Reading

Reading Berkshire UK Hub

Approximate Population: 143,096

Reading  is a town in England, located at the confluence of the River Thames and River Kennet, midway between London and Swindon off the M4 motorway.   It is one of the contenders for the title of the largest town in England, and is the largest settlement in the Home Counties in terms of population.   For ceremonial purposes it is in the county of Berkshire and has served as the county town since 1867.   It is also home to one of England’s biggest music festivals.

Reading was an important national centre in the medieval period, as the site of an important monastery with strong royal connections, but suffered economic damage during the 17th century from which it took a long time to recover.

The town grew up as a river port at the confluence of the Thames and Kennet. Both of these rivers remain navigable, and the locks of Caversham Lock, Blake’s Lock, County Lock, Fobney Lock and Southcote Lock are all within the borough. Today navigation is exclusively leisure oriented, with private and hire boats dominating traffic.

Several scheduled boat services operate on the Thames, operating from wharves on the Reading side of the river near Caversham Bridge. Salters Steamers operate a summer daily service from just downstream of the bridge to Henley-on-Thames, taking somewhat over two hours in each direction and calling at the riverside villages of Sonning and Shiplake. Thames River Cruises operate several different trips from just upstream of the bridge, including a service on summer weekends and bank holidays to Mapledurham, taking 45 minutes in each direction and allowing two hours ashore for visits to Mapledurham Watermill and Mapledurham House.

Today it is again an important commercial centre, with strong links to information technology and insurance.   It is also a university town, with two universities and a large student population.   Citizens of Reading are known as Redingensians.

Reading Berkshire UK Hub

Maidenhead

Maidenhead Berkshire UK Hub

Approximate Population: 58,848

Maidenhead is a town within the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, in Berkshire, England. It lies on the River Thames and is situated 25.7 miles (41.4 km) west of Charing Cross in London.

Maidenhead’s name, strictly speaking, refers to the busy riverside area where the ‘New wharf’ or ‘Maiden Hythe’ was built, perhaps as early as Saxon times. It has been suggested that the nearby Great Hill of Taplow was called the ‘Mai Dun’ by the Iron Age Brythons. The area of the town centre was originally known as ‘South Ellington’ and is recorded in the Domesday Book as Ellington in the hundred of Beynhurst.

The Maidenhead urban area includes urban and suburban regions within the bounds of the town, called Maidenhead Court, North Town, Furze Platt, Pinkneys Green, Highway, Tittle Row, Boyn Hill, Fishery and Bray Wick; as well as suburbs in surrounding civil parishes: Cox Green and Altwood in Cox Green parish, Woodlands Park in White Waltham parish, and part of Bray Wick in Bray parish. Bray village itself is still just about detached.

Immediately surrounding Maidenhead are to the east, on the opposite side of the river, the village of Taplow. A few miles further on is Slough. To the north the Cookhams (Cookham Village, Cookham Rise & Cookham Dean). Also in this area is the wealthy area of Pinkneys Green. These lie south of the Berkshire-Buckinghamshire border, which is formed by the River Thames (which then bends southwards to form the Maidenhead-Taplow border). To the south is the village of Holyport. Continuing by road to the South-East leads to the town of Windsor.

Maidenhead Berkshire UK Hub

Bracknell

Bracknell Berkshire UK Hub

Approximate Population: 50,131

Bracknell is a town in the Bracknell Forest borough of Berkshire, England. It lies 18 km (11 miles) to the south-east of Reading, 16 km (10 miles) southwest of Windsor and 53 km (33 miles) west of London.

The town is surrounded, on the east and south, by the vast expanse of Swinley Woods and Crowthorne Woods. The town has absorbed parts of many local outlying areas including Warfield, Winkfield and Binfield.

The town covers all of the old village of Easthampstead (though not all of the old parish) and the hamlet of Ramslade. Easthampstead has a very long history. There is a Bronze Age round barrow at Bill Hill. Easthampstead Park was a favoured Royal hunting lodge in Windsor Forest and Catherine of Aragon was banished there until her divorce was finalised. It was later the home of the Trumbulls who were patrons of Alexander Pope from Binfield.

The town was successful in attracting high-tech industries, and has become home to companies such as Panasonic, Fujitsu (formerly ICL) and Fujitsu-Siemens Computers, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Siemens (originally Nixdorf), Honeywell, Cable and Wireless, Avnet Technology Solutions and Novell. Its success subsequently spread into the surrounding Thames Valley or M4 corridor, attracting IT firms such as Cable and Wireless, DEC (subsequently Hewlett-Packard), Microsoft, Sharp Telecommunications, Oracle Corporation, Sun Microsystems and Cognos.

Bracknell Berkshire UK Hub

Slough

Slough Berkshire UK Hub

Approximate Population: 122,000

1918 saw a large area of agricultural land to the west of Slough developed as an army motor repair depot, used to store and repair huge numbers of motor vehicles coming back from First World War in Flanders.   In April 1920 the Government sold the site and its contents to the Slough Trading Co. Ltd. Repair of ex-army vehicles continued until 1925 when the Slough Trading Company Act was passed allowing the company (renamed Slough Estates Ltd) to establish the world’s first Industrial Estate.  Spectacular growth and employment ensued, with Slough attracting workers from many parts of the UK and abroad.

After the Second World War, several further large housing developments arose to take large numbers of people migrating from war-damaged London. In the 21st century Slough has seen major redevelopment in the town centre. Old buildings are being replaced with brand new offices and shopping complexes.  

Tesco have replaced an existing superstore with a larger Tesco Extra.   The Heart of Slough Project is a highly ambitious, multi-million pound plan for the redevelopment of Slough’s Town Centre. The aim is to create a leading European and national focus, and cultural quarter for creative media, information and communications industries.  

 It will create a mixed-use complex, multi-functional buildings, visual landmarks and a public space in the Thames Valley.   Recommendations for the £400 million project have been approved, with work possibly starting in 2008 for completion in 2011.   Most recent news, gives an estimate for work to commence in 2009 for completion in 2018.

Slough Berkshire UK Hub

Slough

UK Hub

Slough Berkshire

Approximate Population: 119,070

1918 saw a large area of agricultural land to the west of Slough developed as an army motor repair depot, used to store and repair huge numbers of motor vehicles coming back from First World War in Flanders.   In April 1920 the Government sold the site and its contents to the Slough Trading Co. Ltd. Repair of ex-army vehicles continued until 1925 when the Slough Trading Company Act was passed allowing the company (renamed Slough Estates Ltd) to establish the world’s first Industrial Estate.  Spectacular growth and employment ensued, with Slough attracting workers from many parts of the UK and abroad.

After the Second World War, several further large housing developments arose to take large numbers of people migrating from war-damaged London.

In the 21st century Slough has seen major redevelopment in the town centre. Old buildings are being replaced with brand new offices and shopping complexes.   Tesco have replaced an existing superstore with a larger Tesco Extra.   The Heart of Slough Project is a highly ambitious, multi-million pound plan for the redevelopment of Slough’s Town Centre. The aim is to create a leading European and national focus, and cultural quarter for creative media, information and communications industries.   It will create a mixed-use complex, multi-functional buildings, visual landmarks and a public space in the Thames Valley.   Recommendations for the £400 million project have been approved, with work possibly starting in 2008 for completion in 2011.   Most recent news, gives an estimate for work to commence in 2009 for completion in 2018.

UK Hub Slough Berkshire

Reading

UK Hub

Reading Berkshire

Approximate Population: 143,096

Reading  is a town in England, located at the confluence of the River Thames and River Kennet, midway between London and Swindon off the M4 motorway.   It is one of the contenders for the title of the largest town in England, and is the largest settlement in the Home Counties in terms of population.   For ceremonial purposes it is in the county of Berkshire and has served as the county town since 1867.   It is also home to one of England’s biggest music festivals.

Reading was an important national centre in the medieval period, as the site of an important monastery with strong royal connections, but suffered economic damage during the 17th century from which it took a long time to recover.

Today it is again an important commercial centre, with strong links to information technology and insurance.   It is also a university town, with two universities and a large student population.   Citizens of Reading are known as Redingensians.

UK Hub Reading Berkshire