Berkeley is a town on the south bank of the River Severn in Gloucestershire, UK. The town is located mid-way between Bristol and Gloucester and is built on a small hill in the Vale of Berkeley. The town is noted for its Castle where the imprisoned Edward II was murdered.

Berkeley was the birthplace of Edward Jenner, the originator of vaccination. After studying medicine in London he returned home to work as the local doctor, and in 1796 performed a pioneering experiment by innoculating his gardener's son with cowpox, thus preventing infection from smallpox. The Chantry, Jenner's home in Berkeley for 38 years, is now The Edward Jenner Museum.

Berkeley was also the site of a Magnox nuclear power station. This power station, one of the first commercial British reactors to come to power, has since been decommissioned and all that remains are the two reactors encased in concrete. The administrative centre adjacent to the station is still active however - the centre was founded as Berkeley Nuclear Laboratories in the early 60s and was one of the three principal research laboratories of the CEGB

Just north of Berkeley lies the port of Sharpness, one of the most inland in Britain. The Gloucester & Sharpness Canal starts here, and the river used to be crossed by the Severn Railway Bridge . However, this was damaged beyond repair by a ship collision in 1960.

Berkeley itself stands adjacent to the Little Avon River, which flows into the Severn at Berkeley Pill. The Little Avon was tidal, and so navigable, for some distance inland (as far as Berkeley itself and the Sea Mills at Ham) until a 'tidal reservoir' was implemented at Berkeley Pill in the late 1960s.

External links

• The Edward Jenner Museum