Вокингем: История и современность города в Беркшире

Wokingham ('/w//oʊ//k//ɪ//ŋ//əm//audio=Wokingham Pronunciation. ogg/ WOHkingəm) is a market town and civil parish in Berkshire, England, 37 mile (60 km) west of London, 7 mile (11 km) southeast of Reading, 8 mile (13 km) north of Camberley and 4 mile (6 km) west of Bracknell. It is the main administrative centre of the wider Borough of Wokingham. In 2011 it had a population of 50,320.

Wokingham means 'Wocca's people's home'. Wocca was apparently a Saxon chieftain who may also have owned lands at Wokefield in Berkshire and Woking in Surrey. The courts of Windsor Forest were held at Wokingham and the town had the right to hold a market from 1219. Queen Elizabeth granted a town charter in 1583. Northern Wokingham, centred on Ashridge, was, archaically, a detached part of Wiltshire. This area extended well into the town centre (and the area currently where the Dowlesgreen, Norreys and Bean Oak estates currently are situated) until transferred to Berkshire in 1844. The ancient parish was divided in 1894 into urban and rural civil parishes, Wokingham Without forming the latter. Wokingham was one of the boroughs left unreformed by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835, and was reformed subsequently in 1883. Wokingham merged with the Wokingham Rural District in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972 to form the non metropolitan district of Wokingham, which has been a unitary authority area since 1998. It consists of 54 elected councillors and is presided over by one councillor who is elected annually to be the chairman of the council. Elections to the council are held in three out of every four years. In May 2022, the Conservative party lost its majority on the Borough Council and since then the council has been run by the Liberal Democrats in partnership with Labour and Independent councillors. The Borough Council Offices are based at Shute End in the town of Wokingham. A successor parish continued in existence in Wokingham and is governed by Wokingham Town Council. The council is elected every four years and consists of twenty five councillors representing Emmbrook, Evendons, Norreys and Wescott, the four wards of the town. Every year, they elect one of their number as mayor. Wokingham Town Hall was erected on the site of the old guildhall in 1860. The Wokingham constituency's MP is the Conservative John Redwood, who has represented it since 1987.

Wokingham is on the Emm Brook in the Loddon Valley in central Berkshire situated 39 mile (63 km) west of central London. It sits between the larger towns of Reading and Bracknell and was originally in a band of agricultural land on the western edge of Windsor Forest. The soil is a rich loam with a subsoil of sand and gravel. Wokingham has a town centre, with main residential areas radiating in all directions. These include Woosehill to the west, Emmbrook to the northwest, Dowlesgreen, Norreys, Keephatch and Bean Oak to the east, and to the south Wescott and Eastheath. Older names include Woodcray and Luckley Green. Much of Wokingham has been developed over the past 80 years. Woosehill and Dowlesgreen were built on farmland in the late 1960s and early '70s, along with Bean Oak. Keephatch was built in the early '90s. The Norreys Estate was built in the 1960s; however, Norreys Avenue is the oldest residential road in that area, having been built in the late 1940s as emergency housing following the Second World War. Norreys Avenue has a horseshoe shape and occupies the site of the demolished Norreys Manor. Much of the road contains 1940s style prefabricated houses, although there are some brick houses along with three blocks of 1950s police houses. In 2010, the council set up WEL (Wokingham Enterprise Limited) to manage a £100m regeneration project to redevelop the town centre with new retail, leisure and residential facilities, parking, roads and open spaces. Several major expansion projects around the town are planned over the next decade, including a major redevelopment of the town centre, new north and south relief roads and at the former military base at nearby Arborfield Garrison. As of 2015, the redevelopment of the railway station and surrounding area is complete, and large scale housing construction is underway to the north east and south east of the town.

The A329(M) motorway, accessible from the east of town, connects Wokingham to Reading and the rest of the motorway network at junction 10 of the M4. The Wokingham junction is where the A329(M) ends and becomes the A322, for Bracknell and the M3. Wokingham railway station is at the junction of the Waterloo to Reading line with the North Downs Line. South Western Railway manages the station and provides services, along with Great Western Railway. Most local bus services are provided by Thames Valley Buses, but the services from Wokingham to Reading and Bracknell are operated by Reading Buses, after First Berkshire & The Thames Valley closed their Bracknell depot in the summer of 2015. There is also a football bus run on Reading FC match days by Stagecoach South to the Madejski Stadium.

The 1971 film See No Evil, also released under the title Blind Terror, was filmed in and around Wokingham, with scenes shot at the since redeveloped Wokingham railway station. Scenes for ITV series Primeval were filmed at Wokingham's Red Lion pub.

There are public parks at Barkham Road Recreation Ground, Langborough Recreation Ground, Cantley Park, Chestnut Park, Heron Park, Elizabeth Road Recreation Ground, Elms Field, Riverside Walk, and Waverley Park. There is a local nature reserve called Holt Copse & Joel Park. The council provides a number of leisure facilities such as the Carnival Hub, St. Crispin's Sports Centre and the Pinewood Leisure Centre. Pinewood is the base for over 20 clubs and associations. There is a King George V Playing Field behind St. Crispin's in memory of King George V.
Speedway racing was staged at California in Reading. Before then the track, known then as Longmoor was used as a training track. Wokingham Open Air Cinema. For its second year, three films were shown the weekend before the Wokingham Festival.