Berkshire

:For other places named Berkshire, see: Berkshire (disambiguation)

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Berkshire (IPA: or ; sometimes abbreviated to Berks) is a county in the south of England, to the west of London and also bordering on Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Greater London, Surrey, Wiltshire and Hampshire.

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It is also known as Royal Berkshire — this title being made official with a grant in the 1930s.

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The county is one of the oldest in England, being reliably dated back to the setting of the traditional county borders by King Alfred the Great of Wessex. Following the reorganisation of local government in 1974, Abingdon (its traditional county town) and the Vale of the White Horse were transferred to Oxfordshire, Slough was added from Buckinghamshire, and Reading became the county town. On April 1, 1998 the county council was abolished and the districts became unitary authorities.

IPA: REDIRECT International Phonetic Alphabet...

County: Originally, in continental Europe, a county was the land under the jurisdiction of a count. Counts are called "earls" in post-Celtic Great Britain and Ireland - the term is from Old Norse jarl and was introduced by the Vikings - but there is no correlation between "county" and "earldom." Rather, t...

England: :For an explanation of often confusing terms like England, (Great) Britain and United Kingdom see British Isles (terminology)....

Berkshire related Images and Photos (experimental)

View of Lambourn Berkshire

Monument Mountain from the Berkshire Meadows circa 1875