Newbury Berkshire Location History Economy Local Government

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 roadThe A34 is a major road in England. It runs from Salford in Lancashire to Winchester in Hampshire. From Manchester, it runs south through Cheadle, Wilmslow, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Stafford, Cannock, Walsall and Birmingham before disappearing at its junctio, which today bypasses Newbury to the west on an alignment partially using the old rail route (see also 'History' below).

The town is surrounded on three sides (north, west and south) by the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural BeautyThe North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) is located in the English counties of Berkshire, Hampshire, Oxfordshire and Wiltshire. The name North Wessex Downs is not a traditional one, the area covered being better known by various ov, and the downlandA downland is an area of open chalk upland. This term is especially used to describe the chalk countryside in southern England. Often referred to as downs. Downland is usually formed where bands of chalk reach the surface at an angle. As they are slowly e to the south rises steeply out of the river valley giving good views.

Grid reference: [http://getamap.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/getamap/frames.htm?mapAction=gaz&gazName=g&gazString= } }] ( British national grid reference system)

Nearby towns and cities: ThatchamThatcham is a town in Berkshire, England located three miles (5 km) East of Newbury and fifteen miles (24 km) West of Reading. It covers approximately 8. 75 square miles (23 km²) and has a population of 23,000 people ( 2003). This number has grown rapidly, HungerfordFor other uses, see: Hungerford (disambiguation Hungerford is a market town by the River Kennet in the English county of Berkshire. One particularly tragic aspect of Hungerford's history was the Hungerford Massacre, which was considered all the more remar, DidcotDidcot is a town in Oxfordshire, United Kingdom. Didcot dates back to the iron age. The settlement was situated on the ridge in the town, and the remainder of the surrounding area was marshland. The Romans attempted to drain the marshland by building the, ReadingReading is a town and unitary authority in Berkshire in England. The town, which has 63,000 households, is at the confluence of the River Thames and River Kennet, halfway between London and Oxford. The name Reading is pronounced to rhyme with bedding (in, Oxford, Basingstoke, Winchester

2 History

Newbury was founded late in the eleventh century and acquired its name through being new in the sense of postdating the Doomesday Survey.

Historically, the town's economic foundation was the cloth trade. This is reflected in the person of the fourteenth 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 a day from wool taken from the sheep's back earlier the same day.

Newbury was the site of two English Civil War battles, the First Battle of Newbury in 1643 and the Second Battle of Newbury in 1644. The nearby Donnington Castle was reduced in the aftermath of the second battle.

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

A large airforce base was established during the Second World War at Greenham Common on the edge of the town. After the war became home to US Air Force bombers in the 1950s, and later in the 1980s one of only two bases in the United Kingdom equipped with ground-launched nuclear-armed cruise missiles (and incidently the longest runway in the United Kingdom). It was the site of prolonged and vigorous protests by up to 40,000 protesters but with the end of the Cold War the base was closed and most of it restored to heathland.

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 a new bypass was proposed in 1981. The plans were passed in a closed Parliament session in 1990 after a pro forma hearing, a procedure by many considered undemocratic. Despite massive resistance (1), the road was built and finally opened in 1998. This decision was highly controversial and led to a major environmentalist campaign to oppose the development. The confrontation between demonstrators (many veterans of the protest against M3 extension at Twyford Down) and contractors was dubbed the Third Battle of Newbury (following those in the civil war -- see above). More than 800 arrests were made, making it one of the largest environmental conflicts in European history. On February 11 1996, 5,000 people marched along the route in objection to the road (2).

Some of the protesters at Newbury had been living in tree top shacks for up to a year in advance. They became known as tree sitters.

53% of respondents to a national poll said that "work should stop immediately to allow time for alternatives to be tried" (Newbury Weekly News, March 10 1996).
The Guardian, February 12 1996.

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.

3 Economy

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.

Newbury is home to the world headquarters of mobile phone company Vodafone, which is the town's largest employer with 4,000 people, the UK headquarters of the pharmaceutical company Bayer AG, and Newbury Racecourse , a major course on the British horse-racing calendar.

Newbury benefits from good road communications, being at the junction of the M4 motorway between London and Bristol/ South Wales, and the A34 major road between Southampton and the Midlands. Rail communications are adequate, with a station on the Great Western Railway line between London and the West Country.

4 Local government

Newbury is a civil parish in its own right, with parish council responsibilities undertaken by Newbury Town Council. Newbury is part of, and the administrative centre of, the district administered by the unitary authority of West Berkshire.

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.

Newbury is twinned with Braunfels in Germany, Bagnols-sur-Ceze in France and Eeklo in Belgium.

5 See also

6 External links

Towns in Berkshire

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1 Location