Bracknell

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Bracknell is a New Town in Berkshire not far from Reading. It has a population of 106,000, originally envisaged a quarter of that size. Until recently it was the location of the Met Office (now in Devon), and it has a dry ski slope near Binfield and three publicly sponsored leisure centres, one of which is a children's water world attraction. It also has the Lookout Adventure Centre in Swinley Forest to the south. Much of the pedestrianised high street dates from the 1960s and is now partially redesigned.
The town redeveloped most of the old villages of Easthampstead, Bracknell and the hamlet of Ramslade. Easthampstead Park was a favoured Royal hunting lodge in Windsor Forest and Catherine of Aragon was banished there until her divorce was finalised. It was later the home of the Trumbulls who were patrons of Alexander Pope from Binfield.

Bracknell was designated a new town in 1949. The site was originally a village in the civil parish of Warfield in Easthampstead Rural District. Very little of the original Bracknell is left. The location was chosen over White Waltham (not sitting high on the peat and light sandstone hence quite infertile Bagshot formation to all but pineferous trees which geologically appears intermittently across Bracknell hence its name which is a combination of the accurate descriptors of one part of its centre: 'bracken' and 'knoll'). The new town retains good quality agricultural land to the north and forest to the south. It is served as a major stop on the Waterloo to Reading line and discussions are being had with Network Rail to decrease the number of obligatory stops in respect of some services in the 2010s. The town has expanded way beyond its intended size into farmland to the south. Major expansion was completed 2011 on Peacock Farm and a new neighbourhood on a former RAF Staff College near the town centre is planned.