West Berkshire Museum
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West Berkshire Museum
The West Berkshire Museum, in Newbury, Berkshire, holds various artworks and collections related to Newbury and West Berkshire. Established in 1904, the museum is housed in two of Newbury's most historic buildings. The Cloth Hall was built in 1627 by Richard Emmes, a master carpenter of Speenhamland for the Newbury Corporation as a cloth factory. Originally part of a larger range of buildings with a courtyard in the centre, the building was subsequently used as a workhouse, hospital and school before being used for storing corn from 1829 until its conversion to a museum. The museum itself has exhibition galleries, café and a local history library, along with a Conference room which can be hired. A permanent exhibition tells the story of West Berkshire. From the geology to the stories of people who have lived in West Berkshire; early ancestors, to well known characters like Jack O'Newbury: the people who have created the towns and villages, roads and canals, fields and farms, i ...
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Newbury, Berkshire
Newbury is a market town in the county of Berkshire, England, and is home to the administrative headquarters of West Berkshire Council. The town centre around its large market square retains a rare medieval Cloth Hall, an adjoining half timbered granary, and the 15th-century St Nicolas Church, along with 17th- and 18th-century listed buildings. As well as being home to Newbury Racecourse, it is the headquarters of Vodafone and software company Micro Focus International. In the valley of the River Kennet, south of Oxford, north of Winchester, southeast of Swindon and west of Reading. Newbury lies on the edge of the Berkshire Downs; part of the North Wessex Downs Area of outstanding natural beauty, north of the Hampshire-Berkshire county boundary. In the suburban village of Donnington lies the part-ruined Donnington Castle and the surrounding hills are home to some of the country's most famous racehorse training grounds (centred on nearby Lambourn). To the south ...
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Berkshire
Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berkshire in 1957 because of the presence of Windsor Castle, and letters patent were issued in 1974. Berkshire is a county of historic origin, a ceremonial county and a non-metropolitan county without a county council. The county town is Reading. The River Thames formed the historic northern boundary, from Buscot in the west to Old Windsor in the east. The historic county, therefore, includes territory that is now administered by the Vale of White Horse and parts of South Oxfordshire in Oxfordshire, but excludes Caversham, Slough and five less populous settlements in the east of the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead. All the changes mentioned, apart from the change to Caversham, took place in 1974. The towns of Abingdon, Didcot ...
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Speenhamland
The Speenhamland system was a form of outdoor relief intended to mitigate rural poverty in England and Wales at the end of the 18th century and during the early 19th century. The law was an amendment to the Elizabethan Poor Law. It was created as an indirect result of Britain's involvements in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (1793–1815). Operation The system was named after a 1795 meeting in Speenhamland, Berkshire, where local magistrates devised the system as a means to alleviate the distress caused by high grain prices. The increase in the price of grain may have occurred as a result of a poor harvest in the years 1795–96, though at the time this was subject to great debate. Many blamed middlemen and hoarders as the ultimate architects of the shortage. The Speehamland scale read, "When a gallon loaf of bread cost one shilling:... every Poor and Industrious Man should have for his own Support 3s weekly, either produced by his Family's Labour, or an Allowance f ...
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Jack O'Newbury
"Jack of Newbury" or John Winchcombe, also known as John Smallwood (c. 1489 −1557) was a leading English clothier from Newbury in Berkshire. When Tudor cloth-making was booming, and woollen cloth dominated English exports, John Winchcombe was producing for export on an industrial scale. He was a leading clothier in other ways. Cloth-making was heavily regulated, and in the 1530s and 1540s Winchcombe led dozens of clothiers in a national campaign to persuade King Henry VIII to change the law on the making of woollen cloth – a campaign which proved ultimately successful. He was the son of a clothier, but became a clothier in his own right before his father's death in 1520, and combined the two businesses, taking on property which had been leased to his father. He was already wealthy in the 1520s, and his growing prosperity led to a significant rise in his status. Wealth and Property Winchcombe became a wealthy landowner, spending over £4,000 on the purchase of property ...
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Heritage Lottery Fund
The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom. History The fund's predecessor bodies were the National Land Fund, established in 1946, and the National Heritage Memorial Fund, established in 1980. The current body was established as the "Heritage Lottery Fund" in 1994. It was re-branded as the National Lottery Heritage Fund in January 2019. Activities The fund's income comes from the National Lottery which is managed by Camelot Group. Its objectives are "to conserve the UK's diverse heritage, to encourage people to be involved in heritage and to widen access and learning". As of 2019, it had awarded £7.9 billion to 43,000 projects. In 2006, the National Lottery Heritage Fund launched the Parks for People program with the aim to revitalize historic parks and cemeteries. From 2006 to 2021, the Fund had granted £254millio ...
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West Berkshire Council
West Berkshire Council is the local authority of West Berkshire in Berkshire, England. It is a unitary authority, having the powers of a non-metropolitan county and district council combined. West Berkshire is divided into 30 wards, electing 52 councillors. The council was created by the Local Government Act 1972 as the Newbury District Council and replaced five local authorities: Bradfield Rural District Council, Hungerford Rural District Council, Newbury Borough Council, Newbury Rural District Council and Wantage Rural District Council. On 1 April 1998 it was renamed West Berkshire Council and since then has been a unitary authority, assuming the powers and functions of Berkshire County Council within the district. In the 2015 election the Conservatives won 48 out of 52 seats. In 2019, they won 24 out of 43 seats, losing half of their councillors. History The council was formed by the Local Government Act 1972 as the Newbury District Council. It replaced Bradfield Rural Distric ...
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Museums In Berkshire
A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these items available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. The largest museums are located in major cities throughout the world, while thousands of local museums exist in smaller cities, towns, and rural areas. Museums have varying aims, ranging from the conservation and documentation of their collection, serving researchers and specialists, to catering to the general public. The goal of serving researchers is not only scientific, but intended to serve the general public. There are many types of museums, including art museums, natural history museums, science museums, war museums, and children's museums. According to the International Council of Museums (ICOM), there are more than 55,000 museums in 202 count ...
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Grade I Listed Buildings In Berkshire
There are approximately 372,905 listed buildings in England and 2.5% of these are Grade I In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel .... This page is a list of these buildings in the county of Berkshire, ordered by building name within place name within district. Bracknell Forest Reading Slough West Berkshire Windsor and Maidenhead Wokingham See also * Grade II* listed buildings in Berkshire Notes References External links {{DEFAULTSORT:Grade I Listed Buildings in Berkshire Berkshire Lists of listed buildings in Berkshire ...
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Local Museums In Berkshire
Local may refer to: Geography and transportation * Local (train), a train serving local traffic demand * Local, Missouri, a community in the United States * Local government, a form of public administration, usually the lowest tier of administration * Local news, coverage of events in a local context which would not normally be of interest to those of other localities * Local union, a locally based trade union organization which forms part of a larger union Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Local'' (comics), a limited series comic book by Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly * ''Local'' (novel), a 2001 novel by Jaideep Varma * Local TV LLC, an American television broadcasting company * Locast, a non-profit streaming service offering local, over-the-air television * ''The Local'' (film), a 2008 action-drama film * '' The Local'', English-language news websites in several European countries Computing * .local, a network address component * Local variable, a variable that is given loc ...
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Buildings And Structures In Newbury, Berkshire
A building, or edifice, is an enclosed structure with a roof and walls standing more or less permanently in one place, such as a house or factory (although there's also portable buildings). Buildings come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and functions, and have been adapted throughout history for a wide number of factors, from building materials available, to weather conditions, land prices, ground conditions, specific uses, prestige, and aesthetic reasons. To better understand the term ''building'' compare the list of nonbuilding structures. Buildings serve several societal needs – primarily as shelter from weather, security, living space, privacy, to store belongings, and to comfortably live and work. A building as a shelter represents a physical division of the human habitat (a place of comfort and safety) and the ''outside'' (a place that at times may be harsh and harmful). Ever since the first cave paintings, buildings have also become objects or canvasses of much artistic ...
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Museums Established In 1904
A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these items available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. The largest museums are located in major cities throughout the world, while thousands of local museums exist in smaller cities, towns, and rural areas. Museums have varying aims, ranging from the conservation and documentation of their collection, serving researchers and specialists, to catering to the general public. The goal of serving researchers is not only scientific, but intended to serve the general public. There are many types of museums, including art museums, natural history museums, science museums, war museums, and children's museums. According to the International Council of Museums (ICOM), there are more than 55,000 museums in 202 count ...
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