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, the Open Spaces Society
and Berks, Bucks and Oxon Wildlife Trust.
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 2011 Wokingham Society AGM was held on Wednesday 16th November in the Bradbury
Centre, Wokingham Methodist Church, Rose Street.
Jack Meatcher, a well-known local authority on the history of railway development in Wokingham from
the mid-19th century, gave a talk, WOKINGHAM AND ITS RAILWAY.
For a report of the talk click here.
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New Wokingham Station
Wokingham Borough Council has approved plans for a new station in
Wokingham to replace the existing buildings. The Society’s
Committee had raised concerns about the lack of attention to the
consultation process and also conveyed its views on the plans put
forward; these were responded to in the Officers’ Report which
accompanied notice of the decision.
As a separate but closely related issue Network Rail has itself
approved the provision of lifts from each platform to the bridge,
thus enabling those with mobility problems to access the station
more easily.
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Open Evenings
Councillor Gwynneth Hewitson, Chair of the
Wokingham Cultural Partnership and member of the Town
Council's Amenities Committee with special
responsibility for arts and culture was the speaker
at our Open Evening held on Wednesday 21 September
2011.
Click here to read a report of the
meeting
Our next open evening will be at 7.45 for
8.00 pm
on Wednesday 21
March 2012, when Councillor Angus Ross, Wokingham
Borough Council Executive Member for Planning and Strategic
Highways, will talk about the future of Wokingham’s roads and
traffic issues in the light of plans for new developments in the
town centre and north and south Wokingham.
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Wokingham Heritage Weekend
The Wokingham Society enjoyed an active role in
celebrating Wokingham’s heritage on Sunday,
September 11th. Jim Bell, a local historian and
member of the Society, was instrumental in helping to
organise events and exhibitions in the Town Hall on
the theme of the 1950s.
Click here to read an article about the
Heritage Weekend
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Wokingham Town Centre Redevelopment
Exhibition
Wokingham Borough Council and its chosen
developers, Wilson Bowden, held a consultative
exhibition of plans for regenerating Wokingham town
centre in July 2011 In essence the plans are for:
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Around 140,000 sq ft of additional retail
provision
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Around 13,000 sq ft of additional leisure and
recreational facilities
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Around 200 new homes
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An enhanced town park and improvements to
existing public open spaces
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Improvements to the road network and car
parking
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Improvements to Peach Place and Rose Street
areas
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A proposed hotel and a food store
The Wokingham Society Committee has submitted its
own response to the exhibition. While welcoming the
concept of redevelopment, the Committee, on behalf of
its members has always been concerned about the
extent of development on Elms Field and in particular
remains unconvinced about the need for through road
across the park or for a hotel and food store to
serve as a landmark at the southern edge of the
Field, particularly when the food store will have its
back to Wellington Road.
The Committee's response can be seen here.
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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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Core Strategy for Housing Developments in
North and South Wokingham
In September 2010 Wokingham Borough Council
approved Supplementary Planning Documents under its
Core Strategy which set out the overall plan for
providing 1,500 new dwellings in North Wokingham
and 2,500 in South Wokingham. The Southern Parishes
raised legal objections concerning the extent of
consultation and the Council decided to repeat its
consultation on these Documents together with
similar plans for housing developments at
Arborfield and South of the M4; these are
geographically outside our remit but still affect
the town in respect of their impact on local roads,
transport and other services.
The Wokingham Society responded to the initial
consultation and has done so again in respect of
the second one, which closed on 27 July 2011. A
copy can be found here. In both submissions the
Society raised concerns about the adequacy of the
proposed infrastructure, especially in respect of
roads, and will continue to press these issues
during the subsequent planning pre-application
stage.
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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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Blue Plaques Trail Guide Leaflet
For details of our latest plaques, the Station
Railway Bridge and the British School click
here.
In addition to see a preview of our next plaque
(no. 13) at the Old Workhouse in Denmark Street
click here.
A trail guide leaflet based on all twelve of The
Wokingham Society blue plaques is available. To
view an electronic copy please go to the Achievements page.
Printed copies of this leaflet can be obtained from
the Information Centre in the Town Hall info@wokingham-tc.gov.uk
0118 974 0880.
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