Reading, Berkshire

Rowing

I think this boathouse was where the Reading Working Men's Rowing Club was based. I remember boys from the Forest Grammar School rowing on the river here and the extraordinary pain in your arms as you rowed the last few strokes of a race!

General store, Hosier Street

Please can anyone help? Do you remember a general shop in Hosier Street on the left-hand-side going from St Mary's Butts in the name of F W Hawkins before the civic offices were built?

Thames-side Miniature Railway

The Thames-side Miniature Railway opened in about 1946 and closed in 1954.  The station, which had a single platform, stood at the Caversham end of the line. To the east of the station was the engine shed and, beyond that, a turntable. At the western end of the railway was another turntable and a passing loop that enabled the locomotive, once... [more]

Reading Miniature Railway

This railway ran along Thamesside Promenade in the 1940s and 1950s. It was operated by Harold Judd. The line runs between chain-link fencing and an iron fence, and the train, approaching the camera, carries a number of children. There were apparently two 10 1/4" gauge lines.

Reading 1949

My Grandfather Blaskett ( my mother Sylvia was the second daughter of his second wife) owned property in Reading and was a spec builder and for a while our family lived at 24 Bath Road. He had a property I think before the War called Rotherham Grange but I don't know where in Reading it was. I will... [more]

Huntley & Palmers

This picture shows the factory of Huntley & Palmers - the biscuit makers who were one of the largest employers in Reading in the 20th Centrury. Presumably the photo was taken at the end of a working day with the workers streaming out of the factory? Palmer Park was named after one of the founders of this... [more]

Reading Pocket Album

From a point further north-east, this view looks towards the gatehouse past the elaborate fountain which still remains today and the entrance gates beyond the thatched bothy, now replaced. The chimneyed building to the right of the gate- house was demolished by 1904 to make way for the Shire Hall seen in later views.

Reading Pocket Album

This view, until 1886 concealed by houses, shows the tall, elegant west tower of the parish church now dominating St Mary's Butts. Although there was a Norman church here, it was mostly rebuilt with stone, flint and timber salvaged from Reading Abbey after its dissolution in 1539. The tower dates from 1550 to 1553.

Southern England

Many years before Wargrave grew in popularity as a riverside village, Edith, wife of Edward the Confessor, held the manor, and at that time it was known as ‘Weregrave’.