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Wokingham is a market town and civil parish in Berkshire in South East England about 33 mi (53.1 km) west of central London. It is about 7 mi (11.3 km) east-southeast of Reading and 3 mi (4.8 km) west of Bracknell. It spans an area of 557 acre (0.9 sqmi) and, according to the 2001 census, has a population of 30,403. It is the seat of the Borough of Wokingham. Before 1844, the north of the parish of Wokingham was part of a detached portion, or exclave, of the county of Wiltshire, the border of which is some 30 mi (0 sqmi) to the west. The Counties (Detached Parts) Act of that year resulted in its transfer to the county of Berkshire. Wokingham was a borough before the 1974 reorganisation of local government, when it merged with Wokingham Rural District to form the new Wokingham District. What had been Wokingham Borough became Wokingham Town, but retained its Mayor. The District Council applied for borough status, which was granted and came into force on 9 March 2007. As of this date, the District (which stretches from the Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire borders in the north to the Hampshire border in the southwest) has also been able to elect a Mayor. The formerly important industry of brick-making has given way to software development, light engineering and service industries. In 2007 Halifax Estate Agents ranked the Borough of Wokingham as the number one place to live in the United Kingdom. |