This week’s planning round-up for Bracknell and Wokingham includes a new nursery, polo facilities and works to 17th‑century almshouses.
New nursery in former Social Club: Bracknell Forest BC/2026/00201
A planning application has been lodged to convert Crown Wood Social Club, in Crown Wood Community Centre on Opladen Way, into a nursery. The club closed in April 2014 — a Facebook post at the time said: "We are sad to announce the Crown Wood Social Club will be closing its doors for good in the next couple of days. Many thanks to all the regulars and darts teams who tried to keep the club going."
The proposal includes works to "the use of a previous 'bar cellar' into habitable space for a nursery setting".
Stables and polo team accommodation: Bracknell Forest BC/2026/00232
An application for polo facilities has been submitted for Great Oaks Farm, Crouch Lane, Winkfield. Plans show a stables building with Groom's accommodation and a team room, so expect more horses (and longer hockey sticks) in the area if approved.
Alterations to Harrison Almshouses: Wokingham Borough — 252695
The single‑storey Harrison Almshouses in Twyford date from 1640 — two years before the Civil War and nine years before King Charles I was executed. They were built at the command of Sir Richard Harrison.
Hurst Consolidated Charity has applied for Listed Building consent to remove existing boilers and install new gas boilers and flues at numbers 2, 3, 4 and 5. The buildings form a U‑shape on London Road, with the wings joined by a brick wall and a central gateway with a brick pediment on the axis of the main door. There are six tall chimneys spaced along the east and west walls, and inside are original brick fireplaces and old ledged doors.
The courtroom to the right of the entrance has a panelled dado and screen to the passage, heavy moulded stiles and tails, small rectangular panels and two arched doorways with small key blocks. By 1954 the buildings had become inhabitable; land to the west was auctioned in 1965 to fund renovation and they re‑opened in 1966. Further works in 1997 reconfigured the layout to provide five apartments.
Ted O'Neill, Local Democracy Reporter
