10th Febuary 1943

This story started when I came across this bit of Tracery from St  Lawrence church in Reading.

 On a stone plaque at the base is written

 "This tracery formed part of what was the West Window of St  Lawrence's Church. It was dislodged during an enemy action on February 10th 1943."

I'd passed this hundreds of times on my way to school at St James down the road and it was only now I found out there had been an air raid on Reading. I looked into it to find out more.

 On that fateful day a German Bomber flew in over Reading dropping bombs and firing a machine gun at people on the ground. Four bombs fell in a line

.

 The tracery above can just be seen on the right of the photo.

 The attack left its mark on Reading and during the raid 41 people lost their lives,

 The same area today where the damage was done I will try for a better photo when Thames Water have finished work near the church

 most of them in a restaurant called the Peoples Pantry 150 people were also injured. The death toll would have been higher but for one thing, it was half day closing so the place was relatively empty. The restaurant was manned by the Women’s Royal Voluntary Service WRVS .

 

Now you would not know anything had happened

 

The area today with a horrible new building replacing the old one which was damaged.

 

This was the peoples pantry the photo I managed to get off the BBC news website

 

 According to the BBC website and from what I can make out the Peoples Pantry stood around here

 

 

 I think this photo is looking towards the Market Place.
 

Think this is about the right place though the building look like they have all been replaced.

Reading seemed to forget that day and no memorial was placed to those who died. Even their last resting place is almost forgotten.

 

They lay buried here in a line though now other graves are mixed in with them. The second and third headstones in the photo are two of the people who died. Looking at the headstone you can see many women who must have been in the WRVS lay buried here. I've written a small blog about two of the girls buried here. killed-by-enemy-action.

Walking round the area it happened you would be forgive in thinking none of it had happened at all but St Lawrence Church tells a different story. The pock marks on the wall here to me look like shrapnel damage.

 

If you look closely in this area there is what I think is either shrapnel in the wall or the remains of a bullet. Another story I have been told is originally the turrets at the four corners of the tower had little spires of the top of them, these survived the bombing but each f them had been rotated about 10 degrees. They stayed that way through the rest of the war but were taken down later.

 

 Shrapnel marks on the church

 

I'm sure this is a bullet lodged in the stonework

 

 

Even Queen Victoria was a casualty, if you look you can see her finger is missing, it's now on show in Reading Museum.

 

On the 10th February a memorial was unveiled to the memory of those who died 70 years to the day after it happened.
 

I have listed the names of those killed who were known, four others were unidentified.
Ernest Barnes, aged 67, from Carey St. Killed in Market St.
Ernest Beswick, 32, from Purley, Peoples Pantry
Violet Brown, 10, from London St, killed in Minster St
Betty Parsons, 11, South St, Minsiter St
Catherine Byland, 47, Oxford Rd Tilehurst, Arcade
Florence Chandler, 64, from Whitley, Peoples Pantry
Jesse Costin, 73, from Gt Knollys St, Peoples Pantry
Dennis Cook, 18, Spring Gardens, Town Hall
Nellie Dixon, 28. No address given, Peoples Pantry
James Doran, 62, Greyfriars Rd, Old Cheddar Cheese, Broad St
Arthur Dowling, 61, Gt Knollys St, Outside the Town Hall
Edward Eaton, a Warden from Southampton, aged 58, killed in Market Place
Henry Godden, 61, Kolybrook Rd, killed in Friar St
Edward Harding, 58, from the same address in Greyfriars Rd as James Doran, Peoples Pantry
William Hickey, 69, Gosbrook Rd, Peoples Pantry
Ernest Hobbs, 69, Argyle St, Peoples Pantry
William Hooban, 61, Salcombe Drive, Arcade
Edward Humphrys, 33, Bracknell, Peoples Pantry
PC Rex Jupp, 24, Ennerdale Rd, Market Place
REginald Kersley, 58, Stanhope Rd, Peoples Pantry
George Langford, 10, Slacombe Rd, Peoples Pantry
Aristide Macrini, 63, London St, Market Place
Arthur Merchant, 56, from Sherman Place. Peoples Pantry
Julia Miles, 69, Wokingham, Peoples Pantry
Edith Osbourne, 49, Southampton St, Peoples Pantry
Emily Parker, 25, neighbour of Edith Osbourne, Peoples Pantry
Dorothy Pateman, 36, WVS volunteer in Peoples Pantry
Mildred Pike, 29, Tilehurst Rd, Market Place
Arthur Sayer, 65, Baker St, Peoples Pantry
Frank Seymour, 49, Hamilton Rd, killed in Blandy and Blandy's
Ellen Simmonds, 75, St Giles Buildings, Peoples Pantry
Wiliam Temple, 58, KIngs Rd Caversham, Outside Town Hall
Margaret Thackeray, 29, Emmer Green, on duty in Town Hall
Ellen Thompson, 51, Linden Rd, Peoples Pantry
Lily Weinstein, 46, Baker St, Peoples Pantry
John Wilmott, 72, Silver St, Peoples Pantry.

Killed by Enemy Action 10th February 1943

RIP

 

A Boxing day Walk

I felt I needed out of the house for a walk on Boxing day, too much Christmas dinner had taken it's toll. I thought I'd have a walk round the footpaths that skirt the village Cholsey I live in and have a look at some of the flooded fields I could see when driving down the Westfield road. First port of call was the Bullshole a place I had spent many childhood hours playing in the brook.

Not quite the Bulls hole but Cholsey Brook which the Bulls hole joins over on the left.

Cholsey brook again where it flows under the bunk line, the bunk line is an old railway which ran from Cholsey Station to Wallingford. Beaching closed it in 1961. This part of the brook was culverted sometime in the 1960's. The brook normally flows about 30cm lower than it is at the moment.

The Bulls Hole which most likely got its name from the cattle that used to drink here. As children we used to play and paddle in the water during the summer taking picnics to eat. It's fed from the brook further near the Lees in Cholsey and runs the edge of a field before running through a culvert under the main London to Bristol Railway (GWR) which can be made out in the photo. Cattle no longer graze in the field so the Bulls home has become very over grown now.
If you carry on along the footpath by the brook you will come to a long tunnel under the railway which will bring you out at position where you can take the footpath to either the Lees or across the fields to Lollongdon.

The railway embankment  the tunnel went through is over on the left in the distance, you cross a paddock then over the brook again before reaching this is the muddy footpath which looks like it was flooded a couple of days previous.

Further along the footpath you cross a track then follow a hedge past the pylon you see in the distance. This is looking back the way I came and the house over on the left is Little Lollingdon

After going through a hedge you will need to go along this footpath which as you can see is quite flooded

and over to the left you can see the field is flooded as well with seagulls feeding in the shallow water. The floods can be seen from the Westfield road as you drive down.

Crossing a drainage ditch you can hear water running and looking see the water draining from the fields into the ditch.

The ditch which will flow eventually back into Cholsey Brook, the plank I think may be part of the old bridge that was here.

Walking on past Lollingdon and up the hill you can get a good view of the Manor which is one of the few Moated Manors country and is mentioned in the Doomsday Book.

 Near the track you can see some of the trees which have had carvings done over the years, I wonder who MG 1959 is?

 From here you can get a good view of the flooded fields which are just outside Cholsey.

I headed back down the hill to take the bridleway back to Cholsey  but it is worth stopping for a look at Lollingdon Manor. 

 Along the bridleway you will pass Lollingdon spring which is where Cholsey Brook rises and is fed by the water that filters through the chalk from the downs

If you look you can see the water bubbling up through the bottom.







From the springs you walk along the bridleway to Cholsey past Westfield farm

 and go along this part of the bridleway where you come out

 at these farm buildings which have now been made into these two sets of units.

 The barns once looked like this and were in the stage of nearly collapsing with a couple which did just that.

 After following Cow Lane a short distance you get back on the bridleway which has this ancient ditch beside it, on the other side it is rumored  there was a nunnery and later the Abbot of Reading had a summer residence there.

Carry on the bridleway past the Elms and Pancroft Farm which was over on the right there, now it looks more like a scrapyard with old cars and trucks laying round the place. Behind me out of site is a bridge which takes the Main railway across the bridleway where you walk under to come back out at Westend in Cholsey. That was one of the short walks you can take in Cholsey, I will write another on a later date.

The Wilts & Berks Canal Part 2

The photos in both parts were taken over 3 years ago so I have no doubt some of the places will have changed.
On this walk we started at Childrey Wharf and worked back to Wantage  and I was pleased to see that some sections had been restored and parts were still being worked on. The photos were taken back in December 2010 so things will have changed since then

Part of the restored canal looking towards where work is going on.

Sure this was the wharf as there is what looks like the remains of a building nearby.

This is part which has yet to be restored and where it feeds into. There would have been a bridge here once.

 

 

Un-restored section

 

The towpath still runs beside it

 

Restored section 

 

Down the other end of the section was machinery

Large excavator

 

Part to be restored

The canal is filled in here around mid field

I traipsed across the field to find where it ran

The line of the canal back to where we were

You start to find information when you come back to parts of the canal

Some parts have water in it 

This is part of an old lift bridge

It was made into a culvert

You can also see the remains of where the old bridge was. it was made into a  culvert which was done by A.F Ackrill & Son 1948 as the name and date is in the cement indicate 

Further along in West Challow you find the canal has again been partly restored for a little way.

Not much to see from the seat

The path can be muddy and here the canal looks dry

Further on you see water

Most likely a lift bridge used to be here

Looking back

 

Going towards East Challow you find the canal is very overgrown though you do come across a lock on the way

Getting nearer Challow

 

It's quiet nice walking along the old parts even if there is little water to see

A bridge nearer Challow. 

 

Some more water

 

This building was an iron works once and would have used the canal.

Cross the road for the next part to Grove

This point is where the canal went under the bridge but it's long gone and a house sits  where the canal used to be.

 

It's easy to follow the path

 

 

This part has water still

 

A good path to follow as well

Well kept back when I visited

Lots of duckweed in the canal

 

Soon enough you get to Grove

 

Sure there may have been a lock here 

You get to parts where you loose sight of the canal and water

 

Then it stops

 

 

It would have run here but it's filled in

 

 

Fenced off area where the canal was

You start to see the housing estate

Which has a hit of what was here

I'm sure this is the part where the Wantage spur split from the main canal by a basin

From here to Wantage it is footpath and hints of the canal

Its all overgrown and filled in

We followed a footpath that was along where the towpath ran

Parts fenced off from what may have been the canal

None of the canal was visible now

Eventually you come across part of a bridge that once spanned the spur

Finally getting to where the Wantage basin used to be

Which was near Lecome brook and Wantage Flour Mill. This was 15 years ago what it looks like now along the route I went I do not know. It would be nice to see the parts restored but as to having a navigable canal like the Kennet I cannot see that happening. Landowners might be persuaded to give the land up for the canal but Thames Water want to build a huge reservoir which will encompass part of it so no way will they want a canal going through it. If they had not drained the canal in the first place we may have had a chance to use it for pleasure purposes now I feel it is a pipe dream.