County in England
Berkshire
Berkshire is England's only royal county, and Windsor Castle, its crowning glory, has been a royal residence for over 900 years.
Key information
- County
- Berkshire
- Nation
- England
- Population
- about 950,000 (2021 Census)
- Known for
- Windsor Castle, Ascot Racecourse, Eton College, Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, Reading Festival, Legoland Windsor
- What locals are called
- Berkshire folk; Berkshireites is occasionally used
- Famous people
- Jane Austen's Steventon neighbours aside, think Kate Middleton, Ricky Gervais, Mike Oldfield, Sir Steve Redgrave
- Football clubs
- Reading, Newbury, Maidenhead United, Slough Town, Bracknell Town
About Berkshire
The county with a castle that never stops being a palace
Windsor Castle is the oldest and largest inhabited castle in the world. William the Conqueror founded it around 1070 as a timber fort, and Henry I was the first monarch to use it as a royal residence, from around 1110. The stone you see now has been added to by almost every dynasty since. In 1917 George V, wary of anti-German feeling in the First World War, changed the royal family's name from Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to Windsor. A castle in Berkshire gave its name to a whole royal house. St George's Chapel, inside the grounds, is the burial place of eleven monarchs, including Henry VIII, Charles I and, since September 2022, Elizabeth II. It is also the home of the Order of the Garter, England's oldest order of chivalry, founded by Edward III in 1348.
Where Royal Ascot turns hats into a sport
Ascot Racecourse was founded in 1711 by Queen Anne, who spotted open heath while out riding from Windsor and thought it ideal for galloping horses. The first race meeting was held that August. Royal Ascot, held every June, has a dress code that has become a spectacle in itself. Top hats and morning dress for the gentlemen, and hats or fascinators for the ladies, are all part of the show. The Gold Cup, run on the Thursday, is the centrepiece. The royal procession down the course, with the monarch arriving by carriage from Windsor, is a tradition that has carried on for centuries.
Eton, Sandhurst and a very particular kind of education
Eton College was founded in 1440 by Henry VI and has educated twenty British prime ministers, including Boris Johnson, David Cameron and Robert Walpole. It is famous for its distinctive uniform and for the Eton Wall Game, a muddy contest played on a strip beside a brick wall that can last years between goals. Goals are rare enough that a score is a major event. A short drive away, the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst trains officers for the British Army. Its alumni include Winston Churchill, and Princes William and Harry both passed through its gates. Berkshire also has the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston, and it is part of the Thames Valley technology cluster, with major technology businesses in Reading and Bracknell.
Reading: Oscar Wilde, biscuits and a festival that never sat still
Reading, the county town, was once called the biscuit town because Huntley & Palmers made its name here, shipping tins around the world from the 1840s onwards. Their factory was among the largest biscuit makers on the planet in its prime. Oscar Wilde was imprisoned in Reading Gaol from 1895 to 1897, and he wrote The Ballad of Reading Gaol after his release. The prison's story is part of why the town is known far beyond Berkshire. The Reading Festival, which grew from the National Jazz Festival of 1961, is one of the oldest and most famous music festivals in the world. Its August bank holiday weekend has seen performances that became rock legend, including Nirvana's 1992 headline set.
Chalk downs, white horses and a very old road
The Berkshire Downs are chalk hills with big skies, and carved into the slope at Uffington is the White Horse, a stylised figure around 110 metres long. It is believed to date from the Bronze Age, making it one of the oldest hill figures in Britain. Nearby sits Dragon Hill, where legend says St George slew the dragon. The ancient Ridgeway, often described as Britain's oldest road, runs along these downs. Walkers have used it for thousands of years. The Thames winds along the county's northern edge past Henley-adjacent reaches and Windsor, and the Kennet and Avon Canal threads through Newbury and Reading. Newbury also hosted two Civil War battles in 1643 and 1644.
Lego bricks, rowers and a county of firsts
Legoland Windsor, opened in 1996 on the site of a former safari park, is the first Legoland outside Denmark. It sits within a stone's throw of Windsor's castle, a pairing that gives the county a rather startling skyline of toy bricks and battlements. Rowing runs deep here. Sir Steve Redgrave, who won gold medals at five consecutive Olympics from 1984 to 2000, learned his craft on the Thames at Marlow and later lived locally. Eton Dorney, near Windsor, hosted the rowing and canoeing at the 2012 Olympics. And Berkshire's traditional emblem shows a stag beneath an oak tree, reflecting its historic forests and royal hunting associations. The county's old name, Bearroc, is thought to mean a hilly or oak-covered place.
Related articles
Royal Ascot
Published
A queen out riding spotted a stretch of heath in 1711 and said it would do nicely for racing. More than 300 years later, the hats are still the second-most-talked-about thing.