There was a
Mesolithic settlement at Newbury. Artefacts were recovered from the
Greenham Dairy Farm in 1963, and the Faraday Road site in 2002. Additional material was found in excavations along the route of the
Newbury Bypass. Newbury was founded late in the 11th century following the
Norman conquest as a new
borough, hence its name. Although there are references to the borough that predate the
Domesday Book 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. The first reference to a bridge on the site of the current
Newbury Bridge is an account of its reconstruction in the
14th Century. In 1312, King
Edward II directed that its bridge should be kept in good order. By 1623, when the bridge collapsed, it was recorded as being built of wood, being in length and in width, and having shops on it. The bridge was presumably rebuilt, as it is recorded that in 1644 a guard was placed on the bridge. 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. The local legend was later immortalized in a humorous novel by
Elizabethan writer
Thomas Deloney. Newbury was the site of two battles during the
English Civil War, 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, compounded by a collapse of the local cloth trade in the late 16th century, left 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 halfway between London and Bath and an obvious stopping point in the two-day journey. Soon Newbury, and the
Speenhamland area in particular, was filled with coaching inns of ever increasing grandeur and size. One inn, the George & Pelican, was reputed to have stabling for 300 horses. 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. In 1723, the Kennet Navigation made the River Kennet navigable downstream from Newbury to the
River Thames in Reading. Some 70 years later, in 1794, work started on the centre section of the
Kennet and Avon Canal, which would extend the Kennet Navigation to
Bath, thus providing a through water route between London and
Bristol via Newbury. This route was finally completed in 1810. The opening of the
Great Western Railway from London to Bath in 1841 effectively killed the
canal and coaching trades, and as the line passed some to the north it brought no advantage to the town. had to wait until 1847 to join the railway network, with the opening of the
Berks and Hants Railway branch line from to via Newbury, and until 1906 to be on a main line, with the opening of the
Reading-Taunton line. As a result, Newbury became something of a backwater market town, with an economy based largely on agriculture and
horse-racing. The last use of the
stocks in Newbury, and probably the UK, was on 11 June 1872 when Mark Tuck was placed in them for 4 hours. In the 1980s, British electronics firm
Racal decided to locate their newly formed telecommunications company Racal Vodafone, later
Vodafone UK, in the town. In the subsequent decades Newbury became something of a regional centre for the high-tech industries, and the town has since enjoyed a return to general economic prosperity.
Greenham Common 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, much of it used as fill material in building the
Newbury bypass, and the area was restored to
heathland. This project then saw Greenham and
Crookham commons reopened to the public in 2000.
1943 bombing On 10 February 1943, two German bombers,
Dornier Do 217s from ll/KG40 Bomber unit in Holland, on a nuisance raid, followed the
Great Western Railway line running west from London. One of the bombers headed towards Reading while the other followed the line all the way to Newbury. At 4:43pm the bomber dropped eight high-explosive bombs over the town. There had been no time for a warning siren. The Senior Council School, St. Bartholomew's Almshouses, St. John's Church (just the altar was left standing) and Southampton Terrace were all destroyed, and another 265 dwellings were damaged, many of which had to be demolished. St John's Church was completely rebuilt after the war. 15 people were killed and a further 41 people were injured, 25 seriously. == Government ==