Whiteknights Park
From Freepedia
Whiteknights Park, or the Whiteknights Campus of the University of Reading, is the principal campus of that university. It has a grid reference of SU735718 and is located some two miles from the centre of the English town of Reading. The park is 1.23 km² in size and includes lakes, conservation meadows and woodlands as well as being home to most of the university's departments.
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History
The site takes its name from the nickname of the 13th century knight John De Erlegh, the "White Knight". The De Erlegh (or D'Earley) family were owners of the local medieval manor of Earley St. Nicholas (or Earley Regis) for some two hundred years prior to 1365. In 1606 the estate was purchased by Sir Francis Englefield, following the confiscation of Englefield House and its estates in 1585. The Englefield family in turn sold the estate to George Spencer-Churchill, 5th Duke of Marlborough in 1798. [1]
Between 1798 and 1819, the estate was the scene of vast extravagance and wild entertainments, all at the Marquis' expense. Splendid gardens were laid out, complete with the rarest of plants. In 1819 the Duke became bankrupt and moved to his family home at Blenheim Palace at Woodstock in Oxfordshire. The estate was sold off and the house was demolished in 1840, supposedly by a mob of the Duke's angry creditors.[2]
The land was broken up into six leasehold units in 1867 and a number of the new houses were designed by Alfred Waterhouse, including his own residence at Foxhill House and the smaller Whiteknights House for his father[3]. During the Second World War, part of the park closest to the Earley Gate entrance was used for 'temporary' government offices, and several ranges of these single story, brick built, corridor and spur buildings still stand.
Campus
The University of Reading acquired Whiteknights Park in 1947[4], and today it is the home of the university's administration, most of the academic departments and five halls of residence. The halls of residence (Bridges, Childs, Wessex, Whiteknights, and Windsor) are all located along Whiteknights Road and Upper Redlands Road sides of the campus, with their own vehicular access off those roads and with only pedestrian access to the core of the campus.
Along the Wilderness Road and Pepper Lane sides of the campus, the campus is screened from the outside by undeveloped woodland and by the Harris Garden, the university's botanical garden. The campus core is therefore only easily visible from outside in the area around the main entrance on the Shinfield Road and the adjacent Elmhurst Road.
The centre of the campus is bisected into two unequal halves by a chain of lakes which are crossed by several pedestrian bridges but with no vehicular link. To the west of the lakes can be found most of the academic departments, catering services, the university administration and the students union. With the exception of a couple of surviving Victorian residences, including Foxhill House, all of these are housed in purpose built buildings dating from the 1950s to the 2000s. The Ure Museum of Greek Archaeology and the Cole Museum of Zoology are both found in this area.
To the east of the lakes and surrounding conservation meadowland is the Earley Gate area of the campus. The second-world war era buildings here house the Reading Enterprise Hub, the Fine Art Department, the Department of Typography and Graphic Communication, and various service functions. More recent buildings, dating from the 1990s and 2000s, house the Department of Applied Statistics, the Department of Meteorolgy, and the School of Agriculture, Policy and Development. Also in this area can be found the Science & Technology Centre.
See also
References
- ^ David Nash Ford (2001). Royal Berkshire History - Whiteknights Park. Retrieved July 1, 2005.
- ^ The University of Reading (2005). History of the University. Retrieved July 4, 2005.
