| |
||||||||||||
Newsletter No. 89 - September 2007
By now most of you will be back from holiday, refreshed, I hope, and ready for an autumn packed with interesting meetings of your local history society and perhaps some research too. I do hope that none of you was affected by the recent floods, which has prompted a huge amount of publicity in the local press, valuable material for future local historians. Is anyone currently investigating the history of unusual weather - excessive cold, rain or drought in the county? If so, please don't keep it to yourself; it would make an interesting article for Berkshire Old and New, or a talk at a future day school. I missed the Museum of English Life Spectacular in August; a family wedding took me to Suffolk, a beautiful county but different from our own though many of its churches are built from the knapped flints so familiar to us. The little church at Debenham where my nephew was married interested me for two reasons: a spectacular monument to a local seventeenth century apothecary who made good, and the name of the village. Is this the birthplace of an ancestor of founder of the department store, so much a part of many a shopping mall? To return to Berkshire. I hope to see many of you at our own day school on Saturday, 3 November at the Museum of English Life, Redlands Road, Reading. We have arranged a varied programme of talks on many aspects of Berkshire's history, most by members of local societies. The subjects range from the seventeenth-century Hearth Tax to the making of a quilt illustrating the history of Theale made by the Theale Local History Society. Coffee, tea and a light lunch are included in the fee of £10. Copies of the detailed programme for the day and an application form are enclosed with this newsletter; feel free to photocopy more should you need them. Please come and learn about recent and current research in the ancient county, meet old and new friends and support fellow local historians. If the day is a success, it could become an annual, or at least a biennial event. A further date for your diaries: 23 February 2008. Religious Change in Berkshire will be the subject of a joint day school with the School of Continuing Education, University of Reading and the Berkshire Record Society. Details in the next newsletter. Meanwhile, good luck with research and enjoy your society meetings. See you in November? Joan Dils, Chairman, BLHA Words from the EditorsWe have worked hard on our membership list since our last issue and hope that all details are now correct and up to date. If this is not the case or you have had a recent change of officers please contact Christine Wardingley. It is with great pleasure that I do not have to include an In Memoriam section in this edition of the newsletter. Although copy was a little slow coming in and our Diary Dates are a bit thin we still have most of our usual contributors and one or two interesting pieces for you to read. I hope, that even with the rather wet weather, we have all managed to retain some pleasant memories of summer 2007. Margaret Simons Requests for InformationCharles Masters writes for a well-known family history magazine and wishes to contact a society that have used plenty of maps in their local studies perhaps in the evolution of their village or local urban area - could you suggest a contact for him? If you can help please mail Charles at charles@easypenguin.co.uk Can you help with an enquiry about the GWR? Nick Deacon is attempting to research facts for publication in a specialist transport magazine and says. ‘I have been able to gather info from a local resident who lived in Lower Brook Street while the yard and line were still working but I am having trouble enlarging the scope of the information with particular reference to Simonds Brewery (the line served the malt houses by Bear Wharf on the K&A, the yard, its layout and other commercial undertakings which it served from 1908 (its opening) until the early '80's. There was a CWS 'Jam' factory, various coal merchants (eg. Toomers) and an oil installation to my certain knowledge - but apart from that I'm struggling’. Can anyone suggest any leads? He adds that he has approached an archivist for Simonds, who, amazingly, has drawn a blank on any mention of the line in the Brewery records and has a few sketchy facts from the railway point of view. I now realise I may have to visit National Records at Kew as well as the Central Library/Museum in Reading! As I now live in Cornwall I can't afford to do this too many times! Any straws you can throw me would be gratefully clutched at. I am researching cricket at Huntley & Palmers in Reading, home grounds included Kings Meadow and the "County" Ground in Kensington Road, Reading. Any information about the grounds, games, the club or recollections/related photographs would be of great help. If you can help please contact Martin Bishop 2. Huckleberry Close, Purley on Thames RG8 8EH ---- 0118 945 3117Notice BoardAGMPlease make a note in your diaries that our next Annual General Meeting will be held on either the 15th or 29th March 2008. In a departure from previous years and in order to promote greater involvement of our societies in this event, it is hoped that the day will be hosted by one our member societies. More details, with the usual application form, will be included in our next edition. BLHA Day School November 3 2007Please see the enclosed flyer for this event. Please note the event is limited to 50, early booking is advisable as places are limited to 50. Biscuits, Bats and BallsIf anyone is interested in a talk, ‘Biscuits, Bats and Balls’, a brief history of Cricket at Huntley & Palmers - approximately 1 hour duration. Please contact Martin Bishop 2. Huckleberry Close, Purley on Thames RG8 8EH. 0118 945 3117 Electronic NewsletterIn our present climate of being friendly to the environment is there anyone who would prefer to receive their copy of the newsletter via email? We already send an electronic copy overseas; so if you would prefer to get yours by Email please let me know February Day SchoolWe are very pleased to announce that arrangements for the day school on 23 February 2008 on religious change in Berkshire are progressing well. The day will be hosted jointly by ourselves, the Berkshire Record Society and the Department of Continuing Education and will be held in the recently refurbished Gyosei lecture theatre at the University’s London road site. National ArchivesThe National Archives are looking for local history societies to volunteer their serves to help with the Nineteenth Century Poverty in England and Wales Project. The projects focus is the thousands of underused and unlisted letters, memos and reports from the various Poor Law Unions. If you would like to find out more contact Dr Paul Carter, c/o The National Archive, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 4DU. Tel. 020976344, Email poorlaw@nationalarchives.gov.uk . An example of one of the projects successes thus far are the records of the Southwell Workhouse, Nottinghamshire. The volunteers of the Southwell Workhouse Research Group catalogued the correspondence between the Workhouse Shouthwell and London from 1834-1871. The workhouse is owned by the National Trust and the records are available online. For more information about the Southwell workhouse go to nationalarchives.gov.uk/workhouse and nationaltrust.org.uk/workhouse New Membership SecretaryChristine Wardingley kindly agreed to be our new membership secretary at our AGM, taking over the job from Peter Johnson who had previously undertaken this job and that of treasurer. Would all members therefore please make a note to contact her with any queries regarding membership, change of address or committee members. Details can be found on the back page. Request For JournalsDoes anyone have any spare copies of Berkshire Old and New? One of our members requires journals 8,11,16,17 and 21. If anyone can help please can they let me know. Standing OrdersWe are currently in the process of changing our banking arrangements, from Lloyds bank to CAF (Charities Aid Foundation) bank. This Change will require a new standing order to be completed for your annual subscription. If you have not completed a standing order yet, it would be a considerable help if you could. A standing order transfers your annual subscription directly to the association's bank account, minimising bank charges and simplifying our administration. Standing Orders are normally free and save you the trouble of remembering to post a cheque. Our treasurer, David Lewis, will contact you in due course with the new instructions. If you have any questions please contact David, details can be found on the back page Margaret Simons New BooksLondon Street Described: a Reading Historical Record 1800-1900, James Smart ed., (privately published 2007) price £7.95 from Wordplay Bookshop, 18, Prospect Street, Caversham RG4 8JG or from the authors at 3, Ashley Close, Earley, RG6 5QY It is amazing where a local history evening class can lead to and for how long its subject can inspire students to continue researching. The work of the London Street Research Group, begun many years ago, has just resulted in a valuable addition to our understanding of the society, economy and landscape of an important part of Reading. London Street, once described as having 'power to charm', is no longer the flourishing commercial area it once was, with its wide variety of shops and crafts attracting customers from all levels of society. Fortunately, with the help of this excellent little book, we can recreate it in imagination. It begins with a brief introduction including some relevant aspects of the town's history, a general description of the occupants of the properties, their trades and social status, and a valuable discussion of the sometimes-intractable problems of the sources, not least the different methods of street numbering. What follows is a listing of each property, some unfortunately demolished, with the date of its construction, its architectural history, and details of all known heads of household, their occupations, and the dates they were in business and / or residence during the nineteenth century. Most of the buildings are carefully illustrated with miniature line drawings based, whenever possible, on Victorian photographs. The work of the group in meticulously re-creating one of Reading's most important historic features is something for which we must be very grateful. Take a copy with you and walk up London Street; you will be amazed at what there is to discover. Joan Dils Special FeatureMemories of Huntley and Palmers -1I would like to thank Cecily Amos for allowing me to edit the notes she made of her employment experiences at Huntley and Palmers. It is hoped to be able to bring you more of her memories in a future edition. I started work in the offices at Huntley and Palmers in August 1949 when I was nearly 17 and stayed there until I was made redundant in 1987. During this time there were many changes, not least of which was the amalgamation of Huntley and Palmers with Peek Frean and Jacobs to form Associated Biscuits Ltd in 1968, two take over attempts by Rowntree and the eventual buy out by Nabisco in 1982. The front offices where I worked had been built in 1936 and were opened in 1937. Most of the office staff entered by the side entrance immediately past the watchman’s office and offices were on four floors. Reception was on the ground floor as was the buying department, wages office and telephone exchange. I started work in the post room where all mail incoming and internal was sorted and delivered to the various offices and factory departments. We worked on early and late shifts alternate weeks. On the late shift all the mail to go to the post office had to be cleared for posting before we left the building and we had to be in work at 9:30 am the next day. Any queries on biscuit orders or complaints paper work was traced in the post room and given to the relevant department. After we had done three months probation we went from weekly to monthly salary. The company bank was Nat West and if you did not have a bank account you could join without paying any bank charges. We had a grading system throughout the offices, A to E, as you progressed, according to the job you did, your salary increased. Ladies had no pension scheme prior to 1968 and men paid about 4-4½% of their salaries. All ladies wore, alternative weeks, a blue or cream overall, supervisors wore a lavender blue overall. I was on the staff advisory committee, which amongst other things changed the style of the overall before these were eventually done away with. In 1951 I had the opportunity to move to the Accounts Department, which was on the directors’ corridor. At this time there were only 6 members of the accounts team, there were no part timers and no married ladies in the office. I looked after the representatives who paid their money in to the bank, lists were sent in each day, which it was my job to check. I also had to sort the filing out. We had a canteen with meals at a reasonable price and where we eventually went for our tea breaks once we stopped having tea breaks at our desks. We had a thriving recreation club with a library, bar, snooker-table, table tennis, billiards and slot machines. There was a tennis club and there were cricket and hockey teams, our home trade manager had played hockey for England. The football team was in the Spartan League and sports days were held on the Kensington sports ground, leased to the company by Reginald Palmer’s estate (sons William and Richard). In 1955 we leased a factory on an industrial estate and started production at Huyton. More staff were taken on in accounts because Huyton did not have a department of their own and each member of the Reading team did two sets of books, one for Reading and one for Huyton. This went on for about 20 years and the office was divided in to different sets of books: ingredients, stationery, engineers, miscellaneous and representatives’ expenses. Margaret Simons Society NewsBlewbury Local History Group
Audrey Long Pangbourne Heritage Group
I don’t think any of us realised how much work we were taking on, and also how much more material would arrive as a result of the exhibition. However, one of the most rewarding aspects was the interest shown by people from the village, especially those who had lived through the war years. We used some of our displays at the recent ‘Living History’ exhibition in Newbury, and included some more research into family histories from World War 1. Very little of Pangbourne’s history has been documented over the years, so it is a fascinating, if daunting task to find out about events that have shaped the village and it’s inhabitants. The two world wars made a huge impact on village life and the scatter graph of population variations. There were other factors, which we are investigating at present, and hopefully publishing our conclusions at some time in the future. Another aspect of our meetings has been to introduce a number of speakers throughout the year, some from the village and some from the surrounding area, the latest being Clive Williams: ‘The Nabobs of Berkshire’. We have enriched our knowledge of local history, and also gained support from visitors who come to listen to our talks, and add their own comments. We have also taken artefacts into the local primary school, and used local resources where possible. A visit to the Berkshire Records Office in January was very illuminating, and fired a lot of individual research. We are still learning how to do things, but we have the satisfaction of knowing that we are breaking new ground, and hopefully contributing to the countrywide project of understanding your own locality, and thereby making informed decisions about changes that are promoted by ‘interested parties’, i.e. developers and occasionally local government. Lesley Crimp Project Purley
May heralded the start of our Summer programme. For our annual walkabout this year we chose to visit Wallingford. A good crowd of members foregathered one evening at Wallingford Museum to meet our guide for the evening, Mrs Judith Dewe. Judith gave a brief introduction to our walk, explaining that Wallingford had been a Saxon Settlement of some importance in Berkshire. Our outing in June to Buscot Park was somewhat spoilt by bad weather, so it was only a few members who ventured over there and lunched together at the nearby Trout Inn. The July Barbecue was hosted, this year, by Ben and Dorothy Viljoen in their delightful garden. It was the day of the incessant rain, but the Forecasters promised a clearance by eventide. And so it was, and a good crowd of members and friends enjoyed a pleasant evening, with lots of good food and drink, and much chatter and laughter. Millie Bordiss Sandhurst Historical Society
Those of us who met up at the Army Museum on the 18th May had an enjoyable and interesting afternoon there. Certainly worth a visit for those who have not yet been there. Unfortunately, our scheduled talk on ‘25 years in the front-line of Archaeology’ was cancelled as our speaker, Mark Corney, was taken ill with a chest infection which resulted in his being taken into hospital. We wish him well and hope his talk will take place some time in the future. Fortunately for us Vikki Nesbitt from Bracknell Forest Council filled the gap by giving us a talk on Ambarrow Court and the forthcoming archaeological dig by children from 4 local schools in July. As we said in the June issue of the SRA magazine there was a site exhibition of the childrens’ finds on Saturday, 14th July when all were welcome to attend. Our Society will be represented there as well. We have no meeting in July, as there will be an outing to Reading Museum on the 28th of this month after which we shall continue on to Silchester accompanied by Mark Corney. The cost of this outing will be £12 to members and £15 to non-members. Kathleen Burgess who is a member of the Surrey Gardens Trust will give us a talk on ‘The Story of Frimley Park on the 30th August. Our AGM will be in September after which Peter Starling, curator of the Army Medical Services Museum, will give us a talk on Military Medical History from the Civil War to the Gulf War. Don’t forget our Photographic Competition details of which were given in full in the June issue of this magazine. If you are interested in local history why not join us at one of our meetings where we feel sure you will not be disappointed. Our meetings are held at the Sandhurst Community Hall, usually on the last Thursday of each month, commencing at 7.30 p.m. The Society’s website can be found at www.sandhurst-historical-society.org for further information. Alternatively, please ring Jean Baker on 01252 843309 Janice Burlton Sonning and Sonning Eye Society
Our film evening, A night at the pictures, held in January was very well attended. Courtesy of the Wessex Film and Sound Archive based in the Hampshire Record Office, Winchester, we watched a number of amateur films of Sonning and other local places, all dating from the early 30’s. It would be great to identify the amateur cinematographer. A woman and child, presumed to be wife and daughter, feature prominently. Some of the filming is extensive, aiming for great subtlety, for example, depicting sunset views of the river. The river provided the context for our March talk by Brian Eighteen. In Watermills of the Thames Valley, Brian brought to life the vitality of the river and the industries it supported. Mill survivals are rare, and so it will be a great pleasure that The Mill at Sonning will be open under the Heritage Open Days Scheme on Sunday 9 September. Open all afternoon, there will be two backstage tours, timed in such a way as to enable people to join the reprise of the Sonning Village Walks, which were so popular last year. Our main autumn event will be a combined walk and talk on Saturday 13 October led by Trevor Ottlewski. This will look at timber-framed buildings. Details are still under discussion and will be promoted in the next issue of Bridge to be distributed on August Bank Holiday weekend and on our website. Recent issues of Bridge have carried articles on census data (Issue 10, Spring 2007) and growing up in Sonning Eye (Issue 11, Summer 2007). If you would like to contact us, here are some details. Diane Coulter Twyford & Ruscombe Local History Society
In April, Jean Debney helped Society members to Make sense of the Census, demonstrating an enlightening talk with slides, clarifying abbreviations used, and outlining the increasing detail and information now available to researchers. Her talk was greatly appreciated by the many members present. At the May meeting, John Barfoot, reminisced on The Hurst I Remember. Among his memories he mentioned the cricket club and grounds, with youngsters who attended matches fighting for the best seat on the light and heavy rollers parked by the side of the old pavilion, and the legendary Johnny Walters. There were also memories of the Home Guard, with arms drill on Thursday evenings in the village hall, a weekend school at Binfield – sleeping in converted pigsties – and attending Church Parades. There was laughter as he recalled his days in the choir and in particular the difficulties involved when boys were deputed to manually operate the pump handles of the organ bellow in the vestry – no mean task with the difficulty of hearing the service from inside the vestry. This was a delightful trip down memory lane, much enjoyed by all. The Natural History of Ruscombe Wood was beautifully illustrated with slides by Stephen Loyd in June, when he described the site, its history, and its effect on the local people and their reliance on the landscape. He referred to osiers and hazels, and the reintroduction of traditional management – the hawthorn hedge layered in the traditional manner, patches of high ash alternating with low coppice hazel, and ponds and open areas offering good habitat for birds, butterflies and amphibians. His talk introduced a much-needed touch of summer in an otherwise rather wet month. Although Mrs Betty Cossey, previously Chairman, is still sorely missed by the Society after her sudden death in 2006, members greatly appreciated the kindness and generosity of her husband, David, in offering his lovely garden for our summer ploughman’s lunch in July. The sun shone warmly and conversation flowed along with wine and food – not to mention those lovely jam doughnuts! All meetings are held at 8pm on the second Monday of each month in the Library, Piggott School, and new members and visitors are always welcome. Pauline Humphreys Swallowfield Local History Society
Our July voyage upstream from Caversham to visit Mapledurham Mill and House was postponed (once again) due to the River Thames being imminently in flood. We do not meet in August due to our involvement at Swallowfield Show over the Bank Holiday weekend Ken Hussey Wargrave Local History Society The April meeting was an illustrated talk by Tony King on ‘Victorian Shopping’ - a look at how shops had been transformed over the years. The roots of that change were in the Victorian period. Consumerism was effectively born in 1851, when ‘going shopping’ came of age with the Great Exhibition - where, for the first time, people could browse the goods without actually having to buy them. At the start of the Victorian era there were many small local shops, like the village post office and savings bank, farmer’s markets etc, many ‘specialist’ in a specific product. The sight of open knives, open meat and children all together in the butcher’s would not fit in with today’s health and safety rules, but people survived! Tony showed us how many now well-known names on the High Street had developed from small beginnings, maybe as a market stall or a small local shop. Many of these Victorian’s soon saw the power of advertising, and Tony showed many typical examples of the period - some with rather dubious claims for the product! The History of Housework’ was the subject for Laureen Williamson’s talk in May. The history of housework is really the history of mankind - not just that of a ‘housewife’. When farming was developed, animals were herded on the farm, and seeds sown for crops to suit, individuals no longer had to go out and search for food. The need then arose for the ‘housewife’. There would be sufficient food produced in the summer that some could be stored for use in the winter, or bartered with artisans for tools etc. In many ways, life has not changed a lot since, in that the housewife has to find ways to preserve food during the summer to use in the winter. As people began to live in ‘proper’ houses, the management of the house itself became important. There were many chores to be done - many we would not recognise today. Laureen explored the changes in ‘gadgets’ (from servants to electrically powered ones!) for all sorts of household chores. June was the biennial village festival, and the Society again conducted a ‘Historic Village Walks’ and took part in the village fete and parade, with its ‘Wild West’ theme. In July, members enjoyed a visit to Highclere Castle, home of the Earls of Carnarvon, with the museum concerning the 5th Earl’s sponsorship of Howard Carter’s discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamen. Peter Delaney Winnersh and District Historical Society Our AGM was held in April, and it was noted that our second booklet, published in July 2006, had been well received. It was followed by a discussion on the origin of some Winnersh Road Names, and we all learned a little more local history. We have also received queries and information from other sources, and were invited to a tour of the Berkshire Family History Association who have a lot of information. The May meeting saw us at Hurst Church, where we were given tours of the church and churchyard, including a look in the mausoleum. Until St. Catherine’s Church at Bearwood was consecrated in 1846, funded by John Walter II, the villagers were in the parish of Hurst, and had to travel or walk several miles to the church. In June, Frank Jacob gave an informative talk on Ancestry. He went through the various steps by starting to obtain information from surviving friends and relatives, the names of parents from Birth and Marriage certificates, and so on until the first hurdle of July 1837, when National Records started. Some parish records date from the 1500s. Other sources include Census Records, which he lamented are not released until after 100 years and is a serious hindrance. He pointed out that information from friends and relatives may be faulty, parents may not have been married, names spelt differently etc. He suggested that information should be put on to a computer for future reference, such that, contact can be made between people with common persons in their Family Trees by subscribing to one of the appropriate organisations. In July, Cecily Amos spoke of her memories of Huntley and Palmers where she worked for 38 yrs, starting in the post room, and then finally in charge of assets. George Palmer joined the Huntleys in partnership in 1841, and designed the machinery for mass production of biscuits. The Palmers were a Quaker family, who were strict but fair with their employees. Initially, only single women were employed but were separated from the male employees. They were given a wedding cake should they marry, and generations of families were common. By 1914, 6000 people worked in the factory, and Reading became home to the world’s largest biscuit factory, by maintaining the quality of the ingredients. In the 1950s, an automated factory was built at Huyton, and in 1977 Reading had baked its last biscuit, and later taken over by an American company, Nabisco. Stella Young Wokingham History Group
In May, Dr Andrew Hutt's illustrated history of "Dovecotes & the History of Pigeon Keeping", was based on the 1960s research of Esme Few. The Berkshire Archaeology Society inherited her work in 2002 and has perpetuated this countywide project. In June, our chairman Trevor Ottlewski brought together a wide variety of images to present "Wokingham's Town Halls" (part I), concentrating on the exterior of the buildings. From documentary evidence and 18th & 19th century drawings, this was the heart of civic and community life. Barbara Young Heritage, Family History, Museums and LibrariesBerkshire Record OfficeDates for your diary Never been to BRO? Why not put your name down for one of our free introductory visits. Dates are now available as follows: 8 October 2007, 4 February 2008, then 14 April, 7 July and 6 October. All are on Monday afternoons at 2pm and last for about an hour. Alternatively if you want a look behind the scenes why not book a place on a tour on Saturday 8 September, when we will be open from 11am-1pm as part of the annual Heritage Open Days. New resource for Slough history We have recently completed the cataloguing of the historic minutes of Slough Borough Council and its committees. These minutes offer some intriguing snippets of life in Slough between 1863 and 1974, including the use of dressing rooms at Salt Hill Playing Fields for 'cleansing the public after contamination by gas' in 1941, showing how such premises were adapted during World War Two. The minutes also highlight the preparations involved in the celebrations for the Queen's coronation in 1953. They refer to tree planting by children in Upton Court Park, the provision of coronation mugs to children and spoons to babies born on the day. There was also the issue of what decoration was deemed acceptable; the General Purposes and Civil Defence committee stated that 'this committee is of the opinion that no bunting should be displayed on the Town Hall'. Children were catered for in Salt Hill Playing Fields with a Punch and Judy show and the elderly were treated to organised gatherings for the official broadcast on TV. Although Slough only came into Berkshire in 1974, the town had been run by a local board since July 1863. The growth of the town was such that it became incorporated as a municipal borough in April 1938, and retains the title of a borough council today. Property history Are you interested in researching a local property? Among our more recently deposited material are a number of items relating to properties across the county. These include a collection of research notes about Lily Hill House in Warfield and Martins Heron in Winkfield; deeds and papers for Warfield Lodge (later known as Holly Spring); and deeds for Orchard House in Sunningdale, at one time home of the ballerina Ninette de Valois. These are typical examples of private property records now preserved for research with BRO, which complement the official records we hold (like rating records) for property history. Mark Stevens, Senior Archivist Maidenhead Heritage Centre By the time you read this, builders will have started converting our new Park street premises. You will be able to hear an account of the history of this former beer-house at the Day School on 3rd November. Meantime a team of volunteers is busy transferring details of our collection of objects, documents and photographs onto the "Catalist" museum database. This year we ran three historical river cruises from Maidenhead, all fully booked. If you or your society would like to join one in 2008, contact our Administrator for details. On 25th September we are sponsoring a lecture on the Fairey Rotodyne to commemorate the 50th anniversary of its maiden flight from White Waltham airfield. This will be given by David Gibbins, the flight test engineer, at Norden Farm Centre for the Arts, and will feature rare archive films. Brian Boulter Reading Central Library Over the last few years, Reading Libraries have taken various initiatives to raise people’s awareness of the local studies collection at the Central Library. One of these is the coffee mornings at branch libraries. The meetings are for anyone who cares to come along. Since they are in the middle of the morning on a weekday, the partakers are usually, but not entirely, retired people. Along with the coffee and biscuits, there is a speaker, and the subjects covered are many and varied. When I go, I take along a few pictures and memorabilia, sometimes connected with the area of Reading served by the library, and sometimes more general. When the coffee is safely cleared away (!) we pass the various items round, and talk about them. I know that the sessions are popular with the customers, because they are so interested and keen to talk that I usually have difficulty in getting away afterwards. My session on theatres in Reading seems to have gone down particularly well because I’ve been asked to repeat it at the same library. People were interested in looking at the old programmes, some of them for shows they remembered seeing. We also seem to have acquired a 1950s cashbook from the Palace Theatre, which arouses great interest. It shows, for each performance, how many seats were sold in the pit, the stalls, the circle, the gallery, etc., and how many ices and cigarettes were sold. I must pass it on to the Berkshire Record Office when the session is over! When I re-visit a branch, and the visitors know what to expect, they sometimes bring along their own photographs and memorabilia, and we talk about them, which is all the better. And better still, they sometimes lend them to me, so that they can be copied electronically, and added to the collection at Reading Library. There can be considerable gains to the Library, from the coffee mornings. On Saturday, September 8th, as one of the Heritage Open Days, we’ll be running our “Behind the Bookshelves” tour, which has become something of a tradition. This gives visitors a chance to look at the local studies collection behind the scenes, and to peep into the reserve stock and the strong room. The tour runs from 11 a.m. to 12 noon. Places are limited: please telephone 0118 901 5965 to reserve a place. Later in the month, on Saturday September 29th, we’ll be holding our first family history day, at the Central Library from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. It’s aimed at people setting out on family history, but people from the Library, the Family History Society and the Record Office will be on hand to offer help and advice to anyone interested. There is no need to book – just turn up on the day. In connection with the centenary history of the two Reading branch libraries, Caversham and Battle, which I’m writing, I’ve recently paid a visit to Caversham, which has a clock tower. The clock is supported by a statue of Old Father Time, complete with wings and a scythe. When first installed, the clock was mechanical, with weights, a pendulum, and a chiming mechanism, and it was illuminated. I thought I should take a look up there, and fondly imagined that there was a secret door somewhere in the library which you unlocked, giving access to a staircase going up from the ground. But no! – you have to put up a ladder to reach the roof, and clamber over several roofs at different levels, before reaching the blue door into the tower. Once unlocked, behind it you find the ladder which takes you up to the mechanism – a surprisingly small electric motor! There is now no trace of the clockwork mechanism and the bells that chimed. The metal funnel, with a little chimney, which directed the heat and fumes from the three gaslights that once illuminated the dials, is still in the tower. I thought, as I climbed down, rather dusty, that being a local studies librarian took you to some interesting places! The book should be ready for the Caversham centenary in December. David Cliffe, Local Studies Manager Reading Museum Service These are just some of the events that may be of interest to BLHA members. For details of all our forthcoming events and exhibition details please go to www.readingmuseum.org.uk/news To receive our latest ‘what’s on’ diary why not join our free mailing list, call us on 0118 939 9800. Exhibitions The Thames to Tahiti: Robert Gibbings, artist, author and adventurer, 13 October – 12 January 2008. Robert Gibbings did more than anyone to bring the art of wood-engraving to the general public. This exhibition explores his colourful life and art through his beautiful engravings, books and personal memorabilia. Events Lunchtime Talks Egyptian Eyeopener Talks Matthew Williams, Senior Curator CoursesThe University of Reading School of Continuing Education has various courses running in the new term. For more details check www.reading.ac.uk/ContEd or call 0118 3788347. Manfred Brod will be repeating his course on the history of the Thames Valley, 1500-1700, at Ewert House in Oxford starting 1 October. Updated this year to include a session on social and political structures, and to take in some aspects of the history of the city of Oxford. Mondays IOam-12noon starting 01/10/2007 10 weekly meetings, £85.00. If you wish to enrol, please do so at least two weeks in advance, since if at that point there is insufficient interest the course will be cancelled. The Oxford University Department of Continuing Education also have a number of other part-time courses in their 2007/8 prospectus that may be of interest to members. For more information on these and other courses please call 01865 270360, email pp@conted.ox.ac.uk or look at the website on www.conted.ox.ac.uk
History SocietiesArborfield Local History Society: Mrs P Steed, The Old Post House, Eversley Road, Arborfield Cross, Reading, Berks, RG2 9PG Archives, Libraries & MuseumsAbingdon Library: The Charter, Abingdon, OX14 3LY. 01235 520374 Wantage Vale & Downland Museum: Church Street, Wantage, OX12 8BL. 01235 760991 museum@wantage.com
|
|
Registered Charity 1097355
|
