James Aitken, oft times known as John The Painter: the First Modern Terrorist. By Alan Turton. Hurrah! Our first live talk for many a long month. In the good old days of yesteryear we tend to think of baddies as highwaymen, footpads or pirates. To have our own […]

The History of Houses by Trevor Ottlewski Trevor is Chairman of the Wokingham History Group and has a special interest in the area’s historic buildings. He gave a chronological review of houses from pre-Roman to the present, with very good illustrations from real buildings. His first point was […]

The Pursuit and Sinking of the Bismarck By David Bickerton David related the tale of the sinking of German battleship Bismarck which was a dramatic episode of World War II. His great interest is because his father was serving on one of the Royal Navy ships. The end […]

On Christmas morning 1903 , about five minutes to eleven, just before the divine service, a churchwarden at Silchester Church, found to his cost, that Church bells can pose an unexpected threat to life. The Hants. and Berks. Gazette described the incident as follows; A serious accident occurred […]

A Talk by Mark Bowman Why 1752? Well that was the year that Britain changed its calendar system and famously lost eleven days. The title of the talk is a play on ‘1066 and all that’ the hilarious book from the 1930s by Sellars and Yeatman which treats […]

The Great Sandhurst to Sandhurst Walk, via Sandhurst by Graham Harding (assisted by Helen) Graham and Helen moved to Sandhurst, Berkshire in 2004. Through misdirected post they rapidly found out there are two other Sandhursts in southern England and so was born the project to walk from the […]

Called “An Historical Tour around the University’s London Road Campus”, the link to view the video is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wG1dG67960c  During 2019, as part of its outreach programme, ‘The Friends of the University of Reading’ ran guided historical tours of the University’s London Road and Whiteknights campuses. Because of COVID, […]

Tadley has its fair share of local folklore, including the “Tadley Treacle Mine” and the “Tadley God Help Us” episode. The story of the “Tadley Toad” is not primarily about a Toad but a sad tale of a particular person living in “Poor Tadley” in the late 18th […]

Settlements on the Burghclere and Kingsclere downs, beside east-west trade route, the Ridgeway. Local area is the centre of wool industry. Tumuli found at Wootton, and on south side of Wasing Wood.   Bronze and Iron Age Important trade and communications centre at Silchester, with pagan temple and […]

Union Street, also known locally as Smelly Alley, is a pedestrian alley in the centre of the English town of Reading. It is lined with small shops and other retail outlets, and connects Broad Street and Friar Street. The name Smelly Alley came about in the 1940s, as […]

A talk by Chris Broom As the title suggests, his talk “Humour in Genealogy” uses a number of light-hearted examples to demonstrate the advantages of scrutinising original documents in family-history research, many of which contain additional information not included in online records. Humour in Genealogy – A talk […]

During the Civil War Baughurst saw local skirmishes and suffered from plundering.  After this it became one of the biggest and wealthiest Quaker centres in Southern England.  Following a visit in 1657 to Basingstoke by George Fox, the Quaker founder, James Potter of Baughurst went to prison for […]

Blue Gown (1865) was a sweet-tempered, compact, short-legged,  bay colt that won the Derby in 1868. It was owned and  bred by Sir Joseph Hawley of  Hawley House in Tadley,  He sold the horse in  1869 to a French syndicate for 5,000 guineas.  Blue Gown  returned to England, […]

Contents   Overview Family members Local Benefactor Endorser of galvanic therapy for horses Obituary Origin of road name His name is perpetuated in the local street name, Mulfords Hill. Mulfords Bridge. (601 616) while no longer a commonly used name, but the metal bridge still exists where the […]

The Battle of the Somme: the blackest day in the history of the British Army Online talk by Phil Wood The first day of the battle remains the worst day in the history of the British Army, when it suffered 57,470 casulties, around 20,000 of whom were killed. After a series of attacks and counter...