The Borough of Wokingham is a local government district 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, Barkham,

Charvil Charvil is a village and civil parish in Berkshire, England. The village is east of the centre of Reading on the A4 road to Maidenhead, between Sonning and Twyford. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 3,042. The area was mos ...

, Earley, Finchampstead, Hurst,

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,

Ruscombe Ruscombe is a village and civil parish, east of Twyford in the Borough of Wokingham in Berkshire, England. History Reports from the late 1800s provided summaries of the status of the village; in 1876, the population was 200 and that increased ...

Shinfield Shinfield is a village and civil parish in the English county of Berkshire, just south of Reading. It contains and is administered by the unitary authority of Wokingham District. Shinfield Park is the northern part of the parish, becoming ph ...

, Twyford, Wargrave, Three Mile Cross, Winnersh, 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 The Local Government Act 1972 (c. 70) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974. It was one of the most significant Acts of Parliament to be passed by the Heath Gov ...

, by the merger of the Municipal Borough of Wokingham and Wokingham Rural District. It is governed by

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

(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 Local Government Commission for England was the body responsible for reviewing the structure of local government in England from 1992 to 2002. It was established under the Local Government Act 1992, replacing the Local Government Boundary Co ...

. The district was granted

borough status Borough status is granted by royal charter to local government districts in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The status is purely honorary, and does not give any additional powers to the council or inhabitants of the district. In Scotland, ...

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 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 '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

s, two

special school Special education (known as special-needs education, aided education, exceptional education, alternative provision, exceptional student education, special ed., SDC, or SPED) is the practice of educating students in a way that accommodates th ...

s 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.

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 College ...

is the main further and

adult education Adult education, distinct from child education, is a practice in which adults engage in systematic and sustained self-educating activities in order to gain new forms of knowledge, skills, attitudes, or values. Merriam, Sharan B. & Brockett, Ral ...

provider for the borough, just outside the borough its headquarters is in

Bracknell Bracknell () is a large town and civil parish in Berkshire, England, the westernmost area within the Greater London Urban Area and the administrative centre of the Borough of Bracknell Forest. It lies to the east of Reading, south of Maiden ...

. 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 compl ...

provider is the main Whiteknights Park 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 Loddon may refer to: *Loddon, Norfolk in England, UK *Shire of Loddon in Victoria, Australia (since 1995) **Bridgewater On Loddon, Victoria in Australia *River Loddon, flows into the River Thames near Reading * Loddon River, flows north from south o ...

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 through a highly coniferous Swinley Forest which sits in geology on the naturally acidic, Bagshot Formation. 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 London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major se ...

Freedom of the Borough

The following people and military units have received the Freedom of the Borough 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 ...

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

Military Units

* 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 ...

: 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