Brock Barracks

Brock Barracks
Reading, England

Brock Barracks Keep
Brock Barracks
Location within Reading
Coordinates 51°27′29″N 01°00′12″W / 51.45806°N 1.00333°W / 51.45806; -1.00333Coordinates: 51°27′29″N 01°00′12″W / 51.45806°N 1.00333°W / 51.45806; -1.00333
Type Headquarters building
Site information
Owner Ministry of Defence
Operator  British Army
Site history
Built 1881
In use 1881-Present
Garrison information
Garrison 7th Battalion The Rifles

Brock Barracks is a British Army barracks in the town of Reading in the English county of Berkshire. Located on Oxford Road in the district of West Reading. The majority of the buildings and structures within Brock Barracks are Grade II listed.[1][2][3][4][5][6]

History

The barracks, which were named after Major-General Sir Isaac Brock,[7] were built in the Fortress Gothic Revival Style and completed in 1881.[8] Their creation took place as part of the Cardwell Reforms which encouraged the localisation of British military forces.[9] The barracks became the depot for the 49th (Hertfordshire) Regiment of Foot and the 66th (Berkshire) Regiment of Foot.[10] Following the Childers Reforms, the 49th and 66th regiments amalgamated to form the Royal Berkshire Regiment with its depot in the barracks later that year.[10]

During the Second World War the 401st Glider Infantry Regiment of 101st Airborne of the United States Army were based at the barracks in preparation for the Normandy landings.[11] The barracks ceased to be the home of the Royal Berkshire Regiment when that regiment merged with the Wiltshire Regiment to form the Duke of Edinburgh's Royal Regiment at Albany Barracks on the Isle of Wight in 1959.[12] The Duke of Edinburgh's Royal Regiment retained their administrative headquarters at Brock Barracks until they moved to Cathedral Close in Salisbury in 1982.[13]

The barracks continued in use as a Territorial Army base with D Company (Berkshire), Wessex Volunteers using the base from 1967: this unit evolved as D Company, the Wessex Regiment in 1972,[14] the Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Company, the Royal Rifle Volunteers in 1999[14] and HQ Company, 7th Battalion The Rifles in 2007.[15]

References

  1. ↑ "Keep and Attached Walls and Gateway, Brock Barracks, Reading". British Listed Buildings. Retrieved 10 May 2011.
  2. ↑ "Anson Barrack, Brock Barracks, Reading". British Listed Buildings. Retrieved 10 May 2011.
  3. ↑ "Tofrek Barrack, Brock Barracks, Reading". British Listed Buildings. Retrieved 10 May 2011.
  4. ↑ "Former Hospital, Brock Barracks, Reading". British Listed Buildings. Retrieved 10 May 2011.
  5. ↑ "Officers Quarters and Mess, Brock Barracks, Reading". British Listed Buildings. Retrieved 10 May 2011.
  6. ↑ "Former Sergeants Quarters, Brock Barracks". British Listed Buildings. Retrieved 10 May 2011.
  7. ↑ "Notes and Queries". Oxford Journals. Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press. 170: 1011. 1936. Retrieved 25 October 2011.
  8. ↑ Phillips, Daphne (1980). The Story of Reading. Countryside Books. p. 135. ISBN 0-905392-07-8.
  9. ↑ "Echoes of the past in these Army cuts". 8 July 2012. Retrieved 13 November 2014.
  10. 1 2 "Training Depots". Regiments.org. Archived from the original on 10 February 2006. Retrieved 16 October 2016.
  11. ↑ "Revealing Reading'sWartime History: Part 3". Reading Museum. p. 17. Retrieved 8 November 2014.
  12. ↑ "Duke of Edinburgh's Royal Regiment". British Army units 1945 on. Retrieved 8 November 2014.
  13. ↑ "Museum history". The Wardrobe. Retrieved 8 November 2014.
  14. 1 2 "Royal Berkshire Regiment". British Army units 1945 on. Retrieved 8 November 2014.
  15. ↑ "Brock Barracks Reading". 2nd Battalion Royal Berkshire Regiment. Retrieved 10 May 2011.

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