About Berkshire
Berkshire ( /ˈbɑrkʃə/ or /ˈbɑrkʃɪə/, abbreviated Berks) is a historic county in the South East of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1958, and letters patent issued confirming this in 1974.[1]
Berkshire borders the counties of Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Surrey, Wiltshire and Hampshire, and is usually regarded as one of the home counties. Under boundary changes in 1995, it also acquired a boundary with Greater London.[2]
Historically the county town was Abingdon, but in 1867 the town of Reading – by then much larger – superseded Abingdon in this role.[3] In 1974 local government reorganisation moved Abingdon and several other north-west Berkshire towns into Oxfordshire.[4] A later reorganisation, in 1998, abolished Berkshire County Council, although retaining Berkshire as a ceremonial county.[4] The highest tier of local government in Berkshire are now the unitary authorities of Bracknell Forest, Reading, Slough, West Berkshire, Windsor and Maidenhead and Wokingham.
The county is one of the oldest in England. It may date from the 840s, the probable period of the unification of “Sunningum” (East Berkshire) and “Ashdown” (the Berkshire Downs, probably including the Kennet Valley).[5] The county is first mentioned by name in 860. According to Asser, it takes its name from a large forest of box trees that was called Bearroc[5] (believed, in turn, to be a Celtic word meaning “hilly”).[6]
Berkshire has been the scene of many battles throughout history, during Alfred the Great’s campaign against the Danes, including the Battle of Englefield, the Battle of Ashdown and the Battle of Reading.
[7] Newbury was the site of two Civil War battles, the First Battle of Newbury (at Wash Common) in 1643[8] and the Second Battle of Newbury (at Speen) in 1644.[9] The nearby Donnington Castle was reduced to a ruin in the aftermath of the second battle. The Battle at Reading took place on 9 December 1688 in Reading. It was the only substantial military action in England during the Glorious Revolution and ended in a decisive victory for forces loyal to William of Orange.[10] It was celebrated in Reading for hundreds of years afterwards.
Reading became the new county town in 1867, taking over from Abingdon[11] which remained in the county.
Under the Local Government Act 1888, Berkshire County Council took over functions of the Berkshire Quarter Sessions, covering an area known as the administrative county of Berkshire, which excluded the county borough of Reading. Boundary alterations in the early part of the 20th century were minor, with Caversham from Oxfordshire becoming part of the Reading county borough,[4] and cessions in the Oxford area.
On 1 April 1974, following the Local Government Act 1972, the northern part of the county became part of Oxfordshire, with Faringdon, Wantage and Abingdon and hinterland becoming the Vale of White Horse district, and Didcot and Wallingford going to form part of the South Oxfordshire district.[4] The Berkshire Yeomanry (94 Signal Squadron) still keep the Uffington White Horse as their symbol above the motto Berkshire, even though the White Horse is now in Oxfordshire.
Berkshire obtained the towns of Slough and Eton and part of the former Eton Rural District from Buckinghamshire.[4] The original Local Government White Paper would have transferred Henley-on-Thames from Oxfordshire to Berkshire: this proposal did not make it into the Bill as introduced. v On 1 April 1998 Berkshire County Council was abolished under a recommendation of the Banham Commission, and the districts became unitary authorities.
Unlike similar reforms elsewhere at the same time, the non-metropolitan county was not abolished.[12][13] Signs saying “Welcome to the Royal County of Berkshire” have all but disappeared but may still be seen on the borders of West Berkshire District, on the east side of Virginia Water, and on the M4 motorway.
From a landscape perspective, Berkshire divides into two clearly distinct sections with the boundary lying roughly on a north-south line through the centre of Reading.
The eastern section of Berkshire lies largely to the south of the River Thames, with that river forming the northern boundary of the county. In two places (Slough and Reading) the county now includes land to the north of the river. Tributaries of the Thames, including the Loddon and Blackwater increase the amount of low lying riverine land in the area. Beyond the flood plains, the land rises gently to the county boundaries with Surrey and Hampshire. Much of this area is still well wooded, especially around Bracknell and Windsor Great Park.
In the west of the county and heading upstream, the Thames veers away to the north of the (current) county boundary, leaving the county behind at the Goring Gap. This is a narrow part of the otherwise quite broad river valley where, at the end of the last Ice Age, the Thames forced its way between the Chiltern Hills (to the north of the river in Oxfordshire) and the Berkshire Downs.
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Publishing is an old activity – dating back nearly 6 centuries – and it’s existed as a business for nearly as long. But while Johannes Gutenberg’s innovations led to profound changes for society in general, he himself was financially unsuccessful, and he certainly didn’t set down any guidelines about running a publishing business.
In the centuries since, publishing has obviously long reached its own business maturity, with its own accounting and business standard practices.
However, there isn’t necessarily a clear guideline on how to implement those best practices, or even a comprehensive body of knowledge about what they are. Our work over the past decade has given us a unique window on a huge range of business
practices in publishing.
As providers of the publishing industry’s premier royalty accounting solutions, we’ve become experts not only on the best ways of managing royalty accounting, but also some of the more convoluted, least transparent, and least efficient.
Based on our experience, we have a few general guidelines for making
royalty accounting an aspect of your business that fosters growth and builds long-term stability. This isn’t a crash-course MBA – just a few of the royalty accounting tips we’ve picked up over the years.
Let’s start with a basic one: communication is key. It’s critical that your team members are all communicating – obviously. But what about your technology and data systems? If your team members are not effectively communicating objectives or difficulties, it tends to become noticeable quickly.
But if your royalty accounting data (including sales volume and royalty payment calculations within that) isn’t communicating with your General Ledger, or other databases, high level or low, it’s not always so easy to see. And therefore, it can be easy to overlook the importance of system integration – until you reach a point down the road where it leads to serious problems.
Let’s be honest – there’s no sexy in “data silo integration.” It’s not going to be at the top of most people’s priority lists for running a business. But on the flip side, we’ve seen a number of cases in which poor communication between data systems gave rise to major obstacles to business growth. A royalty software management solution that fits
into your overall business is relatively easy to implement – if you are proactive about it. It becomes challenging, and sometimes painful, when you’re forced to implement a royalty management system, because your business is drowning without it.
One of the most important services we offer to publishers is creating environments in which the sales and royalty data you generate is seamlessly synced with all your existing business business data – including Accounts Payable, Title Management, Fulfillment Integration, and General Ledger Integration.
Tip number two should also be a pretty basic one: get all of your royalty data in transferable digital formats. There is no simpler way to better prepare for any changes coming down the pipeline in the publishing industry. From big publishing houses to small boutique presses, having 100% digital data, formatted so that it can
be transferred across platforms is a surprisingly overlooked capability.
Our royalty accounting solutions give you a variety of output formats for any royalty data you generate. From automatically generated dunning letters, to PDFs, to any of the various
data formats, you can do it with Royalty Tracker. Plus, you get a variety of statement layouts you can use for author royalties. Some options show detailed ISBN level transactions, some roll it up by source, some show every transaction.
