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  History  
 
According to Wokingham Society website, the population of Wokingham in the year 1801 was 2,281 and by the year 1901 the number had risen to 6,002. In 1951 the population had risen to 11,643 and today the figure is approximately 32,000.
 
 

According to Wikipedia, Wokingham means 'Wocca's people's home'. Wocca was apparently a Saxon chieftain who also owned lands at Wokefield in Berkshire and Woking in Surrey. In Victorian times, it was known as Oakingham and the acorn with oak leaves is the town's symbol.
In 1219: The courts of Windsor Forest were held at Wokingham and the town had the right to hold a market. It has remained a small market town all its life.
Before 1383: A bell, made in Wokingham, was donated to Dorchester Abbey. For most of the 15th century a large proportion of southern England's bells came from the Landen family's foundry, situated somewhere behind 7 Broad Street.
In 1620: The foundry moved to Chertsey.
In 1560: Thomas Eldridge also established a bell foundry (supposedly sited near Ashridge Farm) in Bell Foundry Lane. He sold bells to Bray and Winkfield in 1565.
In 1661: George Staverton left a bequest in his will giving two bulls to be tethered in the Market Place and baited by dogs on St Thomas' Day (21 December) each year. Wokingham was then famous for its bull-baiting. The bulls were paraded around the town a day or two before the event and then locked in the yard of the original Rose Inn which was situated on the site of the present-day Superdrug store. People travelled from miles around to see the dangerous spectacle. A number of dogs would be maimed or killed during the event and the bulls were eventually destroyed. The meat and leather were distributed amongst the poor people of the town. Some of the spectators also sustained fatal injuries.
In 1808: 55-year-old Martha May died after being hurt by fighters in the crowd.
In 1821: The cruel 'sport' was prohibited by the Corporation but bulls were still provided at Christmas and the meat distributed to the poor.
In 1833: Bull-baiting was banned by Act of Parliament .
In the 18th century: The ballad of Fair Molly Mogg was written in Wokingham. Molly was the barmaid daughter of the publican of the old Rose Inn (not on the site of the present one). She was well known to local Binfield man, Alexander Pope, who, during a storm, found himself stranded at the inn with his friends, Gay, Swift and Arbuthnot. They wrote the ballad extolling her virtues to pass the time.

 
     
 

Notable People

 
 

Tom Burrows, cricketer
The Cooper Temple Clause, post-hardcore punk band
Jenny Daykin, a Wokingham schoolgirl, played the part of Lily Brown in the film Nanny McPhee
Dick Francis, Writer
Graham Knight, off road rally champion
Steven Lewington, professional wrestler known as "The British Babe"
Frederick Lucas, founder of The Tablet
Sir Henry Marten, Judge of the Admiralty Court
John Dawson Read, singer-songwriter
Anne Snelgrove, MP
William Talman, architect and landscape designer
Will Young, singer

 
   
 
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