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Bracknell Community Centres
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About Bracknell - show infohide info
Bracknell is a town in the county of Berkshire, 6 miles from the city of Reading Bracknell's name is supposed to derive from Braccen-Heale meaning "Bracken covered Secret Place". It is mentioned in a Winkfield Boundary Charter of 942. In 1723, an infamous band of marauders was apprehended in Bracknell. The Wokingham Blacks had been running wild across the Windsor Forest for over a year. The modern Bracknell is a former new town developed after the Second World War from a small market town, with little of the original left. White Waltham was the other choice for development, but Bracknell was selected because it was less likely to ruin quality agricultural land. It did however, expand into southern farmland. Bracknell's design is very much a sign of the 1960s, and requires regeneration. Bracknell managed to attract high-tech industries, and became home to companies such as Fujitsu (formerly ICL), Hewlett-Packard, Siemens, Honeywell, and Novell. The landmarks of Bracknell include the Church that was built in the 1850s. The town itself only contains three buildings from older days, and all are pubs. The Old Manor is a beautiful 17th century brick manor house complete with priest hole overlooking one of the bars, and rumoured secret passages. The legendary Dick Turpin is said to have used these passages, and also frequented the Hind’s Head pub that used to be opposite the Old Manor. Most visible on Bracknell’s landscape is the Winchester House, formally owned by and known as the 3M building due to the large lettering outside. It is twelve storeys high, and also housed the Met Office until 2003. Bracknell has a station on the electric railway line from London's Waterloo station to Reading, originally built by the London and South Western Railway and now operated by South West Trains. Due to this, Bracknell is now a commuter centre for both London and Reading. As an interesting fact, in 2004 Bracknell’s residents spent less money on cigarettes each year than people from any other area of the country.
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