Berkshire County Council

Elected county councils were created in 1889 under the Local Government Act 1888, taking over many administrative functions that had previously been performed by unelected magistrates at the quarter sessions.^[1] The areas covered by the new county councils were called administrative counties. These differed from the historic counties by excluding any boroughs considered large enough to provide their own county-level functions, known as county boroughs, and by adjusting the boundaries such that any urban sanitary districts which straddled county boundaries were placed entirely in one administrative county. In Berkshire's case, Reading was made a county borough, and the urban sanitary districts of Abingdon and Oxford had straddled the county boundary prior to 1889; Abingdon was placed entirely in Berkshire and Oxford was placed entirely in Oxfordshire.^[2]

The first elections were held in January 1889. After some provisional meetings, the council formally came into being on 1 April 1889. On that day it held its first official meeting at Reading Assizes Court, the county's main courthouse, which had been completed in 1861 and also served as the meeting place for the quarter sessions which preceded the county council.^[3] The first chairman of the council was William George Mount, who was also the Conservative Member of Parliament for Newbury and the chairman of the quarter sessions.^[4]

In 1957 the council was given official permission from Elizabeth II to describe the county as the "Royal County of Berkshire".^[5] After that it styled itself the "County Council of the Royal County of Berkshire" in official notices, although the name "Berkshire County Council" continued to be commonly used in the media.^[6]

Berkshire County Council established its meeting place in the Assize Courts on The Forbury in Reading.^[16] As the council's responsibilities grew, there was a need for more office space. In 1911 the council built itself a dedicated office building called Shire Hall immediately west of the Assizes Courts. Council meetings continued to be held at the Assizes Courts.^[16]

In 1981, the council left Shire Hall and moved to bigger premises at a new Shire Hall at Shinfield Park, on the southern outskirts of Reading, but just outside the borough boundaries in the neighbouring parish of Shinfield.^[17] The new building cost an estimated £27.5 million.^[18]

Elections were held to Berkshire County Council every three years (except during the two world wars) until 1974,^[19] changing to every four years after the 1974 reforms. The last full election took place in 1993.^[20]

Political control of the county council from the reforms of 1974 until its abolition in 1998 was as follows:^[21][22]

Most councillors stood as independent candidates prior to 1974, and party affiliations were not given on ballot papers until 1970. At the 1946 election, a year after the Labour victory in the 1945 general election, Labour won 17 seats. Despite this win, Labour were still a minority and party politics did not meaningfully come into play on the county council until after the 1974 reforms.^[23]

The council was then led by the Conservatives until 1992, when a Liberal Democrat and Labour coalition took control. The same coalition continued following the 1993 elections, but the coalition fractured in 1996. A Liberal Democrat minority administration then ran the council with informal support from the Conservatives until the council's abolition in 1998.^[24][25][12]

At first, the chairman was also the council's political leader. After the 1974 reforms, the separate position of leader of the council was created and the chairman became a more ceremonial position.

The College of Arms granted Berkshire County Council a coat of arms on 18 July 1947, comprising a blue shield with two golden lions, derived from arms used by Norman kings and associated with Reading Abbey, with an embattled border representing the county's castles, of which Windsor Castle is the most prominent. Above the shield was a crest of a stag and oak tree, based on the badge of the old Royal Berkshire Militia; there is a tradition that a banner with a stag and oak was carried by the men of Berkshire at the Battle of Agincourt. The stag and oak are assumed to represent the county's forests and the popularity of hunting in the area amongst Saxon and Norman kings. A subsequent grant of 7 April 1961 supplemented the arms with supporters, being a red lion and white horse, and the colour of the stag was changed from white to gold. The red lion carries a Tudor rose as a symbol of the county's royal connections. The white horse represents the Uffington White Horse, and carries a symbol known in heraldry as a "pile", being a punning reference to the atomic pile at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell.^[7]

The official blazon (heraldic description) of the coat of arms after the 1961 changes was:^[7]

• Arms: Azure two Lions passant guardant in pale Or a Bordure embattled Ermine.
• Crest: On a Wreath of the Colours upon a Mount Vert a Stag at gaze Or in front of an Oak Tree fructed proper.
• Supporters: On the dexter side a Lion Gules gorged with an ancient Crown Or and charged on the shoulder with a Tudor Rose proper and on the sinister side a Horse Argent gorged with a like Crown pendent therefrom a Bezant charged with a Pile Sable.

After the 1974 changes to the county council's area, two of the places referenced in the coat of arms, Uffington and Harwell, were both in Oxfordshire. A slightly modified version of the arms was therefore drawn up, replacing the white horse supporter with a black horse to represent the county's associations with horse racing, notably at Ascot and Newbury. The black horse carries a six-pointed star representing the six districts of the post-1974 county and Slough's role in the history of astronomy as the location of William and Caroline Herschel's observatory in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.^[47]

The blazon after the 1974 changes was:^[7]

• Arms: Azure two Lions passant guardant in pale each crowned with an ancient Crown Or within a Bordure embattled Ermine.
• Crest On a Wreath of the Colours upon a Mount Vert within a Mural Crown Ermine a Stag at gaze Or in front of a hollow Oak Tree leaved and fructed proper.
• Supporters On the dexter side a Lion Gules gorged with an ancient Crown Or charged on the shoulder with a Tudor Rose proper and on the sinister side a Horse Sable gorged with a like crown pendant therefrom a Mullet of six points Gold.

The coat of arms belonged to the county council as an organisation rather than to the county itself. As such, no organisation has had the right to use the arms since the county council's abolition in 1998. An attempt to have the arms transferred to the Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire was unsuccessful.^[48]

• A fictional modern day Berkshire County Council is the main setting for BBC comedy show The Wrong Mans (2013) and the workplace for the main two characters.^[49]