The Mere, in Upton Park, was built for George Bentley in 1887. Bentley owned a publishing firm that published books by Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins and Disraeli, among others.

Richard Bentley, George's son, took over The Mere and the family business when his father died in 1895. In 1898 the family's publishing firm was dissolved and the stock and assets handed over to the Macmillan & Co.. Richard then focused his time on expanding The Mere estate and studying local history, meteorology, botany and other sciences.

In 1964, The Mere became the headquarters for the National Foundation for Educational Research, (NFER) and it still remains in their hands today. The NFER have been involved in devising national tests like the 11+, SATS and the Driving Theory Test.

In 2009 the NFER gave Slough Library an amazing collection of cutting, photographs and letter which show the history of the Bentley Family and show how they built and lived at the Mere. Most of the material was collected by the late Reg Harrison. We have started to digitise most of the material and the first three volumes of Reg's books on the Mere can be downloaded below.