Arborfield Green is a new village approximately south east of the village of

Arborfield Cross Arborfield Cross is a village in the civil parish of Arborfield and Newland in the Borough of Wokingham in the English county of Berkshire. Location It is situated at what was a cross-roads but is now a roundabout on the A327 road, 3 miles so ...

in the English county of

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 Berk ...

, previously a British Army

garrison A garrison (from the French ''garnison'', itself from the verb ''garnir'', "to equip") is any body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it. The term now often applies to certain facilities that constitute a mil ...

called Arborfield Garrison. The army vacated the site in 2015 and it is now being redeveloped for housing, with a total of 3,500 homes planned. The Garrison and its associated housing estates are split between the civil parishes of

Arborfield and Newland Arborfield and Newland is a civil parish in the Wokingham district of Berkshire, England. It had a population of 2,228 according to the 2001 census, increasing to 3,115 at the 2011 Census. It includes Arborfield, Arborfield Cross, part of ...

, Barkham, Finchampstead, and Swallowfield. Both parishes are within the unitary authority of Wokingham. According to the Post Office, the majority of the 2011 Census population was included in the civil parish of Barkham. As of 2023, the new village centre is still under construction.

History

The

, which was initially operated by the Army Remount Service and supplied the military with horses for both operational and ceremonial purposes, was established as the Remount Depot in 1904. The depot operated throughout the First World War and most of the inter-war period before closing in 1937. During the Second World War, part of the garrison functioned as the Army Technical School and the rest of the garrison was occupied by Royal Artillery units which moved out just prior to

D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D ...

in June 1944. After the war the south-west part of the garrison, known as Poperinghe

Barracks Barracks are usually a group of long buildings built to house military personnel or laborers. The English word originates from the 17th century via French and Italian from an old Spanish word "barraca" ("soldier's tent"), but today barracks are u ...

, became the depot of the

Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers The Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME ) is a corps of the British Army that maintains the equipment that the Army uses. The corps is described as the "British Army's Professional Engineers". History Prior to REME's for ...

('REME'). The barracks consisted of wooden huts mostly grouped in 'spiders', each spider being made up of six huts joined by corridors to central washing and utility rooms. After the Army Apprentices College at Hadrian's Camp closed in 1969, all REME apprentice training was concentrated at Arborfield. In July 2011 the then Defence Secretary, Dr Liam Fox, announced that RAF Lyneham would be the new site of the Defence Technical Training Change Programme (DTTCP) centre. This would coincide with the closures of Arborfield Garrison and the School of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering (SEME) at Bordon, with all posts at both bases moving to Lyneham in 2015. In 2016 planning permission was given to demolish many of the buildings and build a housing estate. The development will include 3,500 houses, retail units and a

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

Reading F.C.

In 2004, Reading F.C. moved their training facilities to Hogwood Park, located within the

References

External links

Article on Princess Marina College, ArborfieldArborfield Old Boys' Association
{{authority control Installations of the British Army Villages in Berkshire Borough of Wokingham Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers British Army Garrisons

History

Reading F.C.

See also

References

External links