Guide to Rural England – Berkshire
The Royal County of Berkshire
receives its honorific title
because one of the Queen’s
three official residences,
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.
The western area of the county
is important for racing and the training of
racehorses, with a top-class course at
Newbury, and the training centres of
Lambourn and East Ilsley.
Another feature of West Berkshire is the
number of communication routes that flow
across the region linking London with the West
Country, dominated today by the M4 motorway.
The ancient Ridgeway Path, England’s oldest
road, follows the county border with
Oxfordshire, and the Kennet and Avon Canal,
completed in 1810, crosses southern England
from Bristol to join the River Thames at
Reading. Entering the county at Hungerford,
this major waterway passes through a charming
rural landscape as it winds through villages and
market towns. The canal prospered until the
arrival of the Great Western Railway in 1841,
after which it inevitably declined; by the 1950s it
was largely unnavigable. After a full clearing and
restoration programme, the canal can now
once again be travelled its full length, providing a
wide variety of leisure activities for thousands
of visitors each year.
The central region of Berkshire is
dominated by Reading, a thriving commuter
town with excellent links to both London and
the West Country. Though seeming to be very
much a product of the past two centuries, it
has a long and interesting history.
The Thames, forming the northern county
border with Oxfordshire, has, especially along
its southern banks, many delightful villages,
which became fashionable thanks to the
Victorian and Edwardian passion for boating,
and they remain fashionable to this day.
Across Windsor Great Park, the remains of
a royal hunting forest, lies Ascot racecourse,
founded in 1711 by Queen Anne. Five days in
June see the worlds of fashion and
horseracing meet at the highest level at the
Royal Ascot meeting.
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