Welcome to the website of The Wokingham
Society
We hope you will find this website informative and
interesting and that we can perhaps persuade you to
join the Society. You will see from our aims that we
work to protect Wokingham town's past, present and
future. This covers our heritage, our environment and
facilities for the benefit of the residents and
workforce.
Wokingham is an attractive town with a good history.
We hope you will enjoy the website pages and that we
can convince you of the town's and the Society's
value.
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Who are we
The Wokingham Society is an independent,
non-political organisation (charity no. 274988),
affiliated to Civic Voice and the Open Spaces
Society.
It aims to help protect the environment and character
of the town of Wokingham,influence local development
planning, encourage conservation of historic
buildings, other traditional features and the town's
nature resources, support local business and try to
ensure that civic amenities are maintained and
improved.
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ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
The 2012 Wokingham Society AGM was held on
Wednesday 21st November in the Bradbury Centre,
Wokingham Methodist Church, Rose Street.
Robin Cops gave a talk about the two murals uncovered
at St Crispins School with the help of grants from
the Society and about Fred Millet, the artist who
painted them.
For a report of the meeting and talk click here.
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Open Evenings
Our next Open Meeting, which is free for every one, will be held on Wednesday 19 June 2013, is entitled ‘Open for Business’ and will be given by members of the Wokingham Town Team led by Georgina Hustler of ‘Antique Rose’ in Bush Walk and Mark Walton, President of Wokingham Chamber of Commerce . They will tell us about the range of new initiatives being undertaken by the Team to enhance Wokingham’s retail and entertainment experience.
The Meeting will be at 7.45 for 8.00 pm in the main hall of the Town Hall, Market Place, Wokingham.
A further Open Meeting will take place on Thursday 26 September 2013 when Dr Phillip Lee, MP for Bracknell, will talk about his proposals for a new regional hospital for the Tames Valley. Again, the Meeting will be at 7.45 for 8.00 pm in the main hall of the Town Hall, Market Place, Wokingham.
All our Open Meetings are free and there is no need to book. Just turn up on the night. We will even be providing free refreshments at the end of the meetings.
At our Open Evening held on Wednesday 20 March
2013, Peter Must, Chairman of the Society, gave a
talk about Three Wokingham Families: The
Mountagues, the Heelases, and the Walters.Each
family, in its own time, made significant
contributions to the town. For a report of the
meeting here.
Wokingham Enterprises Ltd (WEL): Who, What,
When, How? was the subject of our Open Evening
held on Thursday 20 September 2012. The speakers were
John Pike, independent non-executive member and
Andrew Moulton, WBC Director of Transition and
Director of WEL. Wokingham Enterprises Ltd is wholly
owned by Wokingham Borough Council and was set up to
make best use of the Council’s land and
property assets in order to attract investment.
To read a report of the meeting click here.
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Jim Bell
Members will be pleased to know that Society
Member and well-known local historian, Jim Bell, was
awarded the honour of attending the Maundy Thursday
Service at Christ Church Cathedral Oxford in order to
receive from Her Majesty the Queen the gift of the
traditional Maundy money.
Jim was nominated by St Paul’s Church in gratitude
for the many contributions he has made and is
continuing to make to the life of the church, both by
fund-raising and helping to maintain the graveyard.
He has also written a number of books about the
history of the church and people associated with it
in times of peace and war. Copies of his books are on
display in the Town Hall Information Centre and
Wokingham Library.
Jim was surprised but delighted to be recognised in
this way and he says that the experience was one of
the most memorable of his life. It was the first time
in nearly 400 years that the service had been held in
the Cathedral at Oxford and Jim is the proud
possessor of a photograph recording his meeting with
the Queen on an occasion of major significance in the
history of the Diocese of Oxford.
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Edna Goatley 1927 – 2013
Members of the Society were saddened to learn of
the death of Mrs Edna Goatley on Wednesday 3 April
2013. Edna was an Honorary Member of The Wokingham
Society in recognition of the unparalleled
contribution she and her husband Ken made to the life
of Wokingham and in chronicling its history.
Together Edna and Ken, both of whom were born in
Wokingham and who married on October 1953, devoted
themselves to researching and recording Wokingham in
its everyday colours: the people who lived and worked
in the town; the changes that Wokingham had
experienced from its medieval origins; what had
happened in the town during their lifetimes. They
made a film, now available on DVD, showing Wokingham
‘Then and Now’, which they showed regularly at local
events, Ken doing the introductions and Edna the
projection.
Ken produced a book, Wokingham: The Town of My Life,
in which he not only remembered the town of his
youth, but also wrote with great affection of his
courtship of and life with Edna. After Ken’s death in
2006 the David Tinker, Chairman of the Wokingham
Society, worked with Edna and the Wokingham Times to
publish Bygone Days, a collection of the many
articles Ken had written for the local paper. Copies
of both books have recently - with Edna’s willing
support – been distributed to schools, churches,
societies and other organizations around the town so
that many more people have been able to read about
Wokingham’s past and realize the unique contribution
that Ken and Edna made in bringing that past to
life.
Members of the Society attended Edna’s funeral on
Thursday 18 April, including Jim Bell, who has
inherited the Goatley mantle as a leading town
historian, and the Executive Committee has made a
donation to Edna’s chosen charity, the Macmillan
Cancer Support.
A tribute to Edna and Ken’s achievements as
chroniclers of the town can be found on the
‘Wokingham Remembers’ website by clicking here and a full obituary
for Edna appears in the Wokingham Times’s
‘GetWokingham’ website here.
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If you care about Wokingham come and join
us
For information on membership of The Wokingham
Society, click Join
WS, email
The Wokingham Society or pick up a
leaflet from the Wokingham Information Centre in
the Town Hall.
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Chairman's Welcome
As Chairman of the Wokingham Society I welcome
you to our website. We were established in the
1960s at a time when in Wokingham, as elsewhere,
many valued and useful buildings and facilities
were under threat from widespread and often
thoughtless redevelopment. While it has not always
been possible to prevent the loss of individual
landmarks, the Society’s voice has been
significant in helping to preserve other local
historic features, and to ensure that development
has been sensitive to the town’s
heritage.
We, along with other organisations and many
individuals, have been intensively involved in the
dialogue about plans to regenerate the town centre
and to build extensive housing developments to the
north and south of the town. We will continue to
work closely with the local councils, residents and
business community to ensure that the changes are
made with sensitivity to the heritage and natural
environment of the area and that the necessary
infrastructure - for schools, shops, roads and
transport - is put in place to meet the needs of
all who live or work in or who visit Wokingham.
The Society has a proud tradition of offering help
to local activities through its grants system and,
although the economic downturn has to some extent
reduced our capacity to provide such funds, we do
continue to respond to requests for assistance and
look forward to increasing our provision as soon as
the financial situation improves. The Grants
section of this website illustrates the causes we
have been able to help in the past, and explains
how local people or organisations can apply for
funding.
To encourage those who use or visit the town to
appreciate Wokingham's rich heritage, the Society
regularly erects blue plaques on notable buildings
and other structures to mark the life of
individuals or the original use of that location in
the history of the town. The link at the bottom
right of this page takes you to where you can find
an electronic version of our blue plaque trail
guide.
We do hope you find our website interesting and
helpful. If you have any questions or want to offer
any thoughts please do contact me via the link to
Chairman.
My best wishes to you
Peter Must
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New Wokingham Station and Station Link
Road
The Borough Council has agreed with Network Rail
and South West Trains plans for a new Wokingham
railway station, including lifts to both platforms,
and a related Link Road which will take traffic to
the station and through from Wellington Road to the
Reading Road. Work has started on the station and
car park, and is expected to be completed later
this year. The Link Road is due to be in place by
2014.
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Town Centre Regeneration
Wokingham Borough Council and Wilson Bowden
Developments are continuing with their plans for
building shops, a food store, a hotel and residential
accommodation on Elms Field; and to provide a new
shopping area, provisionally named Peach Plaza, on
the car park site behind Boot’s.
An exhibition presenting the latest concepts for the
public areas in the town centre (called ‘Public Realm
Strategy’) is to be held on Thursday 2 and Friday 3
May 2013 in Wokingham Town Hall and is free to
all.
Associated with these developments, the Council has
approved plans for refurbishing the buildings running
from the corner of Rose Street (Boots) along the
north side of the Market Place (the colonnade). On
behalf of the Society, the Committee submitted a
response, here, critical of the
bland and unsympathetic design offered. The detailed
designs are awaited before refurbishment work can
commence this Summer.
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Blue Plaques Trail Guide Leaflet
There are now 15 blue heritage plaques placed by
the Society on buildings throughout Wokingham
town.
Full details of these and a location map can be
seen by clicking here or going through the
Achievements section.
Copies of the booklet itself can be obtained from
the Town Hall Information Office and the
Library.
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Managing Development Delivery
Consultation
Last year the Borough Council held a
Consultation on what is called the ‘Managing
Development Delivery Development Plan Document’.
The primary purpose of this plan is to allocate
sites for the development of some 1000 dwellings
which are needed by 2026 beyond the number of
houses to be built on the four large development
locations in North and South Wokingham, Arborfield
and South of the M4. It also proposes policies for
commercial and other kinds of development. Most of
the proposed housing development is in other parts
of the Borough but, for Wokingham Town and its
environs, major sites include the 190 dwellings
planned for Elms Field, 34 at Folly Court, Blagrave
Lane, and 7 in Norton Road..
The Council has now approved a final version and
this will be subject to an independent examination
by a Government-appointed planning inspector, which
will be held between 14 and 23 May 2013. The
Wokingham Society will attend relevant sessions of
this examination. The Society Committee’s response,
which objects to the amount of housing on Elms
Field and the location of a food store and hotel
there, can be seen here.
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The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee
Celebrations
Members will be pleased to know that we made a
positive contribution to the celebrations
Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations on
Saturday and Sunday, June 2nd and 3rd.
The Society’s has provided a commemorative
plaque, placed outside the Town Hall on the
pavement close to the one commemorating the
Queen’s Golden Jubilee. It was formally
unveiled on Tuesday 29 May 2012 by the High Steward
of Wokingham, Lady Elizabeth Godsal. Well-known
Society member Jim Bell has written a book on the
history of Jubilee celebrations in Wokingham since
the Golden Jubilee of King George III.
A letter received in reply from Buckingham Palace
can be viewed by clicking here.
Copies of Jim Bell’s book are available for
£3.50 from: The Town Hall Information Centre
and Bookends;
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Volunteers needed for Town Hall
Information Centre
The Town Council has relocated its Information
Centre to the converted Jubilee Room. The Centre is
now open on Saturdays from 10 am to 3 pm and
members of the Wokingham Society have volunteered
to help run it at those times.
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