Wargrave In Berkshire About 1966.

A Memory of Wargrave.

I used to work for a company called David Greig, they had provisions shops in many towns with the flagship shop at that time (mid sixties) being the one at Reading.
I worked mainly in the Orpington shop and was asked to take part in a training course in Wargrave.
I believe I was on the course for two weeks but came home weekends.
I travelled from Orpington by train to Paddington and then on a small train with driver on view to passengers, down to Twyford, from there we were picked up in a Thames 15cwt minibus by Mr Foote the principle and taken to what was then known as Thistle College.
This building I believe was once a school and is now as far as I know called Thistle House, located down a fairly narrow road there were very old thatched cottages nearby and one I remember had a wall so leaning backward that the tiny leaded light window almost opened upward.
The claim to fame of Wargrave I was told is that the actor Robert Morley lived there.
The road at night was very dark as there seemed to be few streetlights there at that time.
The College was run by Mr Foote and two ladies, one I recall was a Miss Hofer or Hofor, I regret I cannot remember the other ladies name but they were both extremely nice to us "trainee" lads.
Mr Foote took us out to several other shops in the David Greig group, such as Reading, Wokingham and Slough and also to meat and poultry processing plants that now as a long term vegetarian and animal lover, the memory makes me cringe.
We also went in the Thames bus to the head office of David Greig at Waterloo Road in London to see the then famous David Greig "long egg" being made, this was a length of cylindrical egg yolk cooked in a tube and then the white of the egg was cooked around that and the outer tube removed and the whole was set into what was known as a Gala Pie so each piece cut had the egg in equal parts.

In the evenings us lads would go to an old pub called the "Old Hatch Gate" there was another one called "The Horns" but the Hatch Gate was the one we used.
There was a really great darts player there who used to play the publican on occasions and there was a young lady named Jenny who was the publicans daughter if I remember correctly, this was my first time away from home but the happy surroundings and the lads I was sharing the course with made the whole experience something I look back on with a fondness.

I later returned to the Orpington shop to carry on my training but left some time later to follow my main passion to drive for a living.
Derek Stocker, Bexhill on Sea. July 2015.