Burghfield
| Burghfield | |
|---|---|
 The Rising Sun, Burghfield Common, in 2005 |
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 Burghfield
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| Burghfield shown within Berkshire | |
| Area | 17.11 km2 (6.61 sq mi) |
| Population | 5,955 (2011 census) |
| • Density | 348/km2 (900/sq mi) |
| OS grid reference | SU6668 |
| Civil parish |
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| Unitary authority | |
| Ceremonial county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Reading |
| Postcode district | RG7 |
| Dialling code | 0118 |
| Police | Thames Valley |
| Fire | Royal Berkshire |
| Ambulance | South Central |
| EU Parliament | South East England |
| UK Parliament | |
Burghfield /ˈbɜːr.fiːld/ is a village and large civil parish in West Berkshire, England, with a boundary with Reading. Burghfield can trace its history back to before the Domesday book, and was once home to three manors: Burghfield Regis, Burghfield Abbas and Sheffield (or Soefeld). Since the 1980s the population of Burghfield has nearly doubled with the construction of many new housing estates, dependent for its employment (that of commuters) on, for instance, Reading, Newbury and Basingstoke and M4 corridor which bisects the edge of the area.
Most of the formerly sparsely inhabited fields of the hamlet or locality of Pingewood, in the north of the parish, are divided by the M4 motorway and have been converted after gravel extraction in the mid to late 20th century into lakes and their shores mostly used for water sports, fishing, and other leisure activities. They are also a habitat for migrating geese, water fowl and other wildlife. A few higher pits/quarries in this area have been drained, clay-lined and used as landfill.
Burghfield has many amenities — the majority are sports clubs and facilities, including a leisure centre, educational or religious.
A Burh is an Old English name for a fortified town or other defended site, (e.g., at Burgh Castle), sometimes centred upon a hill fort though always intended as a place of permanent settlement, its origin was in military defence; "it represented only a stage, though a vitally important one, in the evolution of the medieval English borough and of the medieval town", H. R. Loyn asserted. The boundaries of ancient burhs can often still be traced to modern urban borough limits. Most of these were founded by Alfred the Great in a consciously planned policy that was continued under his son Edward the Elder and his daughter, Æthelflaed, "Lady of the Mercians" and her husband Æthelred, Ealdorman of Mercia; the Mercian Register tells of the building of ten burhs by Aethelflaed, some as important as Tamworth and Stafford, others now unidentifiable. Some were based on pre-existing Roman structures, some newly built, though some may have been built later. Athelstan granted these burhs the right to mint coinage, and in the tenth and eleventh centuries the firm rule was that no coin was to be struck outside a burh.
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Wikipedia