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Berkeley is a market town and civil parish in the Stroud District in Gloucestershire, England. It lies in the Vale of Berkeley between the east bank of the River Severn and the M5 motorway. The town is noted for Berkeley Castle, where the imprisoned King Edward II is believed to have been murdered, as well as the birthplace of the physician Edward Jenner, pioneer of the smallpox vaccine, the world's first vaccine.
Berkeley lies midway between Bristol and Gloucester, on a small hill in the Vale of Berkeley. The town is on the Little Avon River, which flows into the Severn at Berkeley Pill. The Little Avon was tidal, and so navigable, for some distance inland (as far as Berkeley itself and the Sea Mills at Ham) until a 'tidal reservoir' was implemented at Berkeley Pill in the late 1960s.
Berkeley was first recorded in 824 as Berclea, from the Old English for "birch lea".
Berkeley was a significant place in medieval times. It was a port and market-town, and the meeting place of the hundred of Berkeley. Recent archeological evacuations on the grounds of Berkeley Castle have uncovered remains of a significant Anglo-Saxon minster which was attached to a monastery of nuns. Evidence has been found of their having a significant scriptorium. The monastery appears to have been demolished in 1044.
After the Norman Conquest, a Flemish noble named Roger de Tosny was appointed Provost of the manor of Berkeley by his brother-in-law (or perhaps uncle) Earl William FitzOsbern. His family took the name "de Berkeley", and it was he who began the construction of Berkeley Castle, which was completed by his son, also Roger. A younger son of the elder Roger, John de Berkeley, went north to Scotland with Queen Maud, becoming the progenitor of the Scottish Barclay family.
The parish of Berkeley was the largest in Gloucestershire. It included the tithings of Alkington, Breadstone, Ham, Hamfellow and Hinton, and the chapelry of Stone, which became a separate parish in 1797. Hinton became a separate civil parish, and the separate ecclesiastical parish of Sharpness with Purton, in the 20th century. Berkeley Town Hall dates from 1824.
Berkeley was the site of Berkeley nuclear power station, which had two Magnox nuclear reactors. This power station, the first commercial British reactor to enter operation, has since been decommissioned and all that remains are the two reactors encased in concrete. The administrative centre adjacent to the station is still active however – the centre was founded as Berkeley Nuclear Laboratories in the early 1960s and was one of the three principal research laboratories of the Central Electricity Generating Board. Since its decommission, SGS Berkeley Green UTC has opened nearby and serves as a technical college.
A local legend tells that the town was once home to the Witch of Berkeley, who sold her soul to the Devil in exchange for wealth. It is said that, despite taking refuge in the church, the Devil carried her off on a black horse covered with spikes.
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