Our easy-to-use website contains details and locations of places to visit around this area. Please select from:

	Places to Stay: Bed and Breakfast Hotels and Guest Houses Pubs with Accommodation Self Catering
	Places to Eat and Drink: Cafes, Coffee & Tea Shops Pubs serving Food Restaurants and Bistros
	Places of Interest: Places to Visit
	Gardens Centres: Garden Centres/Nurseries
	Specialist Shops: Antiques & Restoration Arts and Crafts Fashions Gifts Home and Garden Jewellery Food and Drink Shops

Newbury

This crossroads town has, for many years, dominated the rural area of West Berkshire. Prospering during the Middle Ages, and afterwards on the importance of the woollen industry, the town became famous as the Cloth Town. Among the various characters who made their money out of the weaving of the wool the best known is John Smallwood, always known as Jack of Newbury and the “richest clothier England ever beheld”. Asked to raise two horsemen and two footmen for Henry VIII’s campaign against the Scots, Jack raised 50 of each and led them himself. However, they only got as far as Stony Stratford in Buckinghamshire before news of the victory of Flodden reached them and they turned for home.

Evidence of the town’s wealth can be seen in the splendid ‘wool’ Church of St Nicholas, which was constructed between 1500 and 1532. Built on the site of a Norman church, no expense was spared – Jack of Newbury gave the money for the magnificent five-bayed nave. The church has seen much restoration work, particularly during the Victorian age, but the fine pulpit and elaborately decorated nave roof have survived.

After the Civil War, the town’s clothing industry declined. However, the 18th century saw the construction of turnpike roads and Newbury became a busy coaching stop on the road from London to Bath. The town further opened up to travellers and the needs of carriers with the completion of the Kennet and Avon Canal in 1810. Newbury Lock, built in 1796, was the first lock to be built along the canal and it is also the only one to have lever-operated ground paddles (the sluices that let in the water), which are known as Jack Cloughs.

Back in the centre of the town, in the Market Square, is the West Berkshire Museum, housed in two of the town’s most historic buildings, the 17th-century cloth hall and the adjacent 18th-century granary, a store once used by traders travelling the canal. The history of the canal is explained, and other exhibits include crafts and industries, the two Battles of Newbury (1643 and 1644) during the Civil War, the story of Greenham Common and local archaeology.

Those arriving in Newbury from the south will pass the Falkland Memorial, which has nothing to do with the 1980s conflict in the South Atlantic. It is in fact a memorial to Lord Falkland, who was killed at the first battle of Newbury. To the east of the town lies Newbury Racecourse, which stages top-quality flat and National Hunt racing throughout the year.