Berkeley (pronounced /berkli/) is a
town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England.
It lies in the Vale of Berkeley between the east
bank of the River Severn and the M5 motorway within
the Stroud administrative district. The town is
noted for Berkeley Castle where the imprisoned
Edward II was murdered.
History:
The town of Berkeley sits on an
outcrop of sandstone in the Vale of Berkeley and
overlooking the River Seven.
Evidence of Iron-Age and Roman
occupation have been found in and around the town;
during the Saxon period the town had its own Mint.
Chartered by King Edward I in the
thirteenth century the town grew to become a busy
port exporting all manner of foodstuffs along with
limestone, timber, coal and wool to the newly
discovered colonies.
Berkeley has been the site of
Christian worship for over 1000 years, once the site
of a Saxon Minster (a missionary church) and a
nunnery.
St.Mary's church has some fine
examples of 13th century stone work, there is a
Perpendicular mortuary chapel with some superb
monuments and a detached 18th century tower, the
churchyard has a number of notable tombs including
that of Dicky Pearce the last Court Jester who died
whilst performing at Berkeley Castle! The town is
dominated by Berkeley Castle built in 1117 but now
mostly fourteenth century having been remodelled in
the 1350`s.
The castle has been in the hands of
the Berkeley family for over 900 years and has seen
many historic events, the murder of King Edward II
in 1327 perhaps the most infamous. The castle houses
many fine collections of ceramics, paintings and
silverware acquired by the family over the
generations as well as national treasures such as
Sir Francis Drake's cabin chest; the castle's
archive has over 20000 documents dating back to the
early 12th century. The town's most famous son is
Edward Jenner (1749-1823), the discoverer of
immunology and vaccination as a cure for disease,
his former home is now the Jenner which houses not
only exhibits of Jenner's life but into immunology
as a whole. He is buried in St.Marys church.
Geography:
Berkeley is located mid-way between Bristol and
Gloucester. It is built on a small hill in the Vale
of Berkeley. The town is on the Little Avon River,
which flows into the Severn at Berkeley Pill. The
Little Avon was tidal, and so navigable, for some
distance inland (as far as Berkeley itself and the
Sea Mills at Ham) until a 'tidal reservoir' was
implemented at Berkeley Pill in the late 1960s.
History:
Berkeley was first recorded in 824 as Berclea, from
the Old English for "birch-tree wood or clearing"
Berkeley was a significant place in medieval times.
It was a port and market-town, and the meeting place
of the hundred of Berkeley. The parish of Berkeley
was the largest in Gloucestershire[2]. The parish
included the tithings of Alkington, Breadstone, Ham,
Hamfellow and Hinton, and the chapelry of Stone,
which became a separate parish in 1797. Hinton
became a separate civil parish, and the separate
ecclesiastical parish of Sharpness with Purton[3],
in the 20th century.
Berkeley was also the site of Berkeley nuclear power
station, which has two Magnox nuclear reactors. This
power station, the first commercial British reactor
to enter operation, has since been decommissioned
and all that remains are the two reactors encased in
concrete. The administrative centre adjacent to the
station is still active however - the centre was
founded as Berkeley Nuclear Laboratories in the
early 1960s and was one of the three principal
research laboratories of the CEGB.
Transport:
Just north of Berkeley lies the port of Sharpness,
one of the most inland in Britain. The Gloucester &
Sharpness Canal (originally known as the Gloucester
& Berkeley canal) starts here.
From 1876 to 1964 the town had a railway station,
originally on a branch from a junction at Berkeley
Road on the Bristol and Gloucester Railway. From
1879 the branch became a through-route to Lydney
when the Severn Railway Bridge was opened. However,
the bridge was damaged beyond repair by a ship
collision in 1960.
Education:
The local secondary school is in Wanswell, Berkeley
is Vale of Berkeley College. Berkeley also has a
small primary school.
Notable People:
Berkeley was the birthplace of Edward Jenner, the
originator of vaccination. After studying medicine
in London he returned home to work as the local
doctor, and in 1796, realising that Milk Maids
didn't catch smallpox, he performed a pioneering
experiment by inoculating his gardener's son with
cowpox, thus preventing infection from smallpox. The
Chantry, Jenner's home in Berkeley for 38 years, is
now The Edward Jenner Museum. John Fitzhardinge Paul
Butler VC was also born here.
