Maidenhead

Maidenhead
Maidenhead
Population	Expression error: "58,848 (2001)" must be numeric
OS grid reference	SU889811
District	Windsor and Maidenhead;
Region	South East;
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	MAIDENHEAD
Postcode district	SL6
Dialling code	01628
UK Parliament	Maidenhead;
	List of places UK England

Maidenhead is a town in the English county of Berkshire. It lies on the River Thames and is situated 25.7 miles (41.3 km) west of Charing Cross in London.

Maidenhead urban area

The town is part of the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead. It has a population of around 60,000. The Maidenhead urban area includes urban and suburban regions within the bounds of the town, called Maidenhead Court, North Town, Furze Platt, Pinkneys Green, Highway, Tittle Row, Boyn Hill, Fishery and Bray Wick; as well as suburbs in surrounding civil parishes: Cox Green and Altwood in Cox Green parish, Woodlands Park in White Waltham parish, and Holyport and part of Bray Wick in Bray parish. Bray village itself is still just about detached.

Character

Maidenhead is in England's 'Silicon Corridor' along the M4 motorway west of London. Many residents commute to work in London, or the towns of Slough and Reading.

Maidenhead's industries include: computer software, plastics, pharmaceuticals, printing and telecommunications. The town is also a boating centre. Maidenhead was home to the conference that agreed upon the Maidenhead Locator System standard.

Amenities

Research by the New Economics Foundation rated Maidenhead as an example of a clone town. [1] It offers reasonable High Street shopping facilities including Nicholson's Centre, a shopping centre on the site of Nicholson's brewery. The town also offers an 8-screen Odeon multiplex cinema, a leisure centre (with swimming pool), a bowling alley and Norden Farm Centre for the Arts (an arts centre including a theatre).

History

File:Maidenheadmap1945.jpg

A map of Maidenhead from 1945

Maidenhead's name, strictly speaking refers to the busy riverside area where the 'New wharf' or 'Maiden Hythe' was built, perhaps as early as Saxon times. It has been suggested that the nearby Great Hill of Taplow was called the 'Mai Dun' by the Iron Age Brythons. The area of the town centre was originally known as 'South Ellington' and is recorded in the Domesday Book as Ellington in the hundred of Beynhurst.

In 1280, a bridge was erected across the river to replace the ferry and the Great Western Road was diverted in order to make use of it. This led to the growth of Maidenhead: a stopping point for coaches on the journeys between London and Bath and the High Street became populated with inns. The current Maidenhead Bridge, a local landmark, dates from 1777 and was built at a cost of £19,000.

King Charles I met his children for the last time before his execution in 1649 at the Greyhound Inn, which is now a branch of the NatWest Bank. A plaque commemorates their meeting.

File:MCB2006.jpg

Maidenhead Citadel Band of the Salvation Army still takes an active role in the life of the town

A significant river resort in the 19th century, Maidenhead was notably ridiculed in Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome:

Maidenhead itself is too snobby to be pleasant. It is the haunt of the river swell and his overdressed female companion. It is the town of showy hotels, patronised chiefly by dudes and ballet girls. When these mere distractions are overlooked however, one can notice how the residence porlume any wellbeing before eroding any left parchment.

With the railways beginning to expand in the mid-19th century, the High Street began to change again. Muddy roads were replaced and public services were installed — modern Maidenhead appeared. It became its own entity in 1894, being split from the civil parishes of both Bray and Cookham.

Maidenhead Citadel Corps of the Salvation Army was first opened in the Town in the mid 1880s. Maidenhead Citadel Band was soon founded in 1886 by Bandmaster William Thomas who later became Mayor of the Town.

The town's football team, Maidenhead United, play at York Road, which is the oldest football ground in the world continuously used by the same team.

Transport

The (Brunel-built) Great Western Railway passes through the town, calling at Maidenhead railway station and offering links to London and stations towards Bristol. It passes over Brunel's Maidenhead Railway Bridge (known locally as the Sounding Arch), famous for its flat brick arches. Maidenhead Station is the beginning of the branch line from Maidenhead to Marlow, Buckinghamshire, and is one of the proposed termini for the London Crossrail scheme.

Currently, rail services are provided by First Great Western who took over the Thames Trains franchise in 2003/4.

The A4 runs through the town and crosses the Thames over Maidenhead Bridge. The town lies adjacent to junction 8/9 on the M4 motorway (accessed via the A404(M) and A308(M)). The M4 and M40 are linked by the A404(M)/ A404 which skirts the western side of Maidenhead.

The River Thames runs half a mile to the east of the town centre, and the Jubilee River flood defence scheme begins at Maidenhead. York Stream runs through the town centre but is often dry, possibly due to the effects of the Jubilee River.

Institutions

The local newspaper is The Maidenhead Advertiser.

Maidenhead has been the home of Maidenhead Citadel Band of The Salvation Army since 1886.

Schools

Maidenhead Grammar School was converted into a (boys) comprehensive school in the 1970s, and renamed Desborough School. Maidenhead High School, similarly, became Newlands Girls' School. To the western side of the town is Altwood C of E Secondary School and also Cox Green Secondary School. Maidenhead is also home to St Piran's School, Claires Court School (boys), The College (girls), Highfield (girls) and Ridgeway private prep schools; as well as Furze Platt School which caters for junior to college level students; Furze Platt Infant School for younger children and Courthouse Junior School. There is also a primary catholic school situated near Altwood C of E Secondary School called St Edmund Campion Primary School.

Parliamentary constituency

The current MP for the Maidenhead Constituency is Theresa May (Conservative). The mayor is Councillor Margaret Cubley (Liberal Democrat).

Twin towns

Windsor and Maidenhead are twinned with St Cloud in France, Bad Godesberg and Goslar in Germany, Frascati in Italy and Kortrijk in Belgium. Each year youths from the four towns and Berlin Steglitz (twinned with Bad Godesberg) compete against one another in sports such as volleyball, football, athletics and swimming in the Twin Towns Sports Competition, hosted in turn by each of the five towns. In Maidenhead town centre there are roads named after the twin towns in Germany, Italy and France (Bad Godesberg Way, Frascati Way and St Clouds Way).

Famous residents

A number of notable figures can be counted amongst Maidenhead's current and former residents. The essayist and novelist Nick Hornby was educated at Maidenhead Grammar School (now Desborough School), as were children's television presenter and radio show host Toby Anstis, author and broadcaster John O'Farrell and the athlete Mark Richardson.

Maidenhead's riverside location has drawn many celebrities to move here, including artist and television presenter Rolf Harris, journalist and television presenter Michael Parkinson, and Red Dwarf actor Chris Barrie. All five Spice Girls are known to have shared a house in Maidenhead for a year preceding their rise to stardom, and Maidenhead's Redroofs Stage School has produced Hollywood star Kate Winslet.

Environs

Immediately surrounding Maidenhead are:

to the east: on the opposite side of the river, the village of Taplow. A few miles further on is Slough.
to the north: the Cookhams (Cookham Village, Cookham Rise & Cookham Dean). Also in this area is the wealthy area of Pinkneys Green. These lie south of the Berkshire-Buckinghamshire border, which is formed by the River Thames (which then bends southwards to form the Maidenhead-Taplow border)
to the south: the village of Holyport. Continuing by road to the South-East leads to the town of Windsor.

External links