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The image of a Crow sitting on a thorn bush as depicted on the Crowthorne Parish Council badge conjures up a rural picture. The name first appears on Norden’s map of 1607 at a junction of 3 forest tracks or Rides near the Devil’s Highway and the Bracknell Road, now known as Brookers Corner. One of the first houses in Crowthorne, White Cottage, is close to here and was probably a forester dwelling. The other, possibly even earlier property, is Edgbarrow Cottage, once a Verderer’s house i.e. a judicial officer of the Royal Forest.

Crowthorne really began to grow as a dwelling area in the mid 1800s when two very large institutions were built - Wellington College and Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum. Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and 7 of their children came to lay the foundation stone of the College in June 1856 as a national memorial to the Duke of Wellington who had died in 1852. The first 76 pupils (49 Army Orphans) started in January 1859 and the Queen came again nine days later to officially open the school. In 1860, ‘Wellington College for Crowthorne’ station was opened on the Reading to Reigate railway. The name obviously started because of the proximity to the College, not to the village. The name was retained until after the Second World War when it became Crowthorne as it is today.

Apart from a large amount of spare, rather poor quality land in this area, there were numerous brick works and so these were two of the reasons for building Broadmoor where it is. It received its first inmates on the 27th May 1863 and was for the ‘Criminally Insane’. It retained the original name until 1948 when the inmates became ‘patients’ but it wasn’t until 1960 that the name was changed to Hospital and the warders/ attendants became nurses.

Broadmoor Estate was fairly self-sufficient in the early 1900s, having its own gas and water works as well as a farm. It also had its own primary school, mainly for the children of the people who worked there and is thriving today. The other original junior school in the village is the Church of England school in Dukes Ride which dates back to the 1890s. Until 1900 when Edgbarrow School was built, children had to go out of the village for Secondary Education.

Of the four churches serving Crowthorne, one, the Roman Catholic, is actually outside the Parish of Crowthorne in Wokingham Without and the one with a moveable history is the Anglican, St. John the Baptist. A wooden structure was first erected about 1868 on the site of the present Fire Station. When the permanent brick church was consecrated in 1873, the wooden building, which was never consecrated, was moved on rollers across the High Street. At one time it was Bells electrical shop before becoming a café now called the ‘Rolling Feast’ due to the move across the road.

The inhabitants of Crowthorne should never go thirsty while travelling along the High Street as there are three public houses, the first to be built being ‘The Iron Duke’ in 1861. This was soon followed by ‘The Prince Alfred’ now know as simply ‘The Prince’. It was actually named after Queen Victoria’s second son, who, aged 12 was present at the laying of the foundation stone of Wellington College. The third ‘hostelry’ near the middle of the High Street is the Crowthorne Inn.

Most of the properties and shops in the High Street have changed hands and uses many times over the years but some of the original cottages still remain. Many of the inhabitants of Crowthorne commute to work although there are a number of the ‘old’ families still living in the village.