Bracknell is a town of about 50,000 people (1991) in the Bracknell Forest, in the English county of Berkshire. It lies about 6 miles (10 kilometres) to the east of Reading. It is in Bracknell Forest borough. It is about 9 miles south west of Windsor, with Windsor Great Park inbetween. It is between the M3 and M4 motorways, and the town has two train stations (Bracknell and Martins Heron) on the Reading to London Waterloo line, operated by South West Trains. The town has four secondary schools, The Garth Hill Technology College, Ranelagh School (a Church of England school), Easthampstead Park and Brakenhale.
Bracknell is a former new town developed after the Second World War from a small market town. Very little of the original town was left. The location was chosen over White Waltham, an alternative possibility, because the Bracknell site avoided encroaching on good quality agricultural land. The town expanded beyond the intended size into farmland to the south. The town centre is a 1960s design, and in need of major regeneration. The Borough Council is working in partnership with the Bracknell Regeneration Partnership (Legal and General and Schroders) to regenerate the town centre.
Bracknell's major industry in the first half of the century was the manufacture of bricks. The town was famous throughout the land for its high quality product. This is why, when Bracknell New Town was designed, it was decided to build it entirely out of concrete.
Famous visitors to Bracknell have included Sean Connery, Derek Nimmo, Siouxsie and the Banshees and Queen Victoria. The Sovereign once stopped at a Bracknell inn to change her horses. Although she never actually got out of the coach, left very quickly and never came back, Bracknell people are tremendously proud of their place in British history provided by this event, and still commemorate it today.
Modern Bracknell was designed during World War II by the infamous 'Section N' (Newtowns) of MI5. During the war, in order to confuse any invading enemy (i.e. Germans or Americans), road signs all around the UK were either removed, or pointed in different directions. This was a costly and complex exercise, however, and took many months to undo. Even to this day, some signs are still in their old wartime positions.
The most visible landmark in the town centre is Winchester House, formerly owned by 3M and informally known as the 3M building as it had the 3M logo in illuminated red letters in a prominent place at the top of the building. It is a twelve storey building which used to house the company's UK headquarters before being abandoned in 2004, and it can be seen from over a mile away.The structure of the town is intended to be a series of communities around the town centre where shops and services are located in a pedestrianised area within a ring road. The estates are known as Great Hollands, Bullbrook, Whitegrove (formerly Warfield Green, built in the late 1990s), Priestwood, Popeswood, Easthampstead, Wildridings, Harmanswater, Crown Wood, Birch Hill, Martin's Heron and Hanworth. Major expansion is again proposed to the west of the town (Peacock Farm) and a new neighbourhood on former Ministry of Defence land near the town centre.
