Over The Hill

In this short series of podcasts I will be looking at the this history of some local pubs and the people who worked in them from the earliest days to the just before the Second World War. The first pub is The Crispin which started out as a beer house and grew and expanded throughout … Continue reading A History of a Pub through Time: The Crispin →

This is an extract from a talk I gave recently to the Wokingham Society —-

In this podcast, I tell the strange story of a flying machine built in Wokingham in 1909 by local inventor Jesse Farbrother. The machine was made of wood and canvas and was designed to take off vertically! Its sudden disappearance and the disappearance of Jesse have been shrouded in mystery. Was there an explosion or … Continue reading The Wokingham Whale →

What are the local events that have made the biggest impression or impact on you? How has the town changed in the last 50 or so years? In this episode, I explore the history of Wokingham in the recent past, from 1969 onwards. Traffic jams, the Royal Princes, and the demise of the Ritz cinema … Continue reading In Living Memory →

Have you ever wondered when Wokingham was founded, or indeed why it was established where it is? Wokingham’s early history starts in the Anglo Saxon period. The town developed during the medieval period with a market and annual fairs. In this episode of Wokingham A Potted History I explore the foundation of the town, try … Continue reading The Founding of Wokingham →

Wokingham’s past, in terms of leisure activities, is not completely wholesome. The local historian Arthur Heelas writing in 1928 said: ‘The sporting instincts of the inhabitants of the district have always been well developed, although not necessarily applied in the right direction.’ The wrong direction included bull baiting and bare-knuckle fighting.It wasn’t until the Victorian … Continue reading Wokingham at Play →

At one point in time, Wokingham could boast 45 public houses, as well as three major breweries and a couple of inns. Our oldest pubs, such as the Queen’s Head, The Duke’s Head as well as The Roebuck and the Red Lion, can take us back to the 18th century. Others came with the railway … Continue reading Wokingham’s Pubs and Breweries →

Wokingham was the epitome of the Home Front in WW1 and WW2. A small market town trying to maintain life as normal while everything was in turmoil. As the young men and women went off to war, the town was inundated with new arrivals: Belgium refugees, Canadian soldiers and the build-up of troops for D … Continue reading Wokingham at War →

Wokingham is a market town on the edge of Windsor Forest in England. It is where I have lived most of my life; it is where my family has grown up. And until recently, it is a place that I knew very little about. Like many, perhaps, I worked five days a week; weekends were … Continue reading Wokingham: A Potted History →