| Newbury | |
|---|---|
| Market town | |
 Newbury clock tower at sunset in 2018 | |
 Flag | |
  Newbury Location withinBerkshire | |
| Area | 9.9 km2 (3.8 sq mi) |
| Population | 33,841 (Parish, 2021)[1] 42,260 (Built up area, 2021)[2] |
| OS grid reference | SU4767 |
| • London | 60 mi (100 km)[3] |
| Civil parish |
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| Unitary authority | |
| Ceremonial county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | NEWBURY |
| Postcode district | RG14 |
| Dialling code | 01635 |
| Police | Thames Valley |
| Fire | Royal Berkshire |
| Ambulance | South Central |
| UK Parliament | |
| 51°24′04″N1°19′23″W / 51.401°N 1.323°W /51.401; -1.323 | |
Newbury is amarket town inWest Berkshire, England, in the valley of theRiver Kennet. It is 26 miles (42 km) south ofOxford, 25 miles (40 km) north ofWinchester, 27 miles (43 km) southeast ofSwindon and 20 miles (32 km) west ofReading. It is also whereWest Berkshire Council is headquartered.
Newbury lies on the edge of theBerkshire Downs, part of theNorth Wessex DownsArea of outstanding natural beauty, 3 miles (5 km) north of theHampshire–Berkshire county boundary. In the suburban village ofDonnington lies the part-ruinedDonnington Castle and the surrounding hills are home to some of the country's most famous racehorse training grounds (centred on nearbyLambourn). To the south is a narrower range of hills includingWalbury Hill and a few privatelandscape gardens and mansions, such asHighclere Castle. The local economy is inter-related to that of the easternM4 corridor, which has most of its industrial, logistical and research businesses close to Newbury, mostly aroundReading,Bracknell,Maidenhead andSlough. Together with the adjoining town ofThatcham, 3 miles (5 km) distant, Newbury forms the principal part of an urban area of approximately 70,000 people.[4]
Newbury is also home toNewbury Racecourse, as well as being the location of the headquarters ofVodafone. The town centres around a largemarket square and retains a raremedievalCloth Hall, an adjoining half timberedgranary, and the 15th-centurySt Nicolas Church, along with 17th- and 18th-centurylisted buildings.
There was aMesolithic settlement at Newbury. Artefacts were recovered from theGreenham Dairy Farm in 1963, and the Faraday Road site in 2002.[5] Additional material was found in excavations along the route of theNewbury Bypass.[6] Newbury was founded late in the 11th century following theNorman conquest as a newborough, hence its name. Although there are references to the borough that predate theDomesday Book it is not mentioned by name in the survey. However, its existence within themanor of Ulvritone is evident from the massive rise in value of that manor at a time when most manors were worth less than inSaxon times. In 1086 the Domesday Book[7] assesses the borough as having land for 12 ploughs, 2 mills, woodland for 25 pigs, 11villeins (resident farmhands, unfree peasant who owed his lord labour services), 11 bordars (unfree peasants with less land than villans/villeins), and 51 enclosures (private parks) rendering 70s 7d.
Doubt has been cast over the existence ofNewbury Castle,[8] but the town did have royal connections and was visited a number of times byKing John andHenry III while hunting in the area. The first reference to a bridge on the site of the currentNewbury Bridge is an account of its reconstruction in the14th Century. In 1312, KingEdward II directed that its bridge should be kept in good order.[9] By 1623, when the bridge collapsed, it was recorded as being built of wood, being 30 feet (9 metres) in length and 20 ft (6 m) in width, and having shops on it. The bridge was presumably rebuilt, as it is recorded that in 1644 a guard was placed on the bridge.[10]
Historically, the town's economic foundation was the cloth trade. This is reflected in the person of the 16th-century cloth magnate,Jack of Newbury,[11] the proprietor of what may well have been the first factory inEngland, 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 asheep's back at the beginning. The local legend was later immortalized in a humorous novel byElizabethan writerThomas Deloney. Newbury was the site of two battles during theEnglish Civil War, theFirst Battle of Newbury[12] (atWash Common) in 1643, and theSecond Battle of Newbury[13] (atSpeen) in 1644. The nearbyDonnington Castle[14] was reduced to a ruin in the aftermath of the second battle. The disruption of trade during the civil war, compounded by a collapse of the local cloth trade in the late 16th century, left Newbury impoverished.
The local economy was boosted in the 18th century by the rise ofBath as a popular destination for the wealthy escapingLondon's summer heat and associated stench. Newbury was roughly halfway between London and Bath and an obvious stopping point in the two-day journey. Soon Newbury, and theSpeenhamland area in particular, was filled with coaching inns of ever increasing grandeur and size. One inn, the George & Pelican, was reputed to have stabling for 300 horses. A theatre was built to provide the travellers with entertainment featuring the major stars of the age. In 1795 local magistrates, meeting at the George and Pelican Inn in Speenhamland, introduced theSpeenhamland System which tied parishpoor relief (welfare payments) to the cost of bread.[15]
In 1723, the Kennet Navigation made the River Kennet navigable downstream from Newbury to theRiver Thames in Reading. Some 70 years later, in 1794, work started on the centre section of theKennet and Avon Canal, which would extend the Kennet Navigation toBath, thus providing a through water route between London andBristol via Newbury. This route was finally completed in 1810.[10][16] The opening of theGreat Western Railway from London to Bath in 1841 effectively killed thecanal and coaching trades, and as the line passed some 25 kilometres (15+1⁄2 mi) to the north it brought no advantage to the town.Newbury had to wait until 1847 to join the railway network, with the opening of theBerks and Hants Railway branch line fromReading toHungerford via Newbury, and until 1906 to be on a main line, with the opening of theReading-Taunton line. As a result, Newbury became something of a backwater market town, with an economy based largely on agriculture andhorse-racing. The last use of thestocks in Newbury, and probably the UK, was on 11 June 1872 when Mark Tuck was placed in them for 4 hours.[17] In the 1980s, British electronics firmRacal decided to locate their newly formed telecommunications company Racal Vodafone, laterVodafone UK, in the town. In the subsequent decades Newbury became something of a regional centre for the high-tech industries, and the town has since enjoyed a return to general economic prosperity.
A largeRoyal Air Force station was established during theSecond World War atGreenham Common on the edge of the town. In the 1950s, it became home toUS Air Forcebombers andtankers, for which it was equipped with the longest military runway in theUnited Kingdom. In the 1980s, it became one of only two USAF bases in the UK equipped with ground-launchednuclear-armedcruise missiles, causing it to become the site of protests by up to 40,000 protesters and the establishment of theGreenham Common Women's Peace Camp. With the end of theCold War, the base was closed, the runway was broken up, much of it used as fill material in building theNewbury bypass, and the area was restored toheathland. This project then saw Greenham andCrookham commons reopened to the public in 2000.
On 10 February 1943, two German bombers,Dornier Do 217s from ll/KG40 Bomber unit in Holland, on a nuisance raid, followed theGreat Western Railway line running west from London. One of the bombers headed towards Reading while the other followed the line all the way to Newbury. At 4:43pm the bomber dropped eight high-explosive bombs over the town. There had been no time for a warning siren. The Senior Council School, St. Bartholomew's Almshouses, St. John's Church (just the altar was left standing) and Southampton Terrace were all destroyed, and another 265 dwellings were damaged, many of which had to be demolished. St John's Church was completely rebuilt after the war. 15 people were killed and a further 41 people were injured, 25 seriously.[18]
There are two tiers of local government covering Newbury, atparish (town) andunitary authority level: Newbury Town Council andWest Berkshire Council. The town council is based at theTown Hall in the Market Place.[19] West Berkshire Council is also based in the town, having its headquarters on Market Street.
Newbury Town Council currently has 23councillors, representing sevenwards of the town, currently: Brummel Grove, Clay Hill, Falkland, Northcroft, Pyle Hill, Victoria and St Johns. In the2023 United Kingdom local elections, the Liberal Democrats retained control of the town council, with 21 councillors elected, alongside 2 Green Party councillors.[20]
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In theHouse of Commons, the town is in theNewbury constituency. Since theGeneral Election of July 2024 this constituency has been represented byLee Dillon, aLiberal Democrat. From 1999 to 2020 Newbury was part of theSouth East EnglandEuropean Parliament constituency electing MEPs byproportional representation.
Newbury was anancient borough. Its date of incorporation as a borough is unknown; the name implies it was founded as a borough, and the earliest known documentary reference to it explicitly being a borough is from 1189.[22] The earliest knownmunicipal charter was granted in 1596. The borough covered the same area as the parish of Newbury.[23] It was reformed to become amunicipal borough in 1836 under theMunicipal Corporations Act 1835, which standardised how most boroughs operated across the country.[24]
The municipal borough and parish of Newbury were abolished in 1974 under theLocal Government Act 1972, becoming part of the largerNewbury district.[25][26] The Newbury district councillors who represented the area of the former borough then acted ascharter trustees to preserve the town's mayoralty and civic traditions, in the absence of the town having its own town council.[27]
In the mid-1990s, the government decided to abolishBerkshire County Council and pass its functions to the county's six district councils, including Newbury District Council. Ahead of the change coming into force, the district council decided to establish a new parish of Newbury, and also to change the district's name to West Berkshire.[28] The new parish of Newbury and its town council were established in 1997.[29] Newbury District Council took over county-level functions from the abolished county council and was renamed West Berkshire Council on 1 April 1998.[30]
The twinning ceremonies were held at theCorn Exchange. Newbury istwinned with the following:
TheCivil Parish of Newbury consists of the town and thesuburbs ofWash Common, The City, West Fields, East Fields andSpeenhamland. The modern conurbation of Newbury, however, with close bus and road links and almost contiguous development, may be taken to include the surrounding villages ofSpeen,Donnington,Shaw andGreenham.[32] Speen, which is now a suburb of western Newbury, is roughly equidistant betweenBristol[33] andLondon.[34]
Elevations vary from a minimum of 72 mabove mean sea level to 122 m atWash Common. Elevations reach 150–200 m in the directly adjoining hills.[32] TheRiver Kennet and theKennet and Avon Canal flow east through the centre of the town to reach theThames atReading, while theRiver Lambourn (beside which is the country's largest horse-training paddocks in the Valley of theLambourn Downs) partly forms its northern boundary, ending in the town. A tributary that is smaller still, theRiver Enborne, forms the southern boundary (and also the county boundary withHampshire).
Adjoining the town's south-eastern border isGreenham Common and the famousNewbury Racecourse. Newbury is surrounded on three sides (north, west and south) by theNorth Wessex Downs. Thedownland to the south rises steeply out of the river valley providing scenic views, includingWatership Down (made famous by the novel of the same name),Beacon Hill, the southeast's highest pointWalbury Hill, andCombe Gibbet.
Newbury has two very narrowly buffered settlements,Thatcham (25,267inh. as at 2011) andShaw cum Donnington (1,686 inh. as at 2011) forming an identifiable, informal greater Newbury urban and suburban conglomeration. In major use classes 11% of Newbury's land is occupied by roads and as of 2005, 34% of its land was occupied by domestic gardens.
| Output area | Homes owned outright | Owned with a loan | Socially rented | Privately rented | Other | km2 roads | km2 water | km2 domestic gardens | Usual residents | km2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Civil parish | 3816 | 4549 | 2589 | 2464 | 133 | 1.146 | 0.189 | 3.430 | 41075 | 9.9 |
Newbury and its immediate surroundings constitute the major commercial and retail centre ofWest Berkshire. The local economy is inter-related to that of the easternM4 corridor which has most of its industrial, logistical and research businesses close to Newbury,Reading andSlough, with smaller industrial estates in the county atTheale,Bracknell andMaidenhead. Newbury is home to theUnited Kingdoms headquarters of themobile network operatorVodafone, which is the town's largest employer with over 6,000 workers. Before moving to their £129 million headquarters in the outskirts of the town in 2002, Vodafone used 64 buildings spread across the town centre.[36]
As well asVodafone, Newbury is also home to theUnited Kingdom headquarters ofNational Instruments,Stryker Corporation,EValue andNewbury Building Society. Thepharmaceutical companyBayer AG are also headquartered in the town, although in October 2015 the company announced their intention to move to theGreen Park Business Park nearReading.[37]
Today, Newbury is served by two railway stations,Newbury andNewbury Racecourse, which both are on the Reading to Taunton line. It was also served by theDidcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway until this closed in the 1960s.
Following a similar east–west route is theA4 road from London to Bristol, historically the main route west from London. This road has been superseded as a long-distance route by theM4 motorway which runs almost parallel and can be accessed three miles (five kilometres) to the north at theChieveley interchange at Junction 13. At Newbury this east–west route is crossed by adual-carriageway north–south trunk road, from the major south coast port ofSouthampton to the industrial centres of theMidlands. Although this route was once served by the Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway, today it is only served by theA34 road, which now bypasses Newbury to the west on an alignment partially using the old rail route (see also 'Newbury Bypass' below).
Until the completion of the bypass, the A34 and A4 met in the town centre at the Robin Hood Roundabout, a complicated gyratory system encompassing 6 approaching roads, a fire station, ambulance station and an exit on the inside of the roundabout, which has a north–south flyover across the roundabout. In 2007, the sculptureCouple in Conversation was unveiled on the roundabout, providing a new landmark for one of the major gateways into the town. Other significant roads radiating from Newbury include theA339 which now includes the renumbered part of the old A34 through the town centre and then heads towardsBasingstoke and theM3 motorway, the A343 toAndover, the B4000 to Lambourn, the B4494 toWantage and the B4009 toStreatley.
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Most local bus services were provided by Newbury Buses, a division ofReading Buses until August 2011. Reading buses continue to operate most bus routes around Newbury under the Newbury & District brand[38]
Stagecoach South operates routes 7 and 7A to Woolton Hill & Andover, and route 32 (formally the 'Link') to Basingstoke.
Thames Travel, operates routes X24 and X34 to Harwell Campus and Didcot, funded jointly between theHarwell Campus and West Berkshire Council's government-issued Bus Service Improvement Plan funding.
Swindon's Bus Company, operates route X20, a once-weekly "shopper" service from Marlborough.
National Express previously served Newbury, most recently route 402 towards Reading's MereoakPark & Ride,Heathrow Airport and London, under contract to Newbury & District.
The town's location at the intersection of the routes from London to Bristol and from Southampton toBirmingham made it, for many years, a transport bottleneck. In 1963 a dual carriageway was built east of the town centre to ease congestion and the opening of the M4 motorway in 1971 moved the intersection of these major trunk routes three miles (five kilometres) north of the town, toChieveley. The ring road around the town still suffered serious congestion and theNewbury bypass was proposed in 1981. The plans were approved in 1990. The road was built and finally opened in 1998. In August 2004, the improved A34-M4 junction was re-opened which allowed north–south traffic on the A34 to completely bypass the earlier roundabout at the M4. This junction continued to be improved, with new road markings and traffic signals completed in 2008.
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Newbury has three mainsecondary schools:
There is alsoNewbury College, a further and higher education college, funded by aprivate finance initiative, andMary Hare School, a residentialco-educational communityspecial needs school for deaf pupils.
Independent schools nearby include:
Newbury is home to one ofEngland's major racecourses,Newbury Racecourse, which held its first race meeting in 1905.[39] The most prestigious race in the calendar is theHennessy Gold Cup, which normally takes place in late November. The Racecourse also frequently plays host to a series of concerts on race days during the summer, which has includedOlly Murs,Craig David,Tom Jones,Rick Astley andMadness in recent years.[40]
Northcroft Lido in Newbury's Northcroft Park is one of the last remaininglidos in the United Kingdom. It was originally built in the 1890s, although the current structure was erected in the 1930s. The pool is still in use today and received a major renovation in summer 2023.[41] It is owned and subsidised byWest Berkshire Council but is managed by an external contractor, Parkwood Leisure.[42]
Newbury was home toA.F.C. Newbury, with their home ground situated at Faraday Road near the town centre, but the club collapsed after Vodafone pulled its sponsorship of the team in May 2006.[43] A local pub team from the Old London Apprentice took over the Faraday Road ground temporarily and rebranded itself asNewbury F.C. in 2007, which has played in the Hellenic Football League since 2008. The team were forced to leave their home ground at Faraday Road in 2018, with the site remaining derelict since and the team playing in a number of temporary venues, including in nearby Lambourn. However, work began in May 2023 to restore the football ground at Faraday Road following the election of a new Liberal Democrat-run local council.[44]
Newbury'srugby union clubNewbury R.F.C., founded in 1928, has been based at a purpose-built ground at Monks Lane since 1996.[45] The town has two cricket teams, including Newbury Cricket Club, founded in 1822 and playing at Northcroft Playing Fields,[46] and Falkland Cricket Club, which in May 2023 hosted the first ever professional cricket match in West Berkshire with a match between the Southern Vipers and South East Stars in theCharlotte Edwards Cup.[47]
Newbury has two athletics clubs, Team Kennet and Newbury Athletics Club, which train at the Crookham Common Athletics Track.[48] The town is also home to numerous golf courses. The most notable is situated at the historicDonnington Grove estate, built in 1763 and where a golf course was opened in 1993.[49]
Victoria Park is the town's main park, located near the centre of the town, and includes tennis courts, a boating pond, adventure golf course, skatepark and bowling green.[50] The park is frequently used for local events throughout the year, such as the Newbury Waterways Festival in July.[51] Between 2004 and 2011, the Park's bandstand played host to the Keep Off The Grass (KOTG) dance music event.[52] Until 2018, it was also the finish line of the Crafty Craft, an improvisedraft race along thecanal.[53]
Newbury's arts scene is primarily centred around theCorn Exchange, a 400-seat auditorium situated in the Market Place which provides a venue for both professional and amateur live performances as well as hosting an independent cinema.[54] English rock bandthe Who performed at the Corn Exchange in 1966.[55] TheWatermill Theatre, a 220-seat theatre, is located just outside Newbury in Bagnor,[56] and the formerGreenham Common air force base is home to The Base, a dedicated arts centre which opened in 2019 in partnership with the Corn Exchange and Greenham Trust.[57]
Since 1979, the Newbury Spring Festival of classical music has brought internationally renowned soloists and ensembles to a variety of venues in and around the town. TheNewbury Comedy Festival emerged as a major event in 2004 and played host to comedians such asAlan Carr andJo Brand, but ended in 2012.[citation needed]
Newbury Showground, located to the north of the town centre in Hermitage, is also a major local events venue. It hosts the annual Newbury Show every September, an agricultural and farming show which attracts over 50,000 visitors and which returned in 2023 after a 3-year hiatus.[55]
Local news and television programmes are provided byBBC South andITV Meridian from theHannington TV transmitter.
There are four main localradio stations broadcasting in the Newbury area;BBC Radio Berkshire; acommunity radio station, Kennet Radio; and twoIndependent Local Radio stations –Greatest Hits Radio Berkshire & North Hampshire (formerly 'Newbury Sound', 'Kick FM', 'Kestrel FM' and 'The Breeze') which broadcasts from London and Manchester, andHeart South (formerly 2-Ten FM) which broadcasts into the area from London. The following local newspapers are distributed in Newbury (circulation):[58]
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A number of notable people have originated from, worked, lived or died in Newbury:
Nobles killed at theFirst Battle of Newbury
He also ran two pubs in Newbury, Berkshire, the Five Bells and the Carpenter's Arms
Sir Michael Hordern was a [Bagnor, Newbury] resident
In 1152, when William was just six, Stephen besieged Newbury Castle and took William hostage until his father agreed to surrender.
By 1986 Frank had moved to his present home, a small mansion near Newbury
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