The Wokingham Society. Wokingham: A Chronology, 1978.
  • Wyatt, B. Wokingham in Old Photographs. Stroud, Gloucestershire: Budding Books, 1999. ISBN 1-84015-128-5.

[edit] External links


Settlements in Wokingham District
Towns: Earley | Wokingham | Woodley
Civil parishes: Arborfield and Newland | Barkham | Charvil | Finchampstead | Remenham | Ruscombe | St Nicholas Hurst | Shinfield | Sonning | Swallowfield | Twyford | Wargrave | Winnersh | Wokingham Without
Other villages: Arborfield Cross | Arborfield Garrison | Cockpole Green | Crazies Hill | Farley Hill | Grazeley | Hare Hatch | Holme Green | Kiln Green | Riseley | Ryeish Green | Sindlesham | Spencers Wood | Three Mile Cross
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