County town: Reading
Berkshire is one of the oldest English shires, established in the 9th century and centred on the royal estates of the West Saxon kings. It takes its name from Bearroc, an ancient forest.
Berkshire stretches from the Thames valley in the north to the chalk downlands of the Berkshire Downs in the south, encompassing the Vale of White Horse and its prehistoric monuments. Windsor Castle, the largest occupied castle in the world, has anchored the county's royal associations since the Norman Conquest. Reading Abbey, founded by Henry I in 1121, was one of the most powerful monasteries in medieval England. The county's fertile river meadows and chalk pastures made it prosperous through the medieval period, and its position between London and the west gave it enduring strategic importance.
Berkshire was surveyed in the Domesday Book of 1086, William the Conqueror's great census of England. The survey recorded 221 settlements in the county, with details of their lords, landholders, population, and resources.
Browse 221 Domesday settlements in BerkshireEngland's 39 historic counties, established between the 9th and 12th centuries, are the framework through which English local history, legal records, and landscape have been organised for a thousand years. Most survive today as ceremonial counties, their boundaries deeply embedded in place identity.
An Aubrey report for a specific location in Berkshire draws on historical maps, archaeological records, Domesday data and landscape history to tell the full story of any site in the county.
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