Wokingham memories
Here are memories of Wokingham and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Wokingham or a Wokingham photo.
Martins Swimming Pool
I went there as a child many times and have fond memories of the place.
I lived in Reading (central) and unfortunately can hardly recall how I got there (probably bus - trolley bus?).
Although it no longer exists does anyone know the address - the street/road it was on.
Josie Llewelyn
That Old Shoe Shop
The old shoe shop was called "Caiger's Boot Store" and was run by my two elderly great aunts, Ruth & Kizz (Kezia) untill 1969. Their father, Frederick Caiger who married the previous owner's daughter, owned and ran the shop before them from around 1870. I can remember in the mid 1960s visiting my Great Aunts every Saturday morning with my parents, even the shoes seemed old fashioned but my cousins and I all had to have shoes from the shop for school. There was a backroom behind the shop of which Hinge & Bracket would have been proud and& what seemed to me at 6 or 7 years old to be a long dark passage leading to a scullery and kitchen where I had to pass a large old larder cupboard with the holes in the top half of the door in order to get to the loo, this was always an ordeal as I was convinced this larder was a Dalek! Out the back there was a fairly large yard with... Read more
Summer Trips to Martin"s
My sister Pauline and I used to come here with our mother, and sometimes father, on hot summer days, around 1948 to 1952 (age 6 to 10). We commuted three stops from Reading South in electric trains. I basically learned the transition from swimming a width under water to the same on the surface. Great bonding with my father since my mother was not a swimmer. We used to picnic though I believe there was some food available (lemonade? ice cream?). The changing rooms were the usual slightly slimy floor dark damp places. There was a smaller, shallow "kiddie pool" beyond the other end of this photo. We were told the pool had been a private club before WW2 for the use of actors and performers who lived in this area west of London. We therefore felt, at this young age , that the place was rather glamorous. As the sun went down, we would trudge back to the station to wait for the next train home.
Is there... Read more
California Speedway
I first went to the California Speedway, based at the Longmoor track, within the grounds of the California-in-England Country Park, in 1954, and went regularly, until the speedway track was closed in 1957. Speedway first started there in the 1930s. Does anybody have any old photos, programmes or other ephemera/souvenirs connected with the California riders or team, known as the 'Poppies'?
California holiday Park
I can remember going sancing in the park. I was stationed at Bailiol Camp, Arborfield and we used to go there in a 3 ton army lorry. I can't remember how often we used to go there, after all it was 60 + years ago. I went back to Arborfield Camp a couple of years ago with the REME assn. for a couple of days' stay but that is the only time I have been back.
Pete Radford
A Hazy Glimpse of Times Gone Past
Where the houses come out, by the bus was a shoe shop owned by two sisters, a really old fashioned one that looked like time stood still when you went in, coming back the other way, if you walked along, was the blacksmith, this was Dick Francis, the author's father, then across the road (the one leading to the cinema) coming back further, were houses that overhung the road, Elizabethan type, then a little lane and two houses, my gran & grandad Emma and John Asker lived in the first one, then the alms houses on the corner, where they ended their days, this was the corner of London Road, across one way, All Saints Church where they were laid to rest, and the other The Ship Ashore, grandad's local.
This site brings back so many memories, I could write a book.
Joyce
Home Farm Bearwood
It was the year President Kennedy was assassinated. My two sisters and I lived with my Grandparents, Bob and Katie Myram at Home Farm, Bearwood. My mum was ill in the U.S. and we stayed for the year with my grandparents. We attended Bearwood County Primary School and Mr. Sparrow was my beloved teacher! I have such happy, wonderful memories of that year, the Beatles, my friend, Marian Allen and a wonderful toy shop that I cant remember the name. My fondest memories are of that year. If anyone has anything to add to this, please do!!!! I'd love to hear from you!!!!
Krystyne Lewis (nee Christine Schupp)
My Great Grandparents House
My great grandparents lived in one of the houses you can just see at the right hand side right at the end, they are lovely black and white houses and are still there, offices now I think.
Grosvenor School
At the time this photograph was taken the building in the background on the right housed the Grosvenor School. At some stage it became a surgery for a local doctor but I don't know when? By the 1950s it had grown to a surgery with several doctors, including a Dr Merrick.
California in England
This holiday camp was known as California in England and was owned by the Cartledge family. Mr Cartledge ran the holiday camp and Mrs Cartledge ran the Red Puppet cafe in Wokingham's Peach Street for some time, where a group of boys from the Forest school and girls from the Holt would meet for coffee on the way home from school.
Hot Summer Days
The group of three boys on their bicyles reminds me of hot summer days riding back from the Forest school to my home in Wokingham. We would often stop here - outside the hardware shop (Husseys?) and have a last chat before going our separate ways - clearly there was not much traffic about! In fact I could well be the boy on the left but if so I cannot recognise the other two.
At this time Wokingham had a Boots chemist - just on the right, which also had a lending libray run by Boots on the first floor and a second chemist called Tomothy Whites and Taylors the other side of the market place - the shop with the white fascia strip behind the group of boys.
California in England Holiday Camp
I have fond memories of holidays at California in England from the early sixties. I spend my holidays there with my parents over four years from 1963 to 1966. It was a great holiday and as a young boy there was a lot to do. The glass floored ballroom was amazing ,made, it is rumoured, from glass that came from the old Crystal Palace in London. There was swimming in the lake, boating, fishing, games and competitions. It was a bit like Hi-de-Hi really but more organised. I have set up a website as part of a social history project about the California in England holiday camp at www.californiainengland.com . Please visit the site and let me have your feedback. Sadly the main building was destroyed by fire in 1976 and nothing of the original camp remains. However, it is still a holiday resort as California Country Park so the name lives on. Through the website you can contact me with any memories and I will be glad to include them. It is... Read more
Growth of Wokingham
When my parents moved to Wokingham in 1950 I understand that it had a polulation of 5,000 and my memories are of a sleepy market town. I gather the poulation is now about 60,000 and it certainly shows when I return - it seems very built up and very busy. We lived in Easthampstead Road and I see that this road now has many more houses, with infilling and houses built in back gardens etc. but it is still very recognisable.
Memories of Berkshire
Forest School
The building in the background is the Forest Grammar School which would have been newly built at this time - I think it opened in 1957. The headmaster at the time was "Wally" Jackson, who I had the pleasure of meeting rather too often as he wielded his cane for my latest infraction of the rules!
Forest Grammar School, Winnersh 1957-62
This fine school {formerly Woodley Hill} was opened in 1957. I was lucky enough to be one of 150 pupils who passed the 11plus {God knows how} and thus was one of the first intake, a real privilege although I didn't realise it at the time. I was cursed with the surname BRIGHT which I hated with a vengeance. I gained the dubious distinction of been given the first detention ever at Forest, given for no good reason by an obnoxious oaf of a prefect named Frampton. I have waited fifty years to say that!! The teachers at Forest were simply the best. They took a genuine interest in all of us plebs and I am so appreciative of all of them. Without the efforts of Messrs. Jackson, Headmaster-- Fanning,Deputy Head-- Fulbrook, Art-- Muncy, Sport-- Pettit, English-- Virgo, Geography-- Smith, Biology-- Marquis, Chemistry-- Enos, Physics-- and numerous others whose names I cannot recall right now, my fantastic and interesting... Read more
Music at The Forest Grammar
Music at The Forest Grammar School I taught music at 'The Forest' - 1954 - 1964. Thence to New Guinea (which I thought was in Africa! - geography not a strong point). For those who may be interested my website is at http//: web.mac.com/durquhartjones/Site. Anyone remember our production of 'The Pirates'? I remember the pirate king who was a heavy smoker - a very nice chap whose name was Benson. I remember John Fanning's son David who as a very small boy hit me on the head with a hammer.
Royal Merchant Navy School Bearwood College
I arrived at Winnersh Halt Railway Station for the first time in 1946, aged 8 years.
I had travelled by train from Newcastle upon Tyne with my suitcase and a label pinned to my coat accompanied only by other returning pupils. I was to start an eight year period at Boarding School, then known as Royal Merchant Navy School. The school was run very strictly at this time specifically for boys and girls who had lost their fathers at sea during the Second World War. Many of us were from the same seafaring areas of the country and had much in common.
Walking from the station through Sindlesham to the school and up the quarter mile driveway, through the "Golden Gates" (long since gone) was a great adventure and the memory of seeing Bearwood and the "Chapel" for the first time remains with me still. The chapel was well used as pupils and staff attended every day of the week, apart from Saturday, but twice on a Sunday... Read more
Royal Merchant Navy School, Bearwood
The Royal Merchant Navy School As far back as 1827 the Royal Merchant Navy School was established under the name of the Merchant Seaman's Orphan Asylum to provide a home for the destitute offspring of British Merchant Navy Seamen, with a view of assisting and benefiting them when disease, accident or calamity at sea deprived them of their chief support. The school when first established was located in St George's-in-the-East in London and had catered for 5 boys and 5 girls. These numbers gradually increased until in 1834, it moved to premises in Bow Road where accommodation for 120 pupils was provided in leasehold premises. In 1862 the school moved to a home of its own at Snaresbrooke, in Essex; this housed 250 pupils but the accommodation was enlarged subsequently to cater for 300. In 1902, the school was renamed 'The Royal Merchant Navy Seaman's Orphanage', at the instigation of King Edward VII. In November 1919, the School was presented by Sir Thomas Lane Devitt, Bart., and Sir Alfred Yarrow, Bart., jointly, with... Read more
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