The Borough of Wokingham is a

local government district The districts of England (also known as local authority districts or local government districts to distinguish from unofficial city districts) are a level of subnational division of England used for the purposes of local government. As the st ...

in Berkshire, United Kingdom. It is named after its main town,

Wokingham Wokingham is a market town in Berkshire, England, west of London, southeast of Reading, north of Camberley and west of Bracknell. History Wokingham means 'Wocca's people's home'. Wocca was apparently a Saxon chieftain who may ...

. Other places in the district include

Arborfield Arborfield is a village on the A327 road in Berkshire about south-east of Reading, about west of Wokingham. It lies in the civil parish of Arborfield and Newland in the Borough of Wokingham, about west of its sister village of Arborfield Cr ...

Barkham Barkham is a village and civil parish in the borough of Wokingham in Berkshire, England, located around southwest of the town of Wokingham. Geography The old part of Barkham is the small settlement by the parish church and is close to Barkha ...

, Charvil,

Earley Earley is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Wokingham, Berkshire, England. Along with the neighbouring town of Woodley, the Office for National Statistics places Earley within the Reading/Wokingham Urban Area; for the purposes of loca ...

Finchampstead Finchampstead is a village and civil parish in the Wokingham Borough in the shire of Berkshire, England. Its northern extremity is south of Wokingham, west of Bracknell, south-east of Reading, and west of Central London. It is an affluent a ...

Hurst Hurst may refer to: Places England * Hurst, Berkshire, a village * Hurst, North Yorkshire, a hamlet * Hurst, a settlement within the village of Martock, Somerset * Hurst, West Sussex, a hamlet * Hurst Spit, a shingle spit in Hampshire ** Hur ...

Sonning Sonning is a village and civil parish in Berkshire, England, on the River Thames, east of Reading. The village was described by Jerome K. Jerome in his book '' Three Men in a Boat'' as "the most fairy-like little nook on the whole river". Geo ...

Remenham Remenham is a village and civil parish on the Berkshire bank of the River Thames opposite Henley-on-Thames in southern England. It is particularly well known for the steep approach, known as Remenham Hill or White Hill (due to the chalky nature ...

, Ruscombe, Shinfield, Twyford,

Wargrave Wargrave () is a historic village and civil parish in Berkshire, England. The village is primarily on the River Thames but also along the confluence of the River Loddon and lies on the border with southern Oxfordshire. The village has many old ...

, Three Mile Cross,

Winnersh Winnersh is a large suburban village and civil parish in the borough of Wokingham in Berkshire, England. The village is located around northwest of Wokingham town centre and around southeast of central Reading. It is roughly bounded by the ...

, Spencers Wood and Woodley. The population of Wokingham is 177,500 according to 2021 census.

History

The district was formed on 1 April 1974 as Wokingham District, under the Local Government Act 1972, by the merger of the Municipal Borough of Wokingham and

Wokingham Rural District Wokingham Rural District was a rural district in the county of Berkshire, England. It was created in 1894. It was named after and administered from Wokingham Wokingham is a market town in Berkshire, England, west of London, southea ...

. It is governed by Wokingham Borough Council (formerly Wokingham District Council), which has been a

unitary authority A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governmen ...

since 1 April 1998, following the abolition of Berkshire County Council under the Banham Review. The district was granted borough status in 2007, following a petition to the Queen.

Government

The local authority is Wokingham Borough Council. It is a unitary authority, being a district council (but designated a borough council) also exercising the functions of a county council.

Education

State-funded schools in the Borough of Wokingham include nine secondary schools, two special schools and numerous

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...

s. There are also a number of

independent schools An independent school is independent in its finances and governance. Also known as private schools, non-governmental, privately funded, or non-state schools, they are not administered by local, state or national governments. In British Eng ...

Bracknell and Wokingham College Bracknell & Wokingham College is a general college of further education, offering courses for school leavers, adults and employers training their staff, and based in Bracknell, Berkshire, England. The college became Bracknell & Wokingham Colleg ...

is the main

further Further or Furthur may refer to: * ''Furthur'' (bus), the Merry Pranksters' psychedelic bus * Further (band), a 1990s American indie rock band * Furthur (band), a band formed in 2009 by Bob Weir and Phil Lesh * ''Further'' (The Chemical Brothers a ...

and adult education provider for the borough, just outside the borough its headquarters is in Bracknell. The Borough's closest

higher education Higher education is tertiary education leading to award of an academic degree. Higher education, also called post-secondary education, third-level or tertiary education, is an optional final stage of formal learning that occurs after comple ...

provider is the main

Whiteknights Park Whiteknights Park, or the Whiteknights Campus of the University of Reading, is the principal campus of that university. The park covers the area of the manor of Earley Whiteknights, also known as Earley St Nicholas and Earley Regis. Whit ...

campus of the

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as University College, Reading, a University of Oxford extension college. The institution received the power to grant its own degrees in 192 ...

immediately north-west, most of which in fact falls within the Wokingham Borough boundary.

Geography

Elevations range between 30 and 70 metres above sea level except higher in about 5% of the borough. The highest is an escarpment containing parts of the rural and wooded northern area, the hinterland of three Thames-side villages, facing the 30-mile long Chilterns AONB, west and north. A geological part of that range of hills, Bowsey Hill reaches 137m, in Wargrave civil parish, from the river. Approximately a right-angled triangle, the borough is long north to south. It uses as its longest edge the course of the Loddon and

Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...

along its north-west, with a similarly salient-containing eastern boundary and an almost straight southern boundary. Clockwise the boundaries are approximately 10, 8 and 5 miles on a direct path from point to point. The southern boundary is approximately the

Roman road from London to Bath The Roman road from Silchester to Bath connected Calleva Atrebatum (Silchester) with Aquae Sulis (Bath, Somerset, Bath) via Spinae (Speen, Berkshire, Speen), Cunetio (near Marlborough, Wiltshire, Marlborough) and Verlucio (near Sandy Lane, Wilts ...

through a highly coniferous

Swinley Forest Swinley Forest is a large expanse of Crown Estate woodland managed by Forestry England mainly within the civil parishes of Windlesham in Surrey and Winkfield and Crowthorne in Berkshire, England. Coverage Situated to the south-west of Winds ...

which sits in geology on the naturally acidic,

Bagshot Formation In geology, the Bagshot Beds are a series of sands and clays of shallow-water origin, some being fresh-water, some marine. They belong to the upper Eocene formation of the London and Hampshire basins, in England and derive their name from Bagsh ...

. The town in the district is Wokingham. The villages are Arborfield, Barkham, Charvil, Earley, Finchampstead, Hurst, Sonning, Remenham, Ruscombe, Shinfield, Twyford, Wargrave, Three Mile Cross, Winnersh, Spencers Wood and Woodley. Two villages have a wide range of small retail and visitor facilities: Wargrave and Twyford. In major employment areas of trading and manufacturing Winnersh and Finchampstead are prominent. The village of Crowthorne is shared between Wokingham and the neighbouring borough of Bracknell Forest.

Home ownership

The borough has the highest proportion of home ownership of the six local authorities in Berkshire: combining the social (housing association and local authority provided) and private (private landlord) rented sectors, Slough's returns recorded in 2011 that its rented sector comprised 46% of its housing, whereas 18% of Wokingham's residents rented their homes. Excluding lower-tier districts, Central Government has classified Wokingham as the least needy Local Authority. Government funding is about £120 per head per year. This is the lowest among the combined category of county councils and unitary authorities, the basis on which it is overall assessed, and compares with over £1000 per head in others such as the London Borough of Hackney.

Freedom of the Borough

The following people and military units have received the

Freedom of the Borough The Freedom of the City (or Borough in some parts of the UK) is an honour bestowed by a municipality upon a valued member of the community, or upon a visiting celebrity or dignitary. Arising from the medieval practice of granting respected ...

of Wokingham.

Individuals

Alderman An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members t ...

Stanley Leonard Bowyer: 30 January 1973. * Mr. Leonard Goddard Smalley: 30 January 1973.

Military Units

* The Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers: 21 October 1978.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wokingham, Borough of Unitary authority districts of England Districts of Berkshire Local authorities adjoining the River Thames Boroughs in England