On the Saturday morning of our stay in Reading daughter D dropped me off outside Reading Town Hall so that I could visit the Museum and Art Gallery which is within this building. It's a building that I used to spend time in when we lived in Reading, firstly as a child looking around the exhibition rooms and the children's library, (the library was there before the new central library was built), going to events in the concert hall and where Mr P and I had our wedding reception in one of the function rooms. My father also worked in one of the municipal offices before the new civic offices were built to serve Reading Borough. Then I took my own children and grandchildren to the museum, which has now been refurbished, re-arranged to appeal to today's families and individuals. Mr P was one of those who worked on the latest refurbishment of the galleries. He has also worked on other historical buildings and business parks in the Home Counties and London You can read more about Reading Town Hall here.
The schoolchildren had been having fun over the half term holiday learning about the history of food. The banqueting table and the paper, pâpier-maché or cardboard covered in crepe paper items looked impressive. Thank goodness the swan and the boar's head haven't been served at a banquet for many a day and the swan, like many other creatures, is a protected bird!
The Reading Guild of Artists (group of professional and amateur artists in the Berkshire area) were putting on the 89th Annual Exhibition so I looked in on that.
Here is a selection of the exhibits and some of those that caught my eye.
3D works - Lobster by Shirley Smith, bowls by Carole Stephens
Sonning Lock Weir by Clare Buchta
View From Grey's Court by Gill Goodwin
Hospitium by Linda Saul
There's a lot more to see in the different rooms such as the replica of the Bayeux Tapestry, the history of the Huntley and Palmer Biscuit enterprise and the history of Reading and surrounding area in general which I'll share another time.
I'll leave you with the pretty Venetian and Bohemian Glass items that were in the cabinets in one of the entrance halls.
