The Museum and Forbury Gardens

On our second morning of our stay in Reading daughter D gave me a lift into town.  Mr P was happy to rest and potter in the garden.  There were a few garden tasks to do such as pruning D's vines and helping her lift some of the big, heavy pots.  The fig tree needed some attention and an olive tree had to be re-potted and moved.  Daughter D also gave us a tree peony plant that had grown too big for her courtyard garden of pot plants.  Mr P has now transferred it into our Sheffield garden as it's a good time of the year when plants are more dormant.  When we're with our daughter we talk about plants, often exchange plants and visit open gardens when opportunities arise.

D's peony tree in flower (last Summer)

Before my wander around the museum I took a peek at the museum café since I hadn't seen it since it was redone. The old Reading town hall building is dear to my heart for several reasons.  It's where functions took place that I attended when I was a child, it's where the library used to be before the new one was built, it's where my father worked in the Mayor of Reading's offices and where Mr P and I had our wedding reception.  Later on during versatile Mr P's working life he was part of the team that was involved in the first phase of its renovations and refurbishment.  I've also worked in various offices in the immediate area.

 

Mosaics from the flooring of an Iron Age and subsequently Roman settlement at Silchester (some miles south-west of Reading) called Calleva Atrebatum.  Archaeological digs take place and there have been some important finds.

I could have spent hours in the museum. Here are some more of the exhibits that particularly interested me.

It was the half term school holiday and there were plenty of children's activities to help with their learning.

tea caddy spoons

Jane Austen went to school in Reading.  I believe the school was by the Abbey Gateway opposite the Forbury Gardens. She might have worn this type of school uniform.

my era as a young married woman in the mid 1960s and 70s

Jackson's Corner department store was old-fashioned even then but it's where I went to purchase the children's school uniforms.  As a shop of a certain period it was used at one time in television dramas such as Endeavour (Morse).  Sadly it's no longer with us as an active shop.  Mr P was curious to visit Broad Street to see if it had changed, but this was not to be.  He was better off pottering in D's garden and resting.

Time slipped by and I wanted to go for a walk in the Forbury Gardens.  I bought a box of postcards of the Reading Abbey area and a book about the Town Hall to add to my collection of books about the history of Reading from the museum shop.   There have been many walks around my hometown in the past and  I'll share more from time-to-time in future blog posts.

The statue of Queen Victoria needs a good clean.  Daughter D told me that several of these statues and monuments around town are to get cleaned presumably in time for King Charles III's coronation in May.

Behind the statue is Marks and Spencer.  During WWII it got a direct hit and other buildings in this area were damaged.  At the time it was a café called The People's Pantry.  Workers could get meals there at a time of war rationing and my two aunts would go there after their work as seamstresses at a Burberry's workshop.  My maternal grandmother was worried that the two sisters had gone there that fatal day when many lost their lives.  The sisters decided not to go there that day.  The bombs would be released and would drift over the area before dropping suddenly at random causing destruction.  I suppose only those of my age will remember the stories that my relatives told me about those days that had such an impact on people's lives everywhere.

Onwards to the Forbury Gardens....

St Laurence's Church and next to it the solicitors' offices where I worked as a secretary in the mid 1960s.  The staff were characters - some quite theatrical.   Sometimes there would be a solemn parade as they slowly walked from the offices to a church service in St Laurence's Church.  The mayoral group would also take part.  The church is now a community meeting place, still consecrated as a church, but usually closed probably for security reasons.

I was glad to see the wreaths were still there to commemorate the WWII incident.  They had been placed by the wall of the offices and were also at the town Cenotaph.

 Trooper Frederick Potts, who was awarded the Victoria Cross 

for bravery.  (Gallipoli WWI)

The iron-cast Maiwand Lion is also a war memorial 

I'll leave you with some more photos of the Spring flowers in the Forbury Gardens.

a brick and flint entrance and exit arch

Thank you for visiting.  Have a good day!

Huntley and Palmer Biscuit Factory and some home town memories.

In Reading Museum there's a room dedicated to the history of the town's famous biscuit production. Above is a marble bust of George Palmer, one of the partners engaged in the manufacture of this well known brand. In fact George didn't come on the scene until later.  It was his cousin, Joseph Huntley who began selling biscuits baked by his son Thomas in the 1820s. Their shop was in London Street and as it was near a coaching inn where coaches stopped for a rest Joseph started packing the biscuits in tins made by his younger son to keep them fresh.  He then sold them to the coach passengers and this second enterprise led to the foundation of  the Reading firm of tin box makers, Huntley, Bourne and Stevens.     

the London Street bakery and shop

In 1841 George Palmer became a partner of Thomas Huntley and with his expertise as a businessman the factory was established by the River Kennet and near to the railway line. After Thomas Huntley died in 1857, George was joined in the firm by his brothers William, Isaac and Samuel. The enterprise was the first steam powered biscuit factory in the world and the most important biscuit works in England.  In 1841 the firm had 41 employees and by 1914 there were several thousands working there producing 200 varieties of biscuit. It was the time of change and growth for the market town as people moved into the area from the countryside to find work. Soon workers' houses were built nearby particularly in the area by the river called New Town.  My great grandfather, a countryman from a Hampshire village, who had been a stable lad on the Wellington Estate eventually moved to Reading and settled there.  He didn't work in the factory, but was employed as a sawyer in the timber yard located by the Kennet on the factory site which took up many acres of land and he lived with his family in east Reading near the Royal Berkshire Hospital whose foundation was established in that same era of town expansion.

This ceramic sign of the 1850s would have been made for display in grocery shops and features an early view of the factory.

On the banks of Kennet's River,

In Reading's famous town,

Stands a massive pile of buildings

Of fame and world renown.

Should a stranger ask the business

Of the place, what may it be?

Say, 'tis the biscuit city

Of the famous H & P.

William Barker, Huntley & Palmer worker, 1883

 One of the tin biscuit boxes

"Breakfast Biscuits Give You Vim

Make You Fit And Keep You Slim"

A catchy slogan - I'm not sure that it would work for me.  I could do with a biscuit or two right now with a nice cup of tea. Sadly they wouldn't be H & P biscuits. 

H & P merged with Peak Frean in 1921 to form Associated Biscuit Manufacturers Ltd. and after the late 1940s the production was reduced.  In 1972 the company announced that it was leaving the town and would concentrate on existing sites and manufacture elsewhere.  The expense of re-equipping outdated machinery and the difficulty in recruiting staff brought about this decision.  In 1977 the King's Road factory was demolished and in its place the huge administrative offices of Prudential Assurance plc were built. H & P company offices remained until they too were demolished in 1991.  All that is left is the facade of one small section of the original establishment (photo below) taken on a sunny day when visiting the town.

.....and below on another visit.

The River Kennet, King's Bridge and opposite are the Prudential  Buildings.

On the extreme left Greenslades & Co Ltd. Printing Works would have stood there.

My paternal grandmother lived in a Georgian building like these in King's Road.  Her house was opposite to these ones, but amazingly was demolished, I think it must have been in the 1960s and modern buildings (more offices and flats) took their place. For some reason the above buildings must have been listed under a protection order.  I remember going to the dental practice in one of them.

As for my grandmother's home, I remember many times staying overnight. As a child the rooms seemed huge and there were many of them. There was a flight of stone steps leading to the front door of the first storey and a big garden at the back with a wooded area at the end.  This was in the 1950s when it was common for families in town to share one large dwelling and pay rent.  My twice widowed grandmother lived in the basement which had a big kitchen range, her married daughter, husband and child lived on the next floor and an unmarried daughter lived at the top of the house and as I remember another unmarried friend also lived there. Later family members qualified for social housing or bought their own house. At the time I lived with my parents in the house bought by my other grandparents when they sold the bakery business and moved outside the Borough of Reading until we also moved home.  

More about Reading Museum's collection of Huntley & Palmer artifacts another time.

A favourite place in my home town

One of the places I'm drawn to when I visit my home town is the Old Town Hall which houses the museum and art gallery and old concert hall. Now the place is closed.  I look at photos of my home town and hope that one day things will be back to some sort of normality so that we can travel again.  One of the projects that had been taking place in the building was the refurbishment of the café.  Little did I know that this was planned when I visited one time and took some photos.  Now the photos are a record of the changes that are now on hold. 

an old tea tricycle (1945) on display

Warrick's in Caversham Road, Reading made the Wall's Ice-cream 'Stop Me and Buy One' tricycles. Their tricycles had many different uses such as this tea tricycle above.

Also on display are items of memorabilia connected with Reading which is well known for brewing, (Simonds' Brewery, later Courage Brewery), biscuit making (Huntley and Palmer Biscuit Factory) and the growing of bulbs and seeds under trial conditions to improve their productivity (Sutton Seeds).