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!

Around the Forbury Gardens

photo - archive collection Reading Museum Service

Although we lived some way out of my home town during my early years, my parents and I would walk to my paternal grandma's as her house was in east Reading.  In fact we didn't have a car until I was in my teens and we walked or used buses to get around Berkshire.  There was also trolley bus routes through the town.

However, life goes on and changes and on a recent visit to Reading I enjoyed seeing the new buses with their bright colours for each route and some of the interesting designs on the paintwork (which I featured on my May Scavenger Hunt photo challenge).

The usual walk to my grandmother's house or into town in dry months was often along the tow path by the Thames, eventually passing the streets of Victorian houses around Huntley and Palmer's biscuit factory  Then we could cross the River Kennet where it flowed into the Thames by walking over a horseshoe-shaped bridge and on through a recreation area into town or do the same by following the path along the waterway called the Chestnut Walk. This was an enjoyable route into town as we could go into Reading Abbey ruins and the public gardens of the Forbury. I've written about this here and here.  Perhaps the recent visit, my birthday and the coming Father's Day on Sunday which is always close to our wedding anniversary has triggered this off? Anyway, this time I wanted to write about The Forbury Gardens as I remember them and some of the recent changes in the area that I've noticed.

Chestnut Walk by the River Kennet.

This area was once part of the grounds of Reading Abbey.  Here there would have been a landing stage for travellers by water, a wharf for the activities of the abbey and the abbey corn mill which was next to a water channel called the Holy Brook. Excavations have dated the first mill on the site to the 12th century.

The River Kennet flows on through Reading town.

A small garden next to the Abbey ruins has been created as an outdoor seating area for those who work in the surrounding offices. Once there were warehouses, then offices and by the time we moved away from Reading many buildings had been demolished to make way for smart modern office blocks. It's an area I know well as I worked in this part of town before I was married.

These days it's not possible to go into the Abbey ruins or along a path that we used to get into the Forbury Gardens and instead on my recent times I've had to do a detour through these streets and then walk through the old Abbey Inner Gatehouse.

The Blade is a 14 storey office block in Abbey Street

The Abbey Inner Gateway

The Forbury was an open public space. It was used for grazing animals, for fairs, a cattle market and other events. Reading Corporation bought the site of the former outer and inner courtyards of the Abbey in the 1850s, transforming it into a public garden with a botanical character.  Help with the original planting was given by Suttons Seed Co. which had offices and a famous demonstration garden on the opposite side of the Forbury (now Forbury Square) until the company's move in 1962 to new trial grounds on the main London-Bath road. Much of the original plan of the Forbury Gardens remains unchanged.

A tunnel, which can be seen in the wall (to the right in the photo above) was built in 1859 to link the gardens and the Abbey ruins. Some carved stones from the Abbey site were used in the construction of both the tunnel and the arched stone shelter nearby. This is the path from Chestnut Walk that we would have used when I was a child. It was fun playing in the Abbey ruins, looking at the large stone information plaques that told the story in carved pictorial scenes of a place where kings and queens had come for important events.  I would run through the tunnel and try and create an echo as I called out to my parents or a cousin before racing on to the fountain in the gardens to look at the goldfish swimming in the water. The grassy mound in the gardens, Forbury Hill, doesn't look so impressive today, but it seemed an exciting one to climb and run around the paths in those childhood days.

the stone shelter

The fountain was in the centre that opened on Easter Sunday 1856.  The scallop shell is the emblem of St. James. St. James' Church and former primary school, now a pre-school, can be seen in the background of the photos (below). We've been to many baptisms, confirmations and weddings in the church and then taken photos of friends and family in the gardens.

Sadly the fountain wasn't working and this year the water was clogged up with water weeds and rushes.

  

2013

I thought I would include this old photo of my late father and I by the fountain.

2015

Forbury Hill

the rose garden

Herbaceous Border

Memorial to King Henry I who is buried in Reading Abbey

photos taken in  late Summer 2013

The Maiwand Lion commemorates the men of the 2nd Battalion of the 66th Berkshire Regiment who were killed in Afghanistan in 1880.

The Cenotaph
We would come to the Remembrance Day service there every November. 

Along from the Abbey Inner Gateway is the Old Shire Hall which was the administration headquarters for the county council before it moved out of town and is now an hotel. The Suttons Seed Company's original demonstration garden was in this area. In Forbury Square there are now modern offices, restaurants and wine bars.

I hope you enjoyed the walk and some childhood memories with photos taken during different times when on visits to Reading.