Situated in South East England, in the county of Berkshire, just north of the M3 and south of the M4 motorway, Bracknell although known as a New Town status, is an old name going back to before the Norman Conquest. One of the earliest of its names, Brakenhale, is the name of one the local schools today. One of the local districts of Easthampstead once had a hunting lodge during Henry V111’s reign to which it is said his first wife Catherine of Aragon was banished there until her divorce was finalised.

The new town of Bracknell was built after the Second World War around the old town. It already had a good railway connection and was originally built to house about 20,000 people. Today is it much bigger and a major business hub for many international companies such as Dell, Hewlett Packard, Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, and Waitrose and BMW both have their head offices based in the area.

Since the mid 1970s the area of South Hill Park, just to the south of Bracknell, has become quite well known for music festivals from folk to jazz. Bracknell was also chosen by the film industry for filming some scenes from the Harry Potter films, Time Bandits. Tracy Beaker and Dani Harmer were both brought-up in Bracknell.

Bracknell has two railway stations, Bracknell and Martins Heron which are on the main line to London and the South West. As a result Bracknell is large commuter town with many residents travel to and from London, Reading and Bristol.