History of Berkshire

This title was granted by Queen Elizabeth II to Berkshire County Council in 1957, via Sir Austin Strutt, Deputy Under-Secretary of State, who wrote to E.R.

Of these the most remarkable are the burial grounds at Long Wittenham and Frilford, and there is evidence that the Lambourn valley was occupied in early Saxon times.

[2] At the time of the Norman Conquest, Berkshire formed part of the Earldom of Harold, and supported him staunchly at the battle of Hastings.

When Alfred the Great divided the country into shires, this county received the name of Berrocscir, as Asser says, "from the wood of Berroc, where the box-tree grows most plentifully".

Parts of the parishes of Shilton and Langford formed exclaves of the shire, until they were transferred to Oxfordshire in the reign of William IV.

[4] At the time of the Domesday survey the chief lay-proprietor was Henry de Ferrers, ancestor of the earls of Derby, but it is remarkable that none of the great Berkshire estates has remained with the same family for long.

At first this trade was confined to the export of the raw material, but the reign of Edward III saw the introduction of the clothing industry, for which the county afterwards became famous.

Agriculturally considered, the Vale of the White Horse is especially productive, and Camden speaks of the great crops of barley grown in the district.

In the 9th and 10th centuries the county was greatly impoverished by the ravages of the Danes, and in 871 the invaders were defeated by Æthelwulf at Englefield and again at Reading.

[5] At the opening of the English Civil War in the 17th century, the sheriff, on behalf of the inhabitants of Berkshire, petitioned that the county might be put in a posture of defence, and here the royalists had some of their strongest garrisons.

Later the boroughs of Newbury, Wallingford, Windsor and Abingdon secured representation, and from 1557 until the Reform Act 1832 the county was represented by a total of ten members.