Holiday Brochures and Tourist Information for Berkshire
West Berkshire Holiday brochure
Only an hour’s drive from London, Bristol and Oxford you have to go a long way to beat West Berkshire for fine eateries, picturesque countryside and fascinating heritage.....
Berkshire occupies about 500 square miles in the heart of Southern England. Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire border it in the north, Wiltshire in the west and Hampshire and Surrey to the south and east. The name Berkshire derives from the great forest of birch trees which once grew here. Now the County is made up of rich agricultural land and booming towns and cities. The M4 motorway and the railway provide commuters from Slough, Maidenhead, Reading and other parts of the County with swift access to London.
Though much of it is densely populated, the leafy lanes of Berkshire, its pretty villages and traditional pubs, offer as enticing a prospect of the English countryside as you would find anywhere. A boat trip along the River Thames, which flows through the county between Reading to Windsor, offers visitors the most leisurely method of exploring some of the countys best scenery. Another way to do it is on foot, along the Ridgeway walking path, which once provided Britains ancient inhabitants with a fast track across the Berkshire Downs and the Chilterns.
Berkshire is often referred to as 'Royal Berkshire' because of its close links to the British Royal Family. These include Royal Ascot racecourse and Windsor Castle - the oldest continuously occupied Royal residence in Britain. Today Windsor is almost as famous for being the home of Legoland, a theme park with spectacular models made entirely from Lego bricks.