theale, berkshire

Theale is a large village and civil parish in the English county of Berkshire. The village has many of the attributes of a small town, with a distinctly urban High Street lined with shops, pubs and restaurants. The name Theale is pronounced to rhyme with peel.

Location

Theale is located five miles west of the centre of the large town of Reading, and is separated from the suburbs of that town by the M4 motorway. The town is located on the old Bath Road, which crosses the motorway here at junction 12 (Reading West). Theale railway station is near the centre of the village and is served by local services from Reading to Newbury and Great Bedwyn. Nearby towns and cities: Reading Nearby villages: Tidmarsh, Pangbourne, Tilehurst, Burghfield, Sulhamstead Nearby suburbs: Calcot, Fords Farm

Development

Theale owes much of its past and present prosperity to its good road communications links. In the pre-railway era, the village was an important staging post on the old Bath Road, as witnessed by the number of old pubs to be found on its High Street, and the former brewery that served them. Today the proximity of Reading and the motorway junction has attracted a number of distribution companies and offices; to the south of the village centre, Arlington Business Park is a large modern office campus. The same advantages have brought significant amounts of new housing to the village. The motorway has had another influence on Theale, in that the land it sterilises provides an effective and obvious psychological boundary between the village and the suburbs of Reading.

Government

Theale is a civil parish with an elected parish council. The civil parish formerly stretched further to the east, but in 2000 that part that was to the east of the M4 motorway was split off to become Holybrook parish. Theale parish falls within the area of the unitary authority of West Berkshire and both the parish council and the unitary authority are responsible for different aspects of local government. Theale falls within the Reading West parliamentary constituency.