A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | CH | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
Reading
Borough of Reading | |
|---|---|
Town and borough | |
 Coat of arms of Reading Borough Council | |
| Motto(s): A Deo et Regina With God and Queen | |
 Borough of Reading shown within Berkshire | |
  Reading | |
| Coordinates: 51°27′15″N 0°58′23″W / 51.45417°N 0.97306°W | |
| Sovereign state |  United Kingdom |
| Constituent country |  England |
| Region | South East England |
| Ceremonial county | Berkshire |
| Historic county |
|
| Admin HQ | Reading |
| Settled | 871 or earlier |
| Town status | 1086 or earlier |
| Areas of the town | List
|
| Government | |
| • Type | Unitary authority |
| • Body | Reading Borough Council |
| • Leadership | Leader and Cabinet |
| • Mayor | Cllr Tony Page |
| • MPs | Matt Rodda (L) Alok Sharma (C) |
| Elevation | 61 m (200 ft) |
| Population (2022) | |
| • Borough | 174,820 |
| • Rank | 120th (of 296) (borough) |
| • Density | 4,327/km2 (11,210/sq mi) |
| • Urban | 337,108 |
| Demonym(s) | Redingensian, Readingite[citation needed] |
| Ethnicity (2021) | |
| • Ethnic groups | |
| Religion (2021) | |
| • Religion | List
|
| Time zone | UTC+0 (GMT) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+1 (BST) |
| Postal code | |
| Area code | 0118 |
| Grid Ref. | SU713733 |
| ONS code |
|
| ISO 3166-2 | GB-RDG |
| NUTS 3 | UKJ11 |
| Website | reading |
Reading (/ˈrɛdɪŋ/ RED-ing)[2] is a town and borough in Berkshire, England. Most of its built-up area lies within the Borough of Reading, although some outer suburbs are parts of neighbouring local authority areas. Located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the rivers Thames and Kennet, Reading is 40 miles (64 km) east of Swindon, 25 miles (40 km) south of Oxford, 40 miles (64 km) west of London and 16 miles (26 km) north of Basingstoke.
Reading is a major commercial centre, especially for information technology and insurance.[3] It is also a regional retail centre, serving a large area of the Thames Valley with its shopping centres, including the Oracle, the Broad Street Mall, and the pedestrianised area around Broad Street. It is home to the University of Reading. Every year it hosts the Reading Festival, one of England's biggest music festivals. Reading has a professional association football team, Reading F.C., and participates in many other sports.
Reading dates from the 8th century. It was an important trading and ecclesiastical centre in the Middle Ages, the site of Reading Abbey, one of the largest and richest monasteries of medieval England with strong royal connections, of which the 12th-century abbey gateway and significant ancient ruins remain. By 1525, Reading was the largest town in Berkshire, and tenth in England for taxable wealth. The town was seriously affected by the English Civil War, with a major siege and loss of trade, but played a pivotal role in the Glorious Revolution, whose only significant military action was fought on its streets. The 18th century saw the beginning of a major ironworks in the town and the growth of the brewing trade for which Reading was to become famous. The 19th century saw the coming of the Great Western Railway and the development of the town's brewing, baking and seed growing businesses, and the town grew rapidly as a manufacturing centre. Reading is also the county town of Berkshire.
History
Origins
Occupation at the site of Reading may date back to the Roman period, possibly in the form of a trading port for Calleva Atrebatum.[4] However, the first clear evidence for Reading as a settlement dates from the 8th century, when the town came to be known as Readingas. The name probably comes from the Readingas, an Anglo-Saxon tribe whose name means Reada's People in Old English[5] (the Anglo-Saxons often had the same name for a place and its inhabitants). In late 870, an army of Danes invaded the kingdom of Wessex and set up camp at Reading. On 4 January 871, in the first Battle of Reading, King Ethelred and his brother Alfred the Great attempted unsuccessfully to breach the Danes' defences. The battle is described in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and that account provides the earliest known written record of the existence of Reading. The Danes remained in Reading until late in 871, when they retreated to their winter quarters in London.[6][7]
After the Battle of Hastings and the Norman conquest of England, William the Conqueror gave land in and around Reading to his foundation of Battle Abbey. In its 1086 Domesday Book listing, the town was explicitly described as a borough. The presence of six mills is recorded: four on land belonging to the king and two on the land given to Battle Abbey.[7] Reading Abbey was founded in 1121 by Henry I, who is buried within the Abbey grounds. As part of his endowments, he gave the abbey his lands in Reading, along with land at Cholsey.[7][8]
Reading was an important river crossing point: in 1312, King Edward II directed that its bridges should be kept in good order.[9] It is not known how badly Reading was affected by the Black Death that swept through England in the 14th century, but it is known that the abbot, Henry of Appleford, was one of its victims in 1361, and that nearby Henley lost 60% of its population.[10] The Abbey was largely destroyed in 1538 during Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries. The last abbot, Hugh Faringdon, was subsequently tried and convicted of high treason and hanged, drawn and quartered in front of the Abbey Church.[11][12]
By 1525, Reading was the largest town in Berkshire, and tax returns show that Reading was the tenth largest town in England when measured by taxable wealth. By 1611, it had a population of over 5000 and had grown rich on its trade in cloth, as instanced by the fortune made by local merchant John Kendrick.[10][13] Reading played an important role during the English Civil War. Despite its fortifications, it had a Royalist garrison imposed on it in 1642. The subsequent Siege of Reading by Parliamentary forces succeeded in April 1643.[14] The town's cloth trade was especially badly damaged, and the town's economy did not fully recover until the 20th century.[7][15] Reading played a significant role during the Glorious Revolution: the second Battle of Reading was the only substantial military action of the campaign.[7][16]
The 18th century saw the beginning of a major iron works in the town and the growth of the brewing trade for which Reading was to become famous.[17] Reading's trade benefited from better designed turnpike roads which helped it establish its location on the major coaching routes from London to Oxford and the West Country. In 1723, despite considerable local opposition, the Kennet Navigation opened the River Kennet to boats as far as Newbury. Opposition stopped when it became apparent that the new route benefited the town. After the opening of the Kennet and Avon Canal in 1810, one could go by barge from Reading to the Bristol Channel.[18] From 1714, and probably earlier, the role of county town of Berkshire was shared between Reading and Abingdon.[19][20] In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries it was one of the southern termini of the Hatfield and Reading Turnpike that allowed travelers from the north to continue their journey to the west without going through the congestion of London.
During the 19th century, the town grew rapidly as a manufacturing centre. The Great Western Railway arrived in 1841,[21] followed by the South Eastern Railway in 1849 and the London and South Western Railway in 1856.[22][23] The Summer Assizes were moved from Abingdon to Reading in 1867, effectively making Reading the sole county town of Berkshire, a decision that was officially approved by the privy council in 1869.[19] The town became county borough under the Local Government Act 1888.[24][25] The town has been famous for the Three Bs of beer (1785–2010, H & G Simonds),[26][27] bulbs (1837–1974, Suttons Seeds),[26][28] and biscuits (1822–1976, Huntley and Palmers).[26][29][30]
20th century
The town continued to expand in the 20th century, annexing Caversham across the River Thames in Oxfordshire in 1911. Compared to many other English towns and cities, Reading suffered little physical damage during either of the two world wars that afflicted the 20th century, although many citizens were killed or injured in the conflicts. One significant air raid occurred on 10 February 1943, when a single Luftwaffe plane machine-gunned and bombed the town centre, resulting in 41 deaths and over 100 injuries.[31]
The Lower Earley development, built in 1977, was one of the largest private housing developments in Europe.[32][33] It extended the urban area of Reading as far as the M4 Motorway, which acts as the southern boundary of the town. Further housing developments have increased the number of modern houses and hypermarkets in the outskirts of Reading. A major town-centre shopping centre, The Oracle, opened in 1999, is named after the 17th-century Oracle workhouse, which once occupied a small part of the site. It provides three storeys of shopping space and boosted the local economy by providing 4,000 jobs.[34][35]
21st century
As one of the largest urban areas in the United Kingdom to be without city status, Reading has unsuccessfully bid for city status on four recent occasions – in 2000 to celebrate the new millennium; in 2002 to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II; in 2012 for the Diamond Jubilee;[36][37][38][39] and in 2022 to mark the Platinum Jubilee.[40][41]
Government
Local government for the Borough of Reading is provided by Reading Borough Council, a single level unitary authority without civil parishes. However, some of the town of Reading's outer suburbs are in West Berkshire and Wokingham unitary authorities. These outer suburbs belong to civil parishes, in some cases with their own town status. Reading has elected at least one Member of Parliament to every Parliament since 1295.[42] Historically, Reading was represented by the members for the Parliamentary Borough of Reading, and the parliamentary constituencies of Reading, Reading North, and Reading South. Since the 2010 general election, Reading has been divided between the parliamentary constituencies of Reading East, Reading West, Wokingham (which covers Shinfield, most of Earley and Lower Earley) and Maidenhead (which partly covers Woodley).[43]
Reading is the site of venues for both the Crown Court,[44] administering criminal justice, and the County Court,[45] responsible for civil cases. Lesser matters are dealt with in a local magistrates' court.[46] Reading has had some degree of local government autonomy since 1253, when the local merchant guild was granted a royal charter.[citation needed] Since then, the town has been run by a Borough corporation as a county borough, and as a district of Berkshire. The Borough of Reading became a unitary authority area in 1998, when Berkshire County Council was abolished under the Banham Review, and is now responsible for all aspects of local government within the borough.[47]
Prior to the 16th century, civic administration for the town of Reading was situated in the Yield Hall, a guild hall situated by the River Kennet near today's Yield Hall Lane.[48] After a brief stay in what later became Greyfriars Church, the town council created a new town hall by inserting an upper floor into the refectory of the Hospitium of St John, the former hospitium of Reading Abbey.[48] For some 400 years up to the 1970s, this was to remain the site of Reading's civic administration through the successive rebuilds that eventually created today's Town Hall.[49] In 1976, Reading Borough Council moved to the new Civic Centre.[50] In 2014, they moved again to civic offices in a refurbished existing office building on Bridge Street, in order to facilitate the demolition and redevelopment of the previous site.[51]
The government of the Borough of Reading follows the leader and cabinet model. After the 2023 elections, Labour have 32 councillors, the Greens 7, the Conservatives 4, the Liberal Democrats 3, and there is one independent.[52] The borough also has a (largely ceremonial) mayor, a post held since May 2023 by Tony Page.[53] Since 1887, the borough has included the former villages of Southcote and Whitley and small parts of Earley and Tilehurst.[54] By 1911, it also encompassed the Oxfordshire village of Caversham and still more of Tilehurst.[55] A small area of Mapledurham parish was added in 1977. An attempt to take over a small area of Eye and Dunsden parish in Oxfordshire was rejected because of strong local opposition in 1997.[55] Today the borough itself is unparished, and the wards used to elect the borough councillors generally ignore the old parish boundaries and use invented ward names.[56]
Reading's municipal boundaries do not include all of the surrounding suburbs. Some of these areas (Tilehurst, Calcot, Earley, Winnersh and Woodley) are, at least partly, within West Berkshire or Wokingham Borough. This unusual configuration creates difficulties. The diminishing amount of land available and suitable for development within the borough's boundary can bring the council into conflict with its neighbours' development plans; this is exacerbated by the fact that the wards within the borough boundaries have tended to elect Labour councillors, while the suburban wards outside the borough have tended to vote Conservative or, latterly, Liberal Democrat. This particularly affects education (many schools have catchment areas that cross administrative boundaries), and transport. A perennial example is whether to construct a third road crossing of the Thames, which South Oxfordshire's politicians and residents oppose.[57][58] On this subject, Rob Wilson, then Member of Parliament for Reading East, said in a House of Commons debate in January 2006:[59]
However, the process has been painfully slow and it appears that, for every two steps forwards, there are three steps backwards—mainly because of the view of South Oxfordshire district council, which is being incredibly parochial about this matter. Meanwhile, Reading Borough Council is adopting strategies that prioritise local traffic in Reading, obviously to the detriment of through traffic. We have now reached the point at which we desperately need direct Government intervention to break the logjam between those local authorities.
Geography
| Place | Distance | Direction | Relation |
|---|---|---|---|
| London | 38 miles (61 km)[60] | East | Capital city of the UK |
| Swindon | 36 miles (58 km)[61] | West | Nearby town |
| St Albans | 34 miles (55 km)[62] | North east | Nearby city |
| Winchester | 31 miles (50 km)[63] | South | Nearby city |
| Oxford | 24 miles (39 km)[64] | North | Nearby city |
| Abingdon | 20 miles (32 km)[65] | North west | Historic joint county town |
Reading is 42 miles (68 km) north of the English south coast. The centre of Reading is on a low ridge between the River Thames and River Kennet, close to their confluence, reflecting the town's history as a river port. Just above the confluence, the Kennet cuts through a narrow steep-sided gap in the hills forming the southern flank of the Thames flood plain. The absence of a flood plain on the Kennet in this defile enabled the development of wharves. The floodplains adjoining Reading's two rivers are subject to occasional flooding.[66][67]
As Reading has grown, its suburbs have spread: to the west between the two rivers into the foothills of the Berkshire Downs as far as Calcot, Tilehurst and Purley; to the south and south-east on the south side of the River Kennet as far as Whitley Wood and Lower Earley and as far north of the Thames into the Chiltern Hills as far as Caversham Heights, Emmer Green and Caversham Park Village. Outside the central area, the floors of the valleys containing the two rivers remain largely unimproved floodplain. Apart from the M4 curving to the south there is only one road across the Kennet flood plain. All other routes between the three built-up areas are in the central area.[68]
Historically, the town of Reading was smaller than the borough. Definitions include the old ecclesiastical parishes of the churches of St Mary, St Laurence and St Giles, or the even smaller pre-19th century borough.[55] Today, as well as the town centre Reading comprises a number of suburbs and other districts, both within the borough itself and within the surrounding urban area. The names and location of these suburbs are in general usage but, except where some of the outer suburbs correspond to civil parishes, there are no formally defined boundaries. The Reading urban area (officially Reading/Wokingham) additionally includes Winnersh, Wokingham, Crowthorne and the civil parishes of Earley, Woodley, Purley, Tilehurst and Shinfield.[69]
Climate
Like the rest of the United Kingdom, Reading has a maritime climate, with limited seasonal temperature ranges and generally moderate rainfall throughout the year. The nearest official Met Office weather station is located at the Reading University Atmospheric Observatory on the Whiteknights Campus, which has recorded atmospheric measurements and meteorological observations since 1970.[70] The local absolute maximum temperature of 37.6 °C (99.7 °F) was recorded on 19 July 2022 and the local absolute minimum temperature of −14.5 °C (5.9 °F) was recorded in January 1982.
| Climate data for Reading University, elevation: 62 m (203 ft), 1991–2020 normals, extremes 1959–present | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 15.5 (59.9) |
19.6 (67.3) |
22.8 (73.0) |
26.9 (80.4) |
28.5 (83.3) |
34.0 (93.2) |
37.6 (99.7) |
36.4 (97.5) |
29.6 (85.3) |
27.8 (82.0) |
18.1 (64.6) |
15.8 (60.4) |
37.6 (99.7) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 8.0 (46.4) |
8.5 (47.3) |
11.2 (52.2) |
14.2 (57.6) |
17.4 (63.3) |
20.4 (68.7) |
22.7 (72.9) |
22.3 (72.1) |
19.3 (66.7) |
15.1 (59.2) |
11.0 (51.8) |
8.4 (47.1) |
14.9 (58.8) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 5.1 (41.2) |
5.4 (41.7) |
7.4 (45.3) |
9.7 (49.5) |
12.7 (54.9) |
15.6 (60.1) |
17.8 (64.0) |
17.5 (63.5) |
14.8 (58.6) |
11.5 (52.7) |
7.8 (46.0) |
5.4 (41.7) |
10.9 (51.6) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 2.1 (35.8) |
2.2 (36.0) |
3.5 (38.3) |
5.1 (41.2) |
8.0 (46.4) |
10.8 (51.4) |
12.9 (55.2) |
12.7 (54.9) |
10.4 (50.7) |
7.9 (46.2) |
4.7 (40.5) |
2.5 (36.5) |
6.9 (44.4) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −14.5 (5.9) |
−11.6 (11.1) |
−7.2 (19.0) |
−3.5 (25.7) |
−2.0 (28.4) |
1.5 (34.7) |
4.9 (40.8) |
3.4 (38.1) |
0.6 (33.1) |
−4.4 (24.1) |
−8.3 (17.1) |
−13.4 (7.9) |
−14.5 (5.9) |
| Average precipitation mm (inches) | 65.2 (2.57) |
45.6 (1.80) |
40.3 (1.59) |
48.7 (1.92) |
43.5 (1.71) |
47.2 (1.86) |
48.9 (1.93) |
56.9 (2.24) |
49.7 (1.96) |
73.8 (2.91) |
73.1 (2.88) |
65.4 (2.57) |
658.2 (25.91) |
| Average precipitation days (≥ 1.0 mm) | 11.8 | 9.7 | 8.6 | 9.3 | 8.1 | 7.7 | 8.1 | 8.5 | 8.2 | 10.6 | 11.8 | 11.5 | 113.9 |
| Mean monthly sunshine hours | 55.6 | 76.5 | 119.7 | 170.2 | 199.9 | 199.0 | 205.5 | 190.5 | 145.3 | 106.6 | 60.2 | 48.5 | 1,577.5 |
| Average ultraviolet index | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| Source 1: Met Office[71] WeatherAtlas[72] | |||||||||||||
| Source 2: Starlings Roost[73][74] | |||||||||||||