Poulton & Sons head office 185 Elgar Road c1900-1909 courtesy Reading Borough Council (Reading Library)
The National Archives at Kew are currently closed and have made some of their digitised records available free of charge until they re-open. Downloadable documents include some historic wills, a selection of military service records including British Army medal cards 1914-1920 and pages from the Domesday Book.
Reading Borough Crest
Reading Borough Council has a web page dedicated to changes to their services during the coronavirus epidemic. The civic offices are now closed to the public except if you have an appointment to register a birth or death. If you need to contact the council, then do so online or by phoning them on 0118 937 3787.
Reading Borough Council (RBC) closes its buildings to the public from today, Tuesday 17 March. This includes the civic offices, Reading Museum and Town Hall, arts and theatre venues, libraries, community buildings and leisure centres. RBC has decided to do this in response to latest government advice on the coronavirus epidemic.
Reading Cultural Awards 2020 are now open for nominations for activities and events that took place between 1 April 2019 and 31 March 2020. Anyone can nominate an event or an organisation for one of the 13 awards. There is a new category this year, school of the year, for a school that has shown outstanding dedication to the arts.
Whitley Pump roundabout
Reading Borough Council (RBC) has a schedule of charges for everything from overdue library book fines to planning fees and advertising on the Whitley Pump roundabout. The list covers 26 pages and is a fascinating insight into the minutiae of local government, Reading style.
25 December 1914 Archibald Buchanan-Dunlop (left), Captain M. B. G. Copeman (centre), and Captain W. C. Wilson (right) in the trenches at La Grande Flamengrie. Image courtesy Robin Buchanan-Dunlop
Major Archibald Henry Buchanan-Dunlop of Whitley Rise was pictured in the Berkshire Chronicle of 8 January 1915 beneath the headline “Major who sang carols between the trenches”. A short paragraph beneath reported that he was one of the “moving spirits” in the Christmas truce between British and German troops on the Western Front [ref 1].
Whitley Library on Northumberland Avenue will stay open until 12 noon on Christmas Eve. It will not then re-open until Thursday 2 January at 9am when normal opening hours resume. No books are due back during the period when the library is closed.
From L-> R: Matt Rodda & Rachel Eden (Labour), Yemi Awolola (CPA), convenor John Crosfield, timekeeper Christina Hughes Nind, Imogen Shepherd-DuBey (Liberal Democrat), Jamie Whitham & David McElroy (Green).
An estimated 60 people attended the parliamentary hustings at the Quaker Meeting House in Katesgrove, Reading on Thursday 28 November. Candidates Matt Rodda and Rachel Eden (Labour), Jamie Whitham and David McElroy (Green), Imogen Shepherd-DuBey (Liberal Democrat) and Yemi Awolola (Christian Peoples Alliance, CPA) answered questions from the Reading public about the UK’s future relationship with Europe, a fairer society and the climate emergency.
The Four Horseshoes public house at the corner of Basingstoke Road and Long Barn Lane was an ancient hostelry originally known as the Long Barn. In the 1820s, it was at the centre of a libel case involving tenant James Leach and Reading’s brewing and political elites.
The old Whitley Library building has now closed
Reading Borough Council (RBC) has put the old Whitley Library up for sale on the open market with agents Dunster & Morton, describing it as an ‘attractive listed building with potential for conversion to residential use’. Voluntary organisations can also put in a bid for the property through the third sector process. The deadline for all offers is 5pm on 19 December 2019.
Reading Borough Council (RBC) is undertaking a community safety survey. These surveys take place every two years. If you participated in the 2017 survey you will recognise that this year’s is very similar. The opinions of Reading residents on issues in their area may not translate directly into the priorities set for Reading because other opinions and crime statistics are also taken into account.
By Gillie Tunley and Evelyn Williams.
The inspired Diana Russell and Liz Real have curated a heartwarming exhibition of work from CIRDIC (Churches in Reading Drop-in Centre) at the Holybrook Gallery, Reading Central Library. Carole Stephens officially opened On the Edge on 17 September.
Heritage Open Days (HODs) are celebrating their 25th birthday with an extended programme of events over ten days from 13 to 22 September. There are over 40 participating venues and events in Reading this year and you don’t have to go too far from the Whitley Pump for some of them.
Reading has two mobile library routes that serve the south of the town every three weeks.
By David Neale.
A community hub in Whitley has become an essential part of the neighbourhood within its first year.
Southcote councillor Deborah Edwards attended a considerable number of events in south Reading during her mayoral year. This is a pictorial record of just a few of them that the Whitley Pump was able to cover.
Whitley Library’s last day of opening before Xmas is Saturday 22 December until 1pm and it will not re-open until Thursday 3 January.
Berkshire Record Office
The Berkshire Record Office (BRO) re-opens at 9am today following its annual stocktake. There will then only be eight days in which to cram in last minute research before the New Year.
Liz Real and Martina Hildebrandt, eminent local artists, have combined their creative forces to present a fun and feisty exhibition of work at the Central Library’s HolyBrook gallery portraying eminent women of the area and also examining the compelling history of our prison.
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