Berkshire

Berkshire is a county of southern England, with a fertile, well-cultivated soil on a chalk bottom, in the upper valley of the Thames, one of the smallest but most beautiful counties in the country. In the east part of it is Windsor Forest, and in the southeast Bagshot Heath. It is famous for its breed of pigs. Berkshire Pig is also called Birkshire in short. It is a black breed of pig, which is now rarely kept commercially. The county town is Reading. It is a ceremonial county. It was recognised by the Queen as the Royal County of Berkshire in 1957. It is bounded in the north by Oxfordshire, in the northeast by Buckinghamshire, in the east by Greater London, in the southeast by Surrey, in the west by Wiltshire and in the south by Hampshire. On 1 April 1974, Berkshire's boundaries changed under the Local Government Act 1972. Formerly, its area was bigger than the present one.