Crowthorne is a village and civil parish in the Bracknell Forest district of south-eastern Berkshire. It had a population of 6,711 at the 2001 census, increasing to 6,902 at the 2011 Census. Crowthorne is best known for Wellington College, a large co-educational boarding and day independent school, which opened in 1859 as a national monument in honour of the Duke of Wellington (1769 - 1852), who led British, Spanish and Portuguese forces in a succession of military victories in the Iberian Peninsula against more numerous opponents, and for Broadmoor Hospital, one of three maximum security psychiatric hospitals in England, which lies on the eastern periphery of the village.HistoryThe village was only a small hamlet until Wellington College was opened in 1859 and Broadmoor in 1863. Crowthorne railway station, originally known as Wellington College for Crowthorne station, was opened in 1860. The village grew quickly. In the 1960s, the Transport Research Laboratory opened in Crowthorne.The Crowthorne urban area spills over into the neighbouring parish of Wokingham Without. The majority of Crowthorne is in the Bracknell Forest district. Edgbarrow Woods are between Sandhurst and Crowthorne.