Caversham
|
|
Caversham is a village in the unitary authority of Reading, England, although, historically, Caversham was part of Oxfordshire. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, within the county of Berkshire, on the opposite bank from Reading proper. Caversham Bridge, Reading Bridge and Caversham Lock provide crossing points, with Sonning Bridge just a few miles east of Caversham.
The village spreads across the floodplain from the river and sharply up the hills toward the north. This provides two merged but distinct areas known as Upper Caversham for that part on the hill and Lower Caversham for that part on the plain. In addition, there is a distinctly separate area built in the 1960s on what was some parkland and now known as Caversham Park Village (or sometimes just Caversham Park).
In 1911, Caversham became part of Reading to the south of the river and this caused a lot of new building in the 1920s, especially semi-detached domestic homes.
'Caversham' is pronounced in three syllables: Cav (rhymes with have) er (rhymes with fur) sham (rhymes with pram).
Caversham is home to BBC Monitoring, the section of the BBC World Service that listens to broadcasts from other countries and watches printed and internet media in dozens of languages.
In the Middle ages it was one of the demesnes of William Marshal (1146 or 47 - 1219) and the place of his death.
External links
- Caversham website (http://www.caversham.org.uk/)
- BBC Monitoring website (http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk/)
- The Caversham Village Sign (http://www.stuartking.co.uk/articles/caversham.htm)
- Caversham is also a suburb of Dunedin, New Zealand
- Caversham is also a suburb of Perth, Western Australia.