The Reading Book of Days E-Book

The History of Reading Society

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Serie: Book of Days
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 397

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

Taking you through the year day by day, The Reading Book of Days contains a quirky, eccentric, amusing or important event or fact from different periods of history, many of which had a major impact on the religious and political history of England as a whole. Ideal for dipping into, this addictive little book will keep you entertained and informed. Featuring hundreds of snippets of information gleaned from the vaults of Reading's archives, it will delight residents and visitors alike.

Leseprobe

THE

READING

BOOK

OF

DAYS

THE HISTORY OF READING SOCIETY

The Reading Book of Days is a collaborative effort by members and associates of the History of Reading Society, with John Dearing as Editor and Penelope Starr and Philip Vaughan as Assistant Editors. See February 3rd for full list of authors.

First published in 2013

The History Press

The Mill, Brimscombe Port

Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL5 2QG

www.thehistorypress.co.uk

This ebook edition first published in 2013

All rights reserved

© The History of Reading Society, 2013

The right of The History of Reading Society to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

EPUBISBN 978 0 7509 5173 9

Original typesetting by The History Press

CONTENTS

January

January 1st

January 2nd

January 3rd

January 4th

January 5th

January 6th

January 7th

January 8th

January 9th

January 10th

January 11th

January 12th

January 13th

January 14th

January 15th

January 16th

January 17th

January 18th

January 19th

January 20th

January 21st

January 22nd

January 23rd

January 24th

January 25th

January 26th

January 27th

January 28th

January 29th

January 30th

January 31st

February

February 1st

February 2nd

February 3rd

February 4th

February 5th

February 6th

February 7th

February 8th

February 9th

February 10th

February 11th

February 12th

February 13th

February 14th

February 15th

February 16th

February 17th

February 18th

February 19th

February 20th

February 21st

February 22nd

February 23rd

February 24th

February 25th

February 26th

February 27th

February 28th

February 29th

March

March 1st

March 2nd

March 3rd

March 4th

March 5th

March 6th

March 7th

March 8th

March 9th

March 10th

March 11th

March 12th

March 13th

March 14th

March 15th

March 16th

March 17th

March 18th

March 19th

March 20th

March 21st

March 22nd

March 23rd

March 24th

March 25th

March 26th

March 27th

March 28th

March 29th

March 30th

March 31st

April

April 1st

April 2nd

April 3rd

April 4th

April 5th

April 6th

April 7th

April 8th

April 9th

April 10th

April 11th

April 12th

April 13th

April 14th

April 15th

April 16th

April 17th

April 18th

April 19th

April 20th

April 21st

April 22nd

April 23rd

April 24th

April 25th

April 26th

April 27th

April 28th

April 29th

April 30th

May

May 1st

May 2nd

May 3rd

May 4th

May 5th

May 6th

May 7th

May 8th

May 9th

May 10th

May 11th

May 12th

May 13th

May 14th

May 15th

May 16th

May 17th

May 18th

May 19th

May 20th

May 21st

May 22nd

May 23rd

May 24th

May 25th

May 26th

May 27th

May 28th

May 29th

May 30th

May 31st

June

June 1st

June 2nd

June 3rd

June 4th

June 5th

June 6th

June 7th

June 8th

June 9th

June 10th

June 11th

June 12th

June 13th

June 14th

June 15th

June 16th

June 17th

June 18th

June 19th

June 20th

June 21st

June 22nd

June 23rd

June 24th

June 25th

June 26th

June 27th

June 28th

June 29th

June 30th

July

July 1st

July 2nd

July 3rd

July 4th

July 5th

July 6th

July 7th

July 8th

July 9th

July 10th

July 11th

July 12th

July 13th

July 14th

July 15th

July 16th

July 17th

July 18th

July 19th

July 20th

July 21st

July 22nd

July 23rd

July 24th

July 25th

July 26th

July 27th

July 28th

July 29th

July 30th

July 31st

August

August 1st

August 2nd

August 3rd

August 4th

August 5th

August 6th

August 7th

August 8th

August 9th

August 10th

August 11th

August 12th

August 13th

August 14th

August 15th

August 16th

August 17th

August 18th

August 19th

August 20th

August 21st

August 22nd

August 23rd

August 24th

August 25th

August 26th

August 27th

August 28th

August 29th

August 30th

August 31st

September

September 1st

September 2nd

September 3rd

September 4th

September 5th

September 6th

September 7th

September 8th

September 9th

September 10th

September 11th

September 12th

September 13th

September 14th

September 15th

September 16th

September 17th

September 18th

September 19th

September 20th

September 21st

September 22nd

September 23rd

September 24th

September 25th

September 26th

September 27th

September 28th

September 29th

September 30th

October

October 1st

October 2nd

October 3rd

October 4th

October 5th

October 6th

October 7th

October 8th

October 9th

October 10th

October 11th

October 12th

October 13th

October 14th

October 15th

October 16th

October 17th

October 18th

October 19th

October 20th

October 21st

October 22nd

October 23rd

October 24th

October 25th

October 26th

October 27th

October 28th

October 29th

October 30th

October 31st

November

November 1st

November 2nd

November 3rd

November 4th

November 5th

November 6th

November 7th

November 8th

November 9th

November 10th

November 11th

November 12th

November 13th

November 14th

November 15th

November 16th

November 17th

November 18th

November 19th

November 20th

November 21st

November 22nd

November 23rd

November 24th

November 25th

November 26th

November 27th

November 28th

November 29th

November 30th

December

December 1st

December 2nd

December 3rd

December 4th

December 5th

December 6th

December 7th

December 8th

December 9th

December 10th

December 11th

December 12th

December 13th

December 14th

December 15th

December 16th

December 17th

December 18th

December 19th

December 20th

December 21st

December 22nd

December 23rd

December 24th

December 25th

December 26th

December 27th

December 28th

December 29th

December 30th

December 31st

JANUARY 1ST

1822: On this day, William Ford Poulton was born, son of Cornelius and grandson of Charles Poulton, architect of the 1786 Reading Town Hall. William became one of the most important Nonconformist architects; with his partner William Henry Woodman, he designed over seventy churches and chapels, including his masterpiece, Westminster Chapel in London. Poulton also designed the drinking fountain at St Laurence’s, 1 London Street, Reading, and Wokingham Town Hall. In 1850 he married Georgina Bagnall, whose sister married William Woodman, making the partners also brothers-in-law. Poulton left Reading in 1883 and settled in Great Malvern. His daughter Lily founded Malvern Girls College; his son, Sir Edward Poulton, was an eminent zoologist.

SG (Gold, S., Dictionary of Architects at Reading, 1999)

1889: On this day, Eric Harold Neville, a geometrical mathematician (heavily fictionalised in the 2007 novel The Indian Clerk) was born in London. After graduating at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he became a Fellow, he was appointed to the chair of Mathematics at University College, Reading. Over the next few years, his work was largely responsible for Reading receiving its university charter in 1926, with power to award degrees. Of his many published papers, most were short pieces addressing concise, succinctly solved problems. Retiring from the university in 1954, he died at Reading in August 1961.

VC (The Mathematical Gazette, May 1964)

JANUARY 2ND

1904: On this day, the Reading Standard printed a letter from Joseph Mosdell addressed to William McIlroy, which he shared with the readers; he eulogised McIlroy’s new shop premises and called them ‘Reading’s Crystal Palace’ in an accompanying poem. Plans were first submitted in August 1899, but after the usual disapprovals and amendments they were redrawn and resubmitted. The new structure occupied the same site as an earlier McIlroy’s building but boasted an enormous 464ft frontage with shops on the ground floor, boardroom on the first floor and warehouse in the basement. The second and third floors, with their vast array of glass, housed the offices and 150 bedrooms for the staff, who were provided with a dining-room, sitting-rooms and music-room. The front was faced in light-red majolica glazed bricks. The overall architects were the firm of Joseph Morris & Son, but its unusual style hints more at son, Francis, than his father. The building is still in use today as separate shops with apartments above, though some of the decorative brickwork has been reduced. It has much in common with the former Pearl Buildings (1902) in Station Road, designed by the same firm.

SG (Reading Standard)

JANUARY 3RD

1891: On this day, Ellen Hopkins, aged fifteen, died while skating on the River Kennet, close to Huntley & Palmers biscuit factory. The weather had been particularly cold and the river was frozen. Ellen, whose father George was blacksmith at the forge in Merchant’s Place, joined four friends for some Saturday afternoon fun. The five youngsters, aged eight to fifteen, unaware that hot water pipes from the factory made that area unsafe, were enjoying their skating – then the ice gave way. Ellen and two of the boys fell in; the other two, attempting to help, also toppled into the freezing waters. Passers-by extended ladders over the ice and the four boys scrambled out. Benjamin Hamblin, a worker at the factory, came out and tried to save Ellen but she could not grasp the pole he held out and she disappeared into the river. Within fifteen minutes her body was retrieved from the water but she was dead. At the inquest, held on 5 January at the St Giles Coffee House, Mr Hopkins congratulated the survivors’ parents. He felt that no blame should attach to anyone but thought that there should have been signs to warn of the dangers there.

JP (Berkshire Chronicle)

JANUARY 4TH

871: On this day, Reading lamented a bloody encounter between invading Danes and the peasant-soldiers of Wessex, led by King Ethelred and his brother Alfred (later famed as Alfred the Great, the only English king called ‘Great’). By 870 Wessex stood alone against the ‘Great Heathen Army’ of the Danes (sometimes termed ‘Vikings’). At year’s end the Danes made a fortified camp in Reading (located probably at the top of today’s Castle Hill). The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle account of these events is the first written reference to Reading town. The threat to Wessex was now severe. The Battle of Englefield saw the Danes defeated, but in January, when the Wessex army attacked the Danes at Reading, their losses were heavy. Wessex regrouped to fight further battles, in which neither side was decisively victorious. In April 871 Alfred became King of Wessex. He entered peace negotiations, and the Danes withdrew from their Reading camp. But Alfred’s Danish troubles continued, despite campaigns and truces right across England. To oppose the invaders, he even created a navy, before he died in 899. Happily, it seems that Reading escaped more bloodshed at Danish hands for the next hundred years.

PV (Anglo-Saxon Chronicle)

JANUARY 5TH

1136: On this day, King Henry I was buried with great pomp before the High Altar of Reading Abbey, the huge, rich foundation he had established fifteen years before. Stephen, the new king, and all his archbishops, bishops and nobles, attended the funeral. After William the Conqueror won England’s throne in 1066, his family kept its French possessions and connections. Thus Henry (William’s fourth son) was in his Duchy of Normandy when he became fatally ill – reputedly after over-indulging in lampreys. Thanks to the intervention of Hugh, Archbishop of Rouen, a former Reading abbot, Henry’s embalmed body was returned for interment at the Abbey. The tomb was embellished with Henry’s life-size effigy; but like most of the Abbey’s glories, this monument is long gone. After Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries, Reading Abbey was plundered of its roof-timbers, lead, tiles and stone. Believing that the remains of the founder, Henry I, lay in a silver coffin, the sixteenth-century demolition gang rifled the tomb, scattering its contents; a later historian lamented that the King’s bones ‘could not enjoy repose in his grave, but were thrown out to make room for a stable for horses’.

PV (Hurry, J., Reading Abbey, 1901)

JANUARY 6TH

1634: On this day, a valuable charity was established for Reading’s poor, when Sir Thomas Vachel (1560-1638) signed a deed donating a set of almshouses near the church in St Mary’s Butts. The stone plaque that still survives succinctly tells the story: ‘Sr. THOMAS VACHEL Kt. Erected these Alms-Houses Anno Dom. 1634, and endow’d them with Forty Pounds p. Annum for ever for the Maintenance of Six poor Men.’ Vachel married three times but had no children. He was a scion of the Vachell (sic) family, owners of Coley Park since the thirteenth century. The 1634 endowment, secured on rents for a property called Great and Little Garstons at Shinfield, also granted each of the ‘poor men’ 2s a week and two loads of wood per year. In 1867 these ‘St Mary’s Almshouses’ were demolished. The proceeds from selling the land were then applied to building the present Vachel Almshouses in Castle Street, designed by architect William Henry Woodman. These thirty-two pleasant two-storey dwellings, stepping down to the Holy Brook, are occupied to this day. They now enjoy English Heritage Grade II listing, with the original Vachel plaque proudly displayed.

PV (Coates, C., History & Antiquities of Reading, 1802)

JANUARY 7TH

1937: On this day, early in the morning, a policeman patrolling Friar Street raised the alarm on discovering that the back of the Royal County Theatre was ablaze. Unfortunately, the fire had already spread so far that the fire brigade could only contain it, to prevent it spreading to adjoining shops. Everything inside was completely destroyed. The fire occurred during a run of the pantomime Robinson Crusoe. Over 100 people – theatre staff and cast – lost their jobs. Also, the town lost a popular entertainment venue, when it became clear that rebuilding the theatre was impracticable. A.H. Bull bought the site for expanding their Broad Street department store. Existing until the mid-1950s, this store featured a much-appreciated facility – shoppers were able to walk under-cover between Friar Street and Broad Street. Strangely, previous theatres in Friar Street had had devastating fires. A chapel, opened on the site in 1871, was sold in about 1888 to become the Royal Assembly Rooms. This was then converted into the Princes Theatre in 1893, being renamed the New Royal County Theatre in 1895 (to replace another in Friar Street that had burned down in August 1894).

JRW (Phillips, D., Reading Theatres, Cinemas and Other Entertainments 1788-1978, 1978)

JANUARY 8TH

1811: On this day, the British School was officially opened. The idea for such a school originated when Joseph Lancaster visited Reading in August 1809 to lecture on his plan for the Education of Poor Children. Local gentry, educationists, businessmen and clergy quickly endorsed the idea, forming a committee to subscribe and lend support as the boys at this stage needed sponsoring. A site in Southampton Street was purchased with Richard Billing, architect and builder, providing the design. The opening preparations were ready by October 1810, but the first headmaster, Nathaniel Higgins, was awaited. The school was first called the Reading Lancastrian School, but by 1814 the Royal Lancastrian Society changed its name to the British and Foreign Society, with schools based on Lancaster’s plan opening all over the world; hence most British schools were so named. From 1901-3 the Reading institution was called Southampton Street Board School and from 1903-7 Southampton Street Council School. It then closed, with pupils and staff transferred to a new school named after George Palmer, which opened on 3 October. For many years the building was used by the school meals service, also for community activities.

SG (Barnes-Phillips, D., This is our School, Corridor Press, 2011)

JANUARY 9TH

1960: On this day, a short run of Babes in the Wood ended and Reading’s Palace Theatre, in Cheapside, closed its doors for ever. It died on its feet, so to speak, with no publicity – just when interest in live theatre was reviving. Had it simply been locked up, to await ‘discovery’ a few decades later, Reading would possess an outstanding jewel attracting theatregoers from near and far. But it was razed to the ground in 1961 and an office block rose in its place. Built of concrete and steel (with public safety very much in mind), the ‘Palace’ boasted immense Edwardian opulence. Designed to hold up to 1,460 patrons, it was described as architecturally stunning internally, with an elegantly decorated semi-circular dress circle. Opening in 1907, it survived over fifty years and two World Wars, inevitably with mixed fortunes. Although mainly a variety theatre, it also put on plays, musical comedies, orchestral and ‘big band’ evenings, and scores of famous names trod its boards. The growing popularity of cinema and then television took its toll, and latterly, opening only occasionally, its offerings degenerated to ‘seedy’. Such a sad loss for Reading.

JRW (Phillips, D., Reading Theatres, Cinemas and Other Entertainments 1788-1978, 1978)

JANUARY 10TH

1705: On this day, Thomas Juyce died. In 1662 he was turned out of his Church of England parish of St Nicholas, Worcester for his refusal to use the revised liturgy prescribed by the Act of Uniformity from that year. Edmund Calamy, biographer of the ejected clergy, described him as ‘a sober, grave, serious, peaceable, blameless, able minister’. The ejected clergy also included Christopher Fowler, vicar of St Mary’s, Reading, who then held meetings in his house, earning the description by the borough’s JP of ‘author of most of the evil in the town’. Coming to Reading in about 1665, Juyce took up the independent ministry begun by Fowler but also encountered opposition. Local magistrates sought to put him in prison and he was forced into hiding for some time in a bark rick, being fed by the wife of the miller who owned it. His ministry of thirty-three years was one of the longest in the history of the Broad Street Congregational Church in Reading. In 1690 the congregation was put at ‘four or five hundred hearers, ye people considerably rich’. The church, rebuilt in 1800, is now a Waterstones bookstore.

VC/JBD (Summers, W., History of the Berkshire etc. Congregational Churches, 1905)

JANUARY 11TH

1866: On this day, at a meeting of the Guardians of the Reading Poor Law Union, the plans submitted by local architects for the site of a new workhouse and infirmary at Oxford Road, Reading, were considered and a short list of two drawn up, comprising those of W.& J.T. Brown and William H. Woodman. A week later the Guardians picked that by Woodman. There was much local criticism of the Guardians’ choice by those who preferred the plan submitted by Messrs Brown. Nevertheless, the Guardians submitted Woodman’s plans to the Poor Law Board and they received final approval after criticism by the Board was addressed. By late 1867, the workhouse was nearing completion at a final cost of £14,000 and the first paupers moved in. An observer described the new buildings as looking more like a large public school than a Poor Law institution. A valuable source of income was the farm, inmates who were fit enough providing the labour. In 1915, the workhouse was requisitioned as a military hospital; the military departed in 1920. It survived as a hospital under the NHS until the rising cost of running two large hospitals in the town was considered prohibitive; Battle Hospital, as it was later known, closed in 2005.

SD (Railton, M. & Barr, M., Battle Workhouse and Hospital, Berkshire Medical Heritage Centre, 2005)

JANUARY 12TH

1878: On this day, a notice was placed in the Reading Observer regarding a meeting of the Alphabetical Society, to be held the following night at the Athenaeum. This was to be the opening meeting of the Society, which was for men only. The first paper to be read before the Society was presented by the Revd G.S. Reaney, then minister of Trinity Congregational Chapel: ‘That the Occupation of Constantinople by the Russians ought not be Opposed by England’ – a hot topic of the day. The following edition of the newspaper reported that there was a large attendance. There seems to have been lively debate of the issue at hand, with strong arguments for and against the Russians expelling the Turks from Constantinople, and England’s non-opposition to this happening – the majority of arguments being in favour of the proposal by Mr Reaney. Figures were given that 200,000 lives and £200 million had been spent on keeping the Turks there, and the question was raised whether this was worth so great a sacrifice. A show of hands being taken at the end of the evening indicated that there was a large majority for the affirmative.

AS/VC (Reading Observer)

JANUARY 13TH

1903: On this day came the long awaited visit of the American composer and conductor John Philip Sousa (1854-1932), with his band, to the Royal County Theatre, Reading. The ‘early doors’ were besieged two hours before the announced time and many would-be patrons failed to gain admission. Sousa, sometimes known as the March King, had been in England before, and had visited London and the major cities with sell-out performances. On his current tour, some of the smaller towns such as Reading were fortunate to engage this famous band. The newspaper reviewer said that it was difficult to speak about the concert without using a series of superlatives. The composition of the band was different from that of the military bands of this country, with the woodwind and the brass about equally divided. This provided a marvellous tone which the writer compared to the ponderous wood reed of an organ pedal. The programme consisted of many favourites, including ‘Washington Post’, ‘Stars and Stripes’, ‘William Tell’, ‘Soldiers of the King’, excerpts from H.M.S. Pinafore and a new march, ‘Imperial Edward’, dedicated to the King. There were also vocal and instrumental solos. A brilliant and electrifying evening!

SG(Berkshire Chronicle)

JANUARY 14TH

1440: On this day, the 1439-40 Parliament met at Reading Abbey, to complete its unfinished business. Parliament’s removal from Westminster was due partly to plague in London (because of it, knights were to be excused the Kiss of Homage!) and partly to the desire of the court to remove Parliament from the influence of Londoners. Parliament was to be summoned at the Abbey on future occasions in the 1400s.

VC (Dodwell, B., Lambert, M.D., Slade C.F., Parliament through Seven Centuries, Cassell, 1962)

1933: On this day, Reading’s third round FA Cup-tie at Millwall was abandoned during the second half. When a heavy blanket of Thames fog enveloped the pitch with the Biscuitmen losing 2–0, the referee called off the game. The Reading players, relieved that they had been let off the hook by the abandonment, left the field. However, on reaching the dressing-room, they found that their goalkeeper, Dick Mellors, was missing. Quickly searching the ground, they discovered Mellors still guarding his goal – unaware of the referee’s decision to stop the match! At the replay, Reading drew 1–1 but lost 0–2 at home at Elm Park in the third and final encounter.

NS(Local press reports)

JANUARY 15TH

1878: On this day, Matilda Stanley died. Born in Reading about 1821, the daughter of Ephraim Joles, she received the honorific title ‘Queen of the Gypsies’, with her husband, Levi, titled the ‘King’. These titles simply indicated their people’s love and trust, and nothing more. In 1856 Matilda, Levi and their families emigrated to the United States, with others of their people, settling near Troy, Ohio. Shortly after, they chose Dayton, Ohio, as their home during summer months, and it became a centre for Gypsies in America. Matilda was said to have had wonderful fortune-telling abilities and powers as a mesmerist. The press described her as a ‘plain, hardy-looking woman, with a manner indicative of a strong and pronounced character’. After an illness lasting two years, Matilda, the Gypsy Queen, died in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Her embalmed body was placed in the Woodland receiving vault in Dayton; every day her family brought fresh flowers to strew over her. Matilda’s funeral was held eight months later, giving time for word to spread and her people to travel to Dayton. Twenty thousand came from England, America and Canada to pay their respects.

VC (New York Times)

JANUARY 16TH

1902: On this day, a small group of nuns of the Order of Blessed Marie Madeleine Postel opened a school for Catholic girls in Castle Street, Reading. For the French sisters this was the happy culmination of eight years’ poverty and hard work since their arrival at Southampton as refugees, bedraggled from a storm-tossed Channel crossing. Like many French nuns and priests of that time, they had fled the violent anti-clericalism that beset France after the fall of the Third Empire. They were destitute, their convent having been ransacked and pulled apart around them. The nuns’ vocation was teaching, and this brought them a meagre living, first in Bracknell, later in Wokingham. Their excellent work came to the attention of Professor Rey of Reading College (forerunner of Reading University), who invited them to Reading, leasing for them two houses in Castle Hill which had been part of an inn, the King’s Arms. (Over a century before, this hostelry had been a refuge for French priests fleeing the French Revolution.) From just eight pupils initially, the school’s numbers grew steadily; by 1908, Reverend Mother was seeking more spacious premises.

PMS (The Sisters of St Joseph’s Convent, From Acorn to Oak, 1959/South Western Catholic HistoryNo.2, 1984)

JANUARY 17TH

1922: On this day occurred the death of ninety-two-year-old Right Revd Dr James Leslie Randall, first Bishop of Reading from 1889 to 1908. Suffragan bishops, assisting the diocesan bishop, were first permitted only for towns that were named under an Act of 1534, but in 1888 the Suffragans Nomination Act permitted the extension of the practice to other towns as required. Randall was one of the first bishops appointed under this new legislation. He was the son of the equally long-lived James Randall, Archdeacon of Berkshire from1855-69; his brother, Richard, became Dean of Chichester. The future bishop was educated at Winchester and New College, Oxford. Ordained in 1853, he served as Rector of Newbury from 1857 to 1878. From 1880 to 1902 he was successively Archdeacon of Buckingham and Oxford, holding these posts concurrently with his bishopric. After Randall’s resignation, the see of Reading was suspended for many years until revived in 1942. Mostly, it has been a ‘dead end’ job for its occupants, but the last two Reading bishops, Dominic Walker (1997-2003) and Stephen Cottrell (2004-10), have become diocesan bishops, of Monmouth and Chelmsford respectively.

JBD (Pugh, R. & M. (Eds), The Diocese Books of Samuel Wilberforce, Berkshire Record Society, 2008)

JANUARY 18TH

1707: On this day, it is believed the beautiful Frances Kendrick dressed up as a man and challenged a young lawyer, Benjamin Childs, to a duel at Calcot Woods, south-west of Reading. Just as the confrontation was about to take place, Miss Kendrick threw down her cloak and mask, giving Childs the choice of a fight or marriage. He chose the latter and they were married a few months later.

NS (Hylton, S., Reading Places, Reading People, Berkshire Books, 1992)

1944: On this day, two officers – one British and one American – stepped from a car outside Reading station. One of them was immediately recognised as General Montgomery, who was accompanying US General, John Lee, on visits to American camps in the south. The Mayor, Alderman Lovell, greeting the visitors, asked Montgomery how he kept in such excellent health after arduous campaigns in the desert, Sicily and Italy. He replied that his secret was not to undertake business after 9 p.m., then to go immediately to bed and sleep well. When the Mayor suggested he must worry if a battle was not going well, the great man replied that he never started a battle until he was quite ready, thus ensuring a successful outcome.

NS (Berkshire Chronicle)

JANUARY 19TH

1966: On this day, the Reading Transport Society noted:

Severe winter weather brought ‘load shedding’ which affected the trolleybuses, while freezing rain in the morning peak-hour of 20th January brought all road transport in the Reading area into chaos. Motor and trolleybus services were badly hit, but the department managed to keep services going. We had reports of a trolleybus taking 1 1/2 hours from Tilehurst to Broad Street, and two collisions involving 141 and 177. And a dewirement occurred, resulting in a short-circuit which burnt through the overhead in King Street.

A History of Reading Society member recalls that day – sliding all over in his Morris Minor when driving to work, very cautiously, from Caversham Heights to London Road. At lunchtime it was still very raw, and he remembers a trolleybus returning to depot along Duke Street around 1 p.m., the overhead line festooned in ice. As the cobbles and old tarred-in tramlines over High Bridge were still coated with ice, the trolleybus had huge difficulty going up the incline of the bridge with both trolleyheads arcing magnificently, creating a brown smoke that looked like bromine!

JRS (Reading Transport Society records)

JANUARY 20TH

1802: On this day, Governor Joseph Wall, found guilty of the murder of Benjamin Armstrong, was sentenced to death at the Old Bailey. Although the crime was committed far from Reading, the town played an important part in the events leading to that end. Wall had been Acting Governor of Senegambia, West Africa, and was in charge of the garrison at Goree. In 1782, the troops protested when they learned that he and his paymaster, Dearing, were about to return to England; the men had been on short rations and were owed pay in lieu. Wall concluded that Armstrong was the ringleader of a mutiny, and without even the semblance of a court-martial ordered him to receive 800 lashes, as a result of which he died. Two years later, when Wall was being conveyed from Bath to London to stand trial, his escorts stopped for refreshment in Reading at the Bear Inn. Wall escaped through a window and, despite the offer of a £200 reward, he successfully reached safety on the Continent. Wall slipped back to England unnoticed in 1797 but, seemingly troubled by a guilty conscience, finally allowed himself to be brought to justice.

JBD (Birkenhead, Lord, More Famous Trials, Hutchinson, 1938)

JANUARY 21ST

1843: On this day, the Berkshire Chronicle published an announcement that:

MR JOHN WHITE son-in-law and pupil of the lamented Mr Burt Begs to inform the Public that now having been established in His native town as a TEACHER OF DRAWING &c upwards of 7 years, he is far from wishing to be mistaken for his namesake in the Market Place, as an advertisement … [in last week’s Chronicle] would insinuate. Mr. J W, satisfied with his own character, does not wish to assume that of any other person, and feels quite convinced that should any disreputable proceeding be reported of a John White, nobody would think … of carrying it to the door of John White, Southampton Street.

This came in response to a notice carried the previous week:

Caution to Parents and Heads of Establishments. Mr. J White (pupil of the celebrated Mr. Burgess) Teacher of Perspective and Drawing from nature respectfully informs his numerous and distinguished patrons, that as another person bearing the same name is offering services as a drawing master, Mr. J W Begs them to address Artist’s Repository, 25 Market Place, where only his specimens may be seen and terms known.

SG (Berkshire Chronicle)

JANUARY 22ND

1751: On this day, William Bromley Cadogan was born in Bruton Street, London, second son of Lord Charles Sloane Cadogan and Hon. Frances Bromley. At six, he entered Westminster School, proceeding thence to Christ Church, Oxford. At Oxford Cadogan formed strong religious convictions, although it was not until 1780 that he experienced an evangelical conversion. In 1774, prior to his ordination the following year, he was presented to the living of St Giles-in-Reading, not far from the family seat in Caversham. He was also appointed rector of St Luke’s, Chelsea, but St Giles’ engaged much of his time. A hugely popular evangelical preacher, he drew large congregations to his sermons twice on Sundays and twice in the week. When not studying the Scriptures or visiting the sick and poor, he founded and led four Sunday schools that together instructed over 120 poor children. In 1782 he married Jane Bradshaw, but died suddenly at Reading on 18 January 1797, aged forty-six, from an inflammation of the bowels. The appointment of his successor, Joseph Eyre, caused controversy that led to the foundation of St Mary’s, Castle Street in 1798.

VC (Doran, J., The History and Antiquities of the Town and Borough of Reading in Berkshire, 1835)

JANUARY 23RD

1625: On this day, Reading Corporation held a meeting, with Mayor Roger Knight leading the deliberations, aided by eight burgesses. The agenda was typical of municipal concerns of the day, such as action against outsiders breaking the local guilds’ monopoly. In one dispute, six cloth-drawers complained that ‘a stranger’, Nathaniel Molson, was working at cloth-drawing in Reading. Six freemen smiths brought another case, deposing that another ‘stranger’, Billingselye, was dwelling and working with William Lowgey, smith, who employed him as a journeyman for wages of eighteen pence a week. Lowgey also illegally employed another ‘stranger’, a spurrier. Lowgey was heavily fined (£4) for permitting this. Other business included the Corporation agreeing (with a £20 grant) ‘to ayde Henry Bell esquire, His Majesties Servant and Captayne of a Foote Company, and releive him in his journey to Court, from Plymmouth where he hath byn longe sicke’. This important person was active in ‘state affairs’ in Germany for James I and then Charles I. The Counter-Reformation in Germany ordered the burning of all Protestant books, but Bell acquired a hidden copy of Luther’s Colloquia Mensalia, which he translated during ten years in prison. Archbishop Laud admired Bell’s work and rewarded him. Bell published TheTable-Talkof Martin Luther in 1646.

PV (Guilding, J., Reading Records: Diary of the Corporation, 1895)

JANUARY 24TH

1843: On this day died Charles Fyshe Palmer of Luckley House, Wokingham, one of Reading’s MPs between 1818 and 1841. In Parliament, he advocated reform principles: Roman Catholic emancipation, Parliamentary reform and the abolition of slavery. He was born about 1770, the son of Henry Fyshe, who assumed the name Palmer on inheriting property. Richardson’s Recollections portray him as:

… a man of remarkable appearance; in height six feet three, upright and by no means overburdened with flesh or fat; his limbs, loosely joined without elegance or muscular development; his features relieved from insipidity by positive ugliness; his costume that of bygone days, but smart and well-appointed; his manners those of a gentleman of the old school …

Mary Mitford thus described him in 1818: ‘vastly like a mop-stick, a tall hop-pole or an extremely long fishing-rod, or anything that is all length and no substance.’ Despite these physical handicaps Palmer married a wealthy widow, Lady Madelina Sinclair, who was daughter of the Duke of Gordon, and this connection gave him contact with many noble families. The Museum of Reading has a watercolour portrait of Palmer by Henry Wellington Burt.

SG (Fisher D. (Ed.), The History of Parliament: The House of Commons, 1820-1832, CUP, 2009/Richardson, J., Recollections, 1856)

JANUARY 25TH

1827: On this day the canal was frozen over, and in some places the ice was nearly a foot thick. The Kennet and Avon Canal Company sent a large boat with a high gallery, the sides defended by iron, and towed by three horses, to break the ice.

AS (Reading Mercury)

1990: On this day, as on several days in February, severe winds struck Reading, up to 90mph (144kph), exceeding those of the 1987 ‘hurricane’. Unlike 1987, the 1990 storms came during the working day. They were well forecast but even so the Reading Post reported ‘chaos’ on roads and railways. The Reading to Newbury line was blocked when a factory roof landed on the tracks! Several were killed as falling trees struck cars, and lorries skidded or overturned. A chimney crashed in Kendrick Road and garden sheds fell victim to the winds. Some 200 people were treated at the Royal Berkshire Hospital. Insurance firms cheerfully warned Reading residents that not all policies covered wind and falling-tree damage to fences, hedges and gates. Of course, power cables went down, adding to the deprivations. The National Rivers Authority issued warnings about the dramatically rising river levels.

JRS (Reading Post/Murray, D., Storm Force, Archive Publications, 1990)

JANUARY 26TH

1850: On this day, the London Illustrated News and The Lady’s Newspaper reported a great fire at Caversham Park, retirement home of William Crawshay II, the Welsh ‘Iron King’. The blaze had started in the building’s east wing, on the morning of Friday 18 January; the family were fortunately away from home, and the fire was blamed on preparations being made for their return. The household staff strove determinedly to save furniture and other property, and messengers were quickly sent to Reading to bring the fire brigade and police to the site. By the time the fire engines arrived, the blaze had firm hold. However, the firemen could draw water only from nearby wells and were unable to prevent the fire from spreading. Soon, fanned by a strong breeze, the flames enveloped the west side of the mansion, and all hope of saving it was lost. By twelve o’clock the building was ruined, with only walls still standing, but even so the fire continued to burn. Much of the furniture and belongings were saved, but the contents of the ‘best rooms’ were lost. Crawshay, uninsured, bore losses of thousands of pounds.

VC (Reading Mercury/London Illustrated News/The Lady’s Newspaper)

JANUARY 27TH

1940: On this day, a few months before the Blitz of the Second World War, a less spiteful but horribly damaging ‘ice storm’ hit Reading and the whole country, during the coldest January since 1838. Temperatures as low as minus 18 degrees Celsius (0 degrees Fahrenheit) caused the Thames to freeze at Caversham Bridge; skaters populated Whiteknights Lake, and Prospect Park became a tobogganers’ paradise. The night of 27 January delivered the real damage when rain, in warm air from the Atlantic, fell through the icy Siberian air already covering much of Britain. The resulting ‘ice storm’ saw the chilled rain freeze on contact with roads, roofs, trees and pylons. Its huge weight brought down power cables and trees, and made driving, even walking, almost impossible. The Reading Chronicle later carried many photographs and stories reporting that houses in Kings Road had been without mains water for almost a fortnight. Only the plumbers benefitted from the freeze! It was only on Friday 2 February, as the thaw set in, that the first newspaper reports about frozen Britain appeared. Not letting Hitler know that Britain had been literally frozen solid had been no more than prudent!

JRS (Reading Chronicle/‘The Weather’, Royal Meteorological Society, September 2010)

JANUARY 28TH

1825: On this day, the Berkshire Chronicle carried the following message: ‘Notice is hereby given that unless the GIG now standing in the yard of Mr John Wheeler, stonemason, St Mary’s Butts, Reading, be taken away within ten days from the date hereof, the same will be sold to pay for the expense of standing and for this advertisement.’

SG(Berkshire Chronicle)

1888: On this day, Samuel Isaacs was arrested in his lodgings in London, accused of ‘burgulariously [sic] breaking and entering’ the premises of Mr Sydney Baxter, jeweller in Minster Street, Reading, on 18 January. Baxter’s assistant had left the premises at 9.25 p.m., leaving everything locked, but on his return found doors smashed and empty jewellery boxes scattered. More empty boxes were discovered around nearby Twyford station, and indicated a criminal hailing from London; however, little progress was made in Reading itself. Instead it was noted in a pawn shop in Whitechapel that valuable watches were being pawned. The owner of the articles, Isaacs, a man with a previous conviction for theft, was tracked down and arrested; he was later sentenced to five years’ penal servitude.

JP (Reading Observer)

JANUARY 29TH

1869: On this day, ferryman Piper’s house on Caversham Bridge was relocated in its entirety preparatory to the bridge’s rebuilding. The Reading Chronicle reported:

Under the direction of Mr Woodman, borough surveyor, the house occupied by the Piper family was moved. For some time past, workers have been engaged in removing the lower portion of the side walls, which were in a very rotten state … After the house had been underpinned, a new cill was framed all round resting on three pairs of roller plates, protected by narrow strips of iron. The inner walls were strutted and stayed in such a manner as to make it almost impossible for the house to fall asunder during the removal. At an early hour, the workmen commenced removing the house, with the aid of hydraulic and screw jacks … placed at the ends of the top roller plates nearest the bridge. In about three hours the … process of removal was completed, the building having been shifted back eight feet, during which not the slightest hitch occurred; … the movement … was hardly perceptible and so steady that not a timber was strained nor a pane of glass broken.

VC (North, L., Royal Reading’s Colourful Past, Cressrelles, 1979)

JANUARY 30TH

1649: On this day, King Charles I was beheaded, with consequences for two men of Reading who had signed his Death Warrant the day before. After Parliament had triumphed in the Civil War, the King was imprisoned but remained defiant. Step forward Daniel Blagrave of Southcote (1603-68), lawyer son of a noted local family. He had served as Reading’s Recorder, then its MP, and was prominent among Parliamentarians baying for the King’s head. After Charles was found guilty of treason, Blagrave was one of the Commissioners putting their names to the Warrant. In 1660, with the monarchy restored, regicides such as Blagrave feared for their lives; escaping abroad, he died at Aachen in 1668. Co-signatory with Blagrave was Henry Marten (1602-80) of Oxford who became MP for Berkshire. Parliament appointed him Governor of Reading early in the Civil War. Later he raised a Berkshire regiment supporting the radical Levellers, who marched ‘for the people’s freedom against all tyrants whatsoever’. Like Blagrave, Marten strongly favoured abolishing the House of Lords. When the Interregnum ended, Marten was condemned to death, but this was commuted to life imprisonment; he lived another twenty years, dying in Chepstow Castle in 1680.

PV (Dictionary of National Biography 1885-1900)

JANUARY 31st

1947: On this day, Redingensians shivered in a severe wintry spell; the Loddon, Thames and Kennet were frozen over, and skating on Whiteknights Lake was a popular way of warming up! In the aftermath of the war, people were facing a coal shortage and power cuts; food rationing continued and many commodities were in short supply. The need for cheering entertainment was critical – and Reading rose to this challenge, as this day’s local newspaper amply demonstrates. Nine cinemas served film-fans: Central, Glendale (Caversham), Granby, Odeon, Pavilion, Regal (Caversham), Rex, Savoy and Vaudeville. Films ran for ‘six days only’ (no Sunday opening then); some would become classics that we still treasure: The Jolson Story, Blue Skies (Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire), Monsieur Beaucaire (Bob Hope) and Night and Day (Alexis Smith, Cary Grant); these were in ‘glorious Technicolor’. The popularity of dancing is evident from the newspaper advertisements, for the Central Ballroom, Majestic Ballroom, Olympia Dancing, Oxford Dancing and Reading Town Hall (here, in concession to the ‘plebs’, it was ‘evening dress optional’). Plentiful other attractions included Bamford’s Skating Rink (so, icy inside as well as out!), the Palace Theatre, concerts, amateur theatre and whist-drives.

PV (Berkshire Chronicle)

FEBRUARY 1ST

1905: On this day, the Mayoress of Reading, Mrs Sutton, opened Elm Park (Wesleyan Methodist) Mission Hall. The Reading Standard reported:

The hall, which has an imposing interior, occupies a splendid site and frontage on the Oxford Road. It is one of the results of the great extension scheme entered upon with such enthusiasm by the local Wesleyan body in May 1903. The south-facing building has striking large windows with circular arches, measuring 20 feet by 30 feet. It is built in the Renaissance style and consists of a hall with seating for 1000 people. The gallery has ‘tip-up’ seats, whilst the main floor uses ordinary chairs. There is an organ chamber and choir gallery. Below this hall, on the ground floor, are the school and five classrooms capable of accommodating 600 scholars, while in addition there is a ministers’ vestry, stewards’ vestry, and various offices. The entrance is by a wide semi-circular door giving access to a crush hall or lounge, upon which the stairs from the main hall and the school and class rooms converge. A considerable crowd gathered for the opening ceremony, including a great number of important church representatives.

In 1907 inclement weather caused the opening of Battle Library to be transferred to the Mission Hall.

VC (Reading Standard)

FEBRUARY 2ND

1910: On this day occurred the death of James Boorne, Reading-born ironmonger and tin-box manufacturer. Born in 1824, he was the son of James Boorne, a pawnbroker, who had moved from Deptford to Cadogan House, Mill Lane, Reading. The family were originally Baptists, but from an early age James junior attended Quaker meetings. As a young man he joined the firm of Richard and John Billing, architects and surveyors, leaving them in 1846 when he formed a partnership with Joseph Huntley. Later, Samuel Stevens joined the firm as a partner. The tin-box company of Huntley, Boorne & Stevens for many years supplied the decorative tins which carried Huntley & Palmers biscuits all over the world. The company continued in Reading until 1985 when it was sold to Lin-pac. Highly cultured, Boorne had a collection of paintings and china, and bred fancy poultry. He entered local politics in 1855 and, as Mayor of Reading in 1861, formally opened the Forbury Recreation Grounds and Drinking Fountain. After forty-seven years in the firm, he retired in 1893 to Cheltenham where he enjoyed a long retirement.

SG (Milligan, E.H., British Quakers in Commerce and Industry, William Sessions, 2007)

FEBRUARY 3RD

1978: On this day, a meeting was held at Reading Museum and Art Gallery to form a new society to be called The History of Reading Society. The previous week, the Reading Chronicle had reported that ‘the intention is to allow members to discover more about the town through lectures, discussions, films and visits linked with historical items’. The first meeting would ‘form a constitution, plan future meetings and have, on display, objects depicting Reading’s history’. In addition, subscriptions were collected at £1 each. The first talk given to the Society was by founding Chairman, Peter Southerton, on