On the off chance that you're interested, there is a Facebook page called "Old Reading".
Its description is..
"The 'Old Reading' Group, Seeks to Portray, the Many Ages of Reading, the County Town of Berkshire, its Growth into a Major Shopping Centre and it's Suburbs. Also, Towns, Villages & Countryside of the Greater Surrounding Area."
Its mostly old pictures, some history and some discussion of people's memories. I find it rather interesting and while away the odd hour there every now and again.
Just thought I'd mention it.
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I'd have a look but I don't use Facebook, in case all my unpleasant relatives find me on it and want to get in touch. I communicate quite happily through the normal channels with my pleasant ones.
It hasn't been the county town all that long however, the real old county town is Abingdon. Is Berkshire the weirdest shaped county of them all? Probably, in its original shape. In its current shape it probably shouldn't exist at all really, in fact it already doesn't administratively. It's a matter of minutes from my house on the Oxon border to the Hampshire boundary, and it's a pretty uniform width across its area. What does Langley have in common with Inkpen? Not much. Folks in the east of the county rarely bother anywhere west of about Maidenhead I shouldn't wonder. I certainly didn't when I lived in Windsor/Winkfield Row/Bracknell.
Funny old do, but I've still got an old fashioned map of the county on my wall. Quite fond of it, which is daft really. Born in Buckinghamshire anyway.
Either way it's better than Surrey.
;-)
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Berkshire as an administrative entity no longer exists anyway; it's unitary authorities in Slough, Windsor-and-Maidenhead, Wokingham, Reading and West Berkshire (ie Newbury) - probably one I've forgotten too. Wokingham is a strange shape too: it takes me about a minute to cross its pointy northern end from Southox to RBWM. (I've also used the RBWM tip in Maidenhead because it's closer than the one in Oxfordshire, but don't tell the police, will you?)
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>> Berkshire as an administrative entity no longer exists anyway
Blimey, there's an echo in here! ;-)
>> Wokingham is
>> a strange shape too
It ought to be disbanded, with much of its western part going to Reading and the rest being merged with Bracknell Forest. The Reading suburbs in west Berkshire area also ought to be ceded to Reading. People in Tilehurst shouldn't be paying council tax to Newbury, it's daft.
>> (I've also used the RBWM tip in Maidenhead because it's
>> closer than the one in Oxfordshire, but don't tell the police, will you?)
And it's about time the WDH was annexed by a Berkshire authority, W&M will do.
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>> Wokingham is a strange shape too
>> It ought to be disbanded,
It most certainly shouldn't. Already the new housing is threatening to close the gap between us and Bracknell but you have to have somewhere for the nice people to live, as there's nowhere in Reading or Bracknell!! :-)
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Reading, yesterday:
goo.gl/maps/PrcaURdyVuL2
;-)
16% house price growth this year, must have something going for it. Where's yer Crossrail station, Woky folkies?
;-)
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....I lived round the corner on St Peters Avenue for a few years in the '70s.
But that's not Reading, that's Caversham, an entirely different (and superior) kettle of fish, don't y'know?
;-)
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Caversham Heights or Mapledurham, actually dahling...........
;-)
Whereabouts were you on St Pete's? Very much my neighbourhood.........
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>> Caversham Heights or Mapledurham, actually dahling...........
>>
>> ;-)
>>
>> Whereabouts were you on St Pete's? Very much my neighbourhood.........
>>
I had a bedsit in no 62 (which from Streetview looks almost unchanged in the interim) for part of my 6 year sojourn in the sarf.
Prior to that I shared a house in Caversham (Park, actually, dahling - an altogether more prosaic area).
I spent quite a bit of my time drinking Gales in the Pack Horse where, at the time, the beer and the barmaids were fine, but the landlord wasn't!
(Good god, I hope you aren't Andy!)
;-)
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>>drinking Gales in the Pack Horse
What years?
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>> >>drinking Gales in the Pack Horse
>>
>> What years?
>>
'76 thru '79, then I escaped back North.
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About the same time then.
Large black Matchless G12 650cc.
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I left Primary School in 1979.
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...my transport was that of whoever's turn it was to drive, though one of my housemates had a vintage Riley (possibly an RMB).
Usually arrived at around 22:00 for a last couple of pints of HSB.
'Andy' (the landlord at the time - I think it came from his surname) was a bit of a snob and a rugby hanger-on. I remember him being particularly fawning over JPR Williams, who dropped in from time-to-time when he worked at the RBH.
Oddly, his wife was quite the opposite (and very pleasant in a landlady type of way), and he did know how to pick good barmaids.
If the room was full when we entered (and it could get packed), our order was always waiting by the time we got to the bar.
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I think that used to be my friends house.
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To those around Reading.... - Alanovich
