Housing and then light industry followed the railway, and now Winnersh has two stations, Winnersh and Winnersh Triangle, the latter also being the name of the industrial estate that it serves. Modern Winnersh exists mostly as a sleeper town. Relentless housing development on all sides will soon see Winnersh exist as part of an urban continuum between Reading and London.

Today the centre of the area is best known by the "Winnersh cross-roads", the junction of the A329, the Wokingham to Reading road, and the B3030.

Much of modern Winnersh includes areas that were formerly parts of the villages of Sindlesham and Merryhill Green. Most of Merryhill Green was destroyed by the construction of the A329(M).

The Emm Brook river runs through Winnersh.

Housing and then light industry followed the railway, and now Winnersh has two stations, Winnersh and Winnersh Triangle, the latter also being the name of the industrial estate that it serves. Modern Winnersh exists mostly as a sleeper town. Relentless housing development on all sides will soon see Winnersh exist as part of an urban continuum between Reading and London.[citation needed]

Today the centre of the area is best known by the "Winnersh cross-roads", the junction of the A329, the Wokingham to Reading road, and the B3030.

Much of modern Winnersh includes areas that were formerly parts of the villages of Sindlesham and Merryhill Green. Most of Merryhill Green was destroyed by the construction of the A329(M).

The Emm Brook river runs through Winnersh.

There is also a regular bus service that runs every 15-20 minutes(Weekdays) through the centre of the village between Reading and Bracknell via Wokingham.

In 2004 the main Sainsbury's superstore, which stands at the Winnersh crossroads, was expanded - almost doubling in size. It is one of the biggest superstores in the area.

The Reading Showcase Cinema multiplex is just inside the Western edge of Winnersh. It is particularly noted for being built on a flood plain for the river Loddon, but the building is raised to a sufficient level as to be unaffected.

The Forest School is in Winnersh and was relocated there in 1957. Many of the boys come from the large catchment area to attend the school.

Dinton Pastures is next to the northern edge of the Winnersh area.

Within the parish is the high-tech business park known as the Winnersh Triangle. It is bound by the A329 M, the railway and Winnersh village. It has been the major non-residential development in the Borough in recent years and will, when completed, include 160,000 square meters of industrial and warehousing floorspace on a site of about 50 hectares. The site is one of the largest of such developments in the south of England and has the employment potential of some 5,700 jobs.

Several major international companies such as Mars Electronic and Harris have selected the Winnersh Triangle as their European location. The site has direct access to the A329 M and is served by the Winnersh Triangle railway station on the Reading-Waterloo Line. It is separated from Winnersh village by a buffer of 12 hectares of public open space.

The 2001 census recorded 7,939 people living in 2,953 households in the Winnersh ward. Of these homes, 2,444 were Owner Occupied, 290 were Social Rented homes, 195 were Privately Rented and 24 homes were Rent Free. Below are some other facts the census data revealed about Winnersh:

7,431 people live in an unshared house or bungalow, 238 people live in flats or maisonettes, 182 live in caravans or other temporary structures.

The 2001 census also recorded the following ethic breakdown: White 94.19%, Asian 3.22%, Mixed 1.04%, Black 0.58%, Chinese 0.37%, Other 0.58%

The religious breakdown in 2001 was as follows: 5,716 Christian, 32 Buddhist, 77 Hindu, 17 Jewish, 84 Muslim, 99 Sikh, 38 Other Religion, 1,397 No Religion, 479 Religion not stated.

There were 5,842 people of employable age(between 16 and 74) in Winnersh of which 4,339 were in employment. Of people who were not working 588 people were retired, 371 people were looking after their families, 200 people were full time students, 120 people were sick or disabled and only 103 people were unemployed.

Sport and leisure
In 2006 the year 11 team at the Forest School won the English Schools Football Association cup - and the team reached the final for the second year running in 2007, but lost to Nottingham's Rushcliffe School in the last minute of extra time.

The courts of Windsor Forest were held at Wokingham and the town had the right to hold a market from 1219. It has remained a small market town all its life. Queen Elizabeth granted a town charter in 1583. From the 14th to the 16th centuries, Wokingham was well-known for its bell foundry which supplied many churches across the south of England.

Wokingham was once famous for its bull-baiting. In 1661 George Staverton left a bequest in his will giving two bulls to be tethered in the Market Place and baited by dogs on St Thomas' Day (21 December) each year. The bulls were paraded around the town a day or two before the event and then locked in the yard of the original Rose Inn which was situated on the site of the present-day Superdrug store. People travelled from miles around to see the dangerous spectacle. A number of dogs would be maimed or killed during the event and the bulls were eventually destroyed. The meat and leather were distributed amongst the poor people of the town. Some of the spectators also sustained fatal injuries. In 1794 on the morning after the bull-baiting Elizabeth North was found dead and covered with bruises. In 1808 55-year-old Martha May died after being hurt by fighters in the crowd. The cruel 'sport' was prohibited by the Corporation in 1821 but bulls were still provided at Christmas and the meat distributed to the poor. Bull-baiting was banned by Act of Parliament in 1833.

In 1723, the 'Black Act' was passed in Parliament to make it an offence to black one's face to commit criminal acts. It was named after an infamous band of ruffians, known as the 'Wokingham Blacks' who terrorised the local area.

Wokingham town hallNorthern Wokingham, centred on Ashridge, was, archaically, a detached part of Wiltshire. This area extended well into the town centre (and the area currently where the Dowlesgreen, Norreys and BeanOak estates currently are situated) until transferred to Berkshire in 1844. The ancient parish was divided in 1894 into urban and rural civil parishes, Wokingham Without forming the latter.

Wokingham was one of the boroughs left unreformed by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835, and was reformed subsequently in 1883. Wokingham merged with the Wokingham Rural District in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972 to form the non-metropolitan district of Wokingham, which has been a unitary authority area since 1998. It consists of 54 elected councillors and is presided over by one councillor who is elected annually to be the Chairman of the Council. The Borough Council Offices are based at Shute End in the town of Wokingham.

A successor parish continued in existence in Wokingham and is governed by Wokingham Town Council. The council is elected every four years and consists of twenty-five councillors representing Emmbrook, Evendons, Norreys and Wescott, the four wards of the town. Every year, they elect one of their number as Mayor. The present town hall was erected in 1860 on the site of the guildhall.

The Wokingham constituency's MP is the Conservative John Redwood and he has represented the town since 1987.

Wokingham is on the Emm Brook in the Loddon Valley in central Berkshire situated 33 miles (53.1 km) from Central London. It sits between Reading and Bracknell and was originally in a band of agricultural land on the western edge of Windsor Forest. Suburbs include Emmbrook, Matthewsgreen, Dowlesgreen, Woosehill, Limmerhill and Eastheath. Older names include Woodcray and Luckley Green.

The soil is a rich loam with a subsoil of sand and gravel.

Wokingham currently consists of the town centre, with main residential areas radiating in all directions. These include Woosehill to the west, Emmbrook to the northwest, Dowlesgreen, Norreys, Keephatch and Bean Oak to the east and to the south Wescott and Eastheath.

Much of Wokingham has been developed over the past 80 years. Woosehill and Dowlesgreen were built on farmland in the late 1960s and early 70s, along with Bean Oak. Keephatch was built in the early 90s. The Norreys Estate was built in the 1960s; however, Norreys Avenue is the oldest residential road in that area, having been built in the late 1940s as emergency housing following the Second World War. Norreys Avenue has a horseshoe shape and occupies the site of the demolished Norreys Manor. Much of the road contains 1940s-style prefabricated houses, although there are some brick houses along with three blocks of 1950s police houses.