Becket is a New England town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 1,755 at the 2000 census.

History
Becket was first settled in 1740 and was officially incorporated in 1765. The town, most likely named for Thomas Becket, was the site of an experiment in the late eighteenth century involving the local church. Seeing the problems involved with communities who supported congregational churches, the town established its own church society, where local citizens supported the church without any tax monies. It was one of the first...

Becket is a New England town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 1,755 at the 2000 census.

History
Becket was first settled in 1740 and was officially incorporated in 1765. The town, most likely named for Thomas Becket, was the site of an experiment in the late eighteenth century involving the local church. Seeing the problems involved with communities who supported congregational churches, the town established its own church society, where local citizens supported the church without any tax monies. It was one of the first frontier communities to employ this model of supporting churches.

From its earliest days, Becket was involved in the woodland industries of lumber and quarries. As time went on, dairy production, basketry and silk also were products of the town. After a flood in the early twentieth century, most of the industries died out, and today Becket is mostly known as a resort town with an artists community surrounding the Jacob's Pillow Company.

Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 47.8 square miles (123.7 km²), of which, 46.3 square miles (119.8 km²) of it is land and 1.5 square miles (3.9 km²) of it (3.12%) is water. Becket is located on the eastern border of Berkshire County, at the junction of Hampshire County, Massachusetts and Hampden County, Massachusetts. Becket is bordered by Washington, Massachusetts to the northwest, Middlefield, Massachusetts to the northeast, Chester, Massachusetts and Blandford, Massachusetts to the east, Otis, Massachusetts to the south, and Tyringham, Massachusetts and Lee, Massachusetts to the west. Becket is 17 miles southeast of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, 32 miles northwest of Springfield, Massachusetts, and 118 miles west of Boston, Massachusetts.

Becket is located in the southern Berkshire Mountains, and is dotted with hills on the interior, and surrounded on two sides by Becket Mountain and Walking Mountain to the west, and Mount Gobble to the east. The west branch of the Westfield River flows along much of the Middlefield town line, flowing eastward towards Chester. Several marshy brooks flow through the town, and there are several ponds, lakes and the Palmer Brook Reservoir. Along the river, a small portion of the Walnut Hill Wildlife Management Area lies within the town, and to the west, the southeastern corner of October Mountain State Forest. The Appalachian Trail passes through the western part of town, circumventing the town of Lee while heading from Tyringham to Washington over Becket Mountain.