Newbury, Berkshire

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Newbury is a civil parish and the principal town in the west of the county of Berkshire in England. It is situated on the River Kennet and the Kennet and Avon Canal, and has a town centre containing many 17th century buildings. Newbury is best known for its racecourse and the adjoining former airbase at Greenham Common.

Geography

The parish of Newbury consists of the town, and the suburbs of Wash Common, the City, West Fields, East Fields and Speenhamland. The modern conurbation of Newbury, however, also takes in the surrounding villages of Speen, Donnington, Shaw & Greenham.

Today, Newbury town has a population of about 32,000 (2004) and, with adjacent towns such as Thatcham, is the centre of a continuously built up area with an overall population of around 60,000.

The River Kennet and the Kennet and Avon Canal flow through the centre of the town, while the River Lambourn partly forms its northern boundary and the River Enborne forms its southern boundary (and also the county boundary with Hampshire). Adjoining the town's south-eastern border is Greenham Common and the famous racecourse. Newbury is surrounded on three sides (north, west and south) by the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and the downland to the south rises steeply out of the river valley giving good views.

Communications

The Kennet and Avon Canal runs through the heart of Newbury, Berkshire

Newbury is situated on the River Kennet, the valley of which has always formed an important east-west transport route, served by the Kennet and Avon Canal, the Great Western Railway line from London to the West Country and the old A4 road from London to Bristol. The latter road has been replaced as a long distance route by the M4 motorway which here runs parallel three miles to the north. The Newbury junction, at Chieveley, is Junction 13.

At Newbury this east-west route is crossed by an equally important north-south route, from the major south coast port of Southampton to the industrial centres of the Midlands. Although this route was once served by a railway route, today it is only served by the A34 road, which today bypasses Newbury to the west on an alignment partially using the old rail route (see also 'Modern Notoriety' below).

Today, Newbury is served by two railway stations, Newbury and Newbury Racecourse, which both lie on the Great Western Main Line between London and the West Country.

Local government

Newbury is part of, and the administrative centre of, the district administered by the unitary authority of West Berkshire.

Newbury is also a civil parish in its own right, with parish council responsibilities undertaken by Newbury Town Council since 1997. Newbury Town Council currently has 23 councillors, representing 7 wards of the town. These are Brummel Grove, Clay Hill, Falkland, Northcroft, Pyle Hill, Victoria and St Johns. As of 2006, 19 of the councillors represent the Liberal Democrats, 3 represent the Conservative Party whilst one is independent (formerly Liberal Democrat).

In Parliament, the town is in the Newbury constituency. Since the election of May 2005 this constituency has been represented by Richard Benyon, a Conservative.

Newbury is twinned with:

• Braunfels in Germany (1963)
• Bagnols-sur-Cèze in France (1970)
• Eeklo in Belgium (1974)
• Feltre in Italy (2003)

History

Newbury town hall.

Newbury was founded late in the eleventh century and acquired its name through being new in the sense of post-dating the Domesday Survey.

Doubt has been cast over the existence of ' Newbury Castle', but the town did have Royal connections and was visited a number of times by King John and Henry III while hunting in the area.

Historically, the town's economic foundation was the cloth trade. This is reflected in the person of the 16th century cloth magnate, Jack O'Newbury, and the later tale of the Newbury Coat. The latter was the outcome of a bet as to whether a gentleman's suit could be produced by the end of the day from wool taken from a sheep's back at the beginning.

Newbury was the site of two Civil War battles, the First Battle of Newbury (at Wash Common) in 1643 and the Second Battle of Newbury (at Speen) in 1644. The nearby Donnington Castle was reduced to a ruin in the aftermath of the second battle.

In 1795, local magistrates, meeting at the Pelican Inn in Speenhamland, introduced the Speenhamland System which tied parish welfare payments to the cost of bread.

Modern Notoriety

Main article: RAF Greenham Common

A large airforce base was established during the Second World War at Greenham Common on the edge of the town. In the 1950s, it became home to US Air Force bomber and tankers, for which it was equipped with the longest military runway in the United Kingdom. In the 1980s, it became one of only two bases in the United Kingdom equipped with ground-launched nuclear-armed cruise missiles, causing it to become the site of prolonged and vigorous protests by up to 40,000 protesters. With the end of the Cold War, the base was closed, the runway was broken up for use as fill material in building the Newbury by-pass (see below), and much of the area restored to heathland.

Main article: Newbury bypass

The town's location at the intersection of the routes from London to Bristol and from Southampton to Birmingham made it, for many years, a transport bottleneck. Since the first bypass opened in 1963, the A34 road and M4 motorway trunk routes have intersected 5km north of the town, at Chieveley. The ring road around the town still suffered serious congestion and the Newbury bypass was proposed in 1981. The plans were approved in 1990. However they were extremely controversial and this led to a major environmentalist campaign (sometimes dubbed the Third battle of Newbury) opposing the development. In spite of this, the road was built and finally opened in 1998.

In August 2004, the improved A34-M4 junction was opened which allowed north-south traffic on the A34 to completely bypass the roundabout at the M4.

Economy

Newbury is home to the World headquarters of the mobile phone company Vodafone, which is the town's largest employer with 4,000 people. Before building their £129 million headquarters in the outskirts of the town in 2003, Vodafone used 64 buildings spread across the town centre.

As well as Vodafone, Newbury is also home to the UK headquarters of the pharmaceutical company Bayer AG, Newbury Racecourse (a major course on the British horse-racing calendar), Mediasurface, Quantel, Stearn Electric, Micro Focus, and Genesys Video Conferencing. It also is home to Newbury Building Society which operates in the local region.

Sport & Leisure

The reception area in Newbury's library.

Newbury is home to the major horse-racing fixture, Newbury Racecourse. The most prestigious race in the calendar is the Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup which normally takes place in late November.

Newbury is also home to A.F.C. Newbury, which was for a period one of only two football clubs to be sponsored by Vodafone (the other being Manchester United). In May 2006 Vodafone ended its sponsorship of the club

The rugby union club, Newbury R.F.C. (also sponsored by Vodafone), is based in the town. In the 2004/05 season, the club finished second in the National Two division earning promotion to National One and is now in the top 26 clubs nationally. Newbury had previously won National Four South (now renamed as National Three South) in 1996/97 with a 100% win record. The club was founded in 1928 and moved several years ago to its new ground at Monks Lane which has hosted England U21 fixtures.

Victoria Park is home of the Newbury Waterways Festival.

As well as lending out books, Newbury Library, which moved to a new building in July 2000, provides internet access and a wide range of other services to its users and members.

Places of Interest

Newbury is in the Kennet valley. (As viewed from Donnington Castle)

• Newbury Museum
• Corn Exchange - now used as a theatre
• Kennet & Avon Canal Shop & Tearooms
• Jack O’Newbury’s House
• St. Nicolas’ Church (CofE)
• St. Bartholomew’s Hospital (almshouses)
• The Litten Chapel
• The Falkland Memorial
• Donnington Castle
• Nearby places of interest include the Bucklebury Farm Park, Combe Gibbet, Highclere Castle, the Sandham Memorial Chapel, Thatcham Nature Discovery Centre, the Watermill Theatre and Watership Down.

Education

Newbury has three main secondary schools:

• St. Bartholomew's School – one of the oldest schools in Berkshire, founded in 1466
• Park House School
• Trinity School, a recent school formed after the closure of Shaw House and Turnpike.

There is also Newbury College, a further and higher education college funded by private finance initiative.

Independent schools nearby include:

• Downe House
• Cheam School
• St. Gabriel's School, an all girls school.

Media

There are three main local radio stations broadcasting in the Newbury area - a publicly-funded radio service from the BBC, BBC Radio Berkshire - and two independent local radio stations - Kick FM which broadcasts from Newbury, and 2-Ten FM which broadcasts into the area from nearby Reading.

The following local newspapers are distributed in Newbury (circulation in brackets):

• Newbury Weekly News (24,300)
• Newbury & Thatcham Chronicle (21,500)
• Newbury Advertiser & News (33,400)

Famous people

A number of famous people have originated from, lived or died in Newbury:

• Richard Adams – author
• James Pettit Andrews – historian
• Roger Attfield – thoroughbred horse trainer
• Francis Baily – astronomer
• Michael Bond – creator of Paddington Bear
• Duke of Chandos – bought his 2nd wife in Newbury
• Earl of Carnarvon – killed at the 1st battle of Newbury
• Keith Chegwin – television presenter
• Ralph Chubb – poet, printer and artist
• Miles Coverdale – co-author of the 1st English Bible
• George Dangerfield – journalist and author
• Geoffrey Eastop – potter
• Lord Falkland – killed at the 1st battle of Newbury
• Gerald Finzi – composer
• John Kendrick – patron of the town
• William Marshal – given up as a hostage from ‘ Newbury Castle’
• Jack O'Newbury – cloth merchant & patron
• William of Newbury – 13th century Abbot of Abingdon
• John Septimus Roe – the first Surveyor-General of Western Australia
• Hannah Snell – 18th century female soldier
• Earl of Sunderland – killed at the 1st battle of Newbury
• Swampy – environmental protester
• Edward Charles Titchmarsh – mathematician
• Theo Walcott – footballer
• John Winchcombe II – cloth merchant & patron

Further reading

Money, Walter (1887). History of Newbury. Oxford.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article on "Newbury".