Newbury, Berkshire - Water Bridge over River Kennet - Friths postcard

Postcard
• Picture / Image:  Water Bridge over River Kennet, Newbury, Berkshire
• Publisher:  Friths series
• Postally used:  no
• Stamp:  n/a
• Postmark(s): n/a
• Sent to:  n/a
• Notes / condition: 

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Text from the free encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA may appear below to give a little background information (internal links may not  work) :

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Newbury /'nju?b?ri/ is a civil parish and the principal town in the west of the county of Berkshire in England. It is situated on the River Kennet and the Kennet and Avon Canal, and has a town centre containing many 17th century buildings. Newbury is best known for its racecourse. The adjoining countryside is notable for agriculture, racehorse training, Highclere Castle, ruined Donnington Castle and has the former USAF airbase at Greenham Common.

There was a Mesolithic settlement at Newbury. Artefacts were recovered from the Greenham Dairy Farm in 1963, and the Faraday Road site in 2002.^[2] Additional material was found in excavations along the route of the Newbury Bypass.^[3]

Newbury was founded late in the eleventh century following the Norman invasion as a new borough, hence its name. Although there are references to the borough that predate the Domesday Survey it is not mentioned by name in the survey. However, its existence within the manor of Ulvritone is evident from the massive rise in value of that manor at a time when most manors were worth less than in Saxon times. In 1086 the Domesday Book assesses the borough as having land for 12 ploughs, 2 mills, woodland for 25 pigs, 11 villeins (resident farmhands, unfree peasant who owed his lord labour services), 11 bordars (unfree peasants with less land than villans/villeins, and 51 enclosures (private parks) rendering 70s 7d.

Doubt has been cast over the existence of 'Newbury Castle', but the town did have Royal connections and was visited a number of times by King John and Henry III while hunting in the area.^[4]

Historically, the town's economic foundation was the cloth trade. This is reflected in the person of the 16th century cloth magnate, Jack of Newbury, the proprietor of what may well have been the first factory in England, and the later tale of the Newbury Coat. The latter was the outcome of a bet as to whether a gentleman's suit could be produced by the end of the day from wool taken from a sheep's back at the beginning.

Newbury was the site of two Civil War battles, the First Battle of Newbury (at Wash Common) in 1643 and the Second Battle of Newbury (at Speen) in 1644. The nearby Donnington Castle was reduced to a ruin in the aftermath of the second battle.

The disruption of trade during the Civil War followed a major collapse of the local cloth trade in the late 16th century leaving Newbury impoverished. The local economy was boosted in the 18th century by the rise of Bath as a popular destination for the wealthy escaping London's summer heat and associated stench. Newbury was roughly half way between London and Bath and an obvious stopping point in the two-day journey. Soon Newbury, in particular Speenhamland, was filled with coaching inns of ever increasing grandeur and size. One inn, the George & Pelican, was reputed to have stabling for 300 horses, and this was not the largest of the inns. A theatre was built to provide the travellers with entertainment featuring the major stars of the age.

In 1795 local magistrates, meeting at the George and Pelican Inn in Speenhamland, introduced the Speenhamland System which tied parish poor relief (welfare payments) to the cost of bread.

The opening of the Great Western Railway to the north killed the coaching trade from being approximately midway on the Bath Road from London – Newbury became something of a backwater market town with an economy based on agriculture until the arrival of the high tech industries that provide so much employment in the town today. When, in the 1980s, established telecommunications firm Racal decided to locate their newly formed Racal Vodafone division in the town it was a decision that increased this return to general economic prosperity, becoming Vodafone.

A large Royal Air Force station was established during the Second World War at Greenham Common on the edge of the town. In the 1950s, it became home to US Air Force bombers and tankers, for which it was equipped with the longest military runway in the United Kingdom. In the 1980s, it became one of only two USAF bases in the UK equipped with ground-launched nuclear-armed cruise missiles, causing it to become the site of protests by up to 40,000 protesters and the establishment of the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp. With the end of the Cold War, the base was closed, the runway was broken up for use as fill material in building the Newbury bypass, and much of the area restored to heathland.

Newbury is part of, and the administrative centre of, the district administered by the unitary authority of West Berkshire which has a 2011 population of 153,822, an approximately straight-line increase of 15,022 since 1991.^[5]

Newbury is also a civil parish, with parish council responsibilities undertaken by Newbury Town Council since 1997. Newbury Town Council currently has 23 councillors, representing seven wards of the town, currently: Brummel Grove, Clay Hill, Falkland, Northcroft, Pyle Hill, Victoria and St Johns. As of 2007, 12 of the councillors represent the Liberal Democrats and 11 represent the Conservative Party.^[6]

In Parliament, the town is in the Newbury constituency. Since the election of May 2005 this constituency has been represented by Richard Benyon, a Conservative.

Newbury is twinned with Braunfels in Germany (1963), Bagnols-sur-Cèze in France (1970),^[7] Eeklo in Belgium (1974) and Feltre in Italy (2003).

For European Parliament elections, from 1979 to 1984 Newbury was part of the Upper Thames constituency, from 1984 to 1994 it was part of the Wiltshire constituency and from 1994 to 1999 it was part of the Hampshire North and Oxford constituency. Since 1999 Newbury has formed part of the South East England constituency elected by a form of proportional representation.

type=real photographic (rp)

theme=topographical: british

sub-theme=england

county/ country=berkshire

number of items=single

period=1945 - present

postage condition=unposted