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The Wokingham Society


Working to protect Wokingham town's past, present and future

 
Wokingham panorama
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 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.

 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.

 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.

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.

 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.

 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

 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:

  • Around 140,000 sq ft of additional retail provision

  • Around 13,000 sq ft of additional leisure and recreational facilities

  • Around 200 new homes

  • An enhanced town park and improvements to existing public open spaces

  • Improvements to the road network and car parking

  • Improvements to Peach Place and Rose Street areas

  • 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.


 Chairman's Welcome

Peter Must

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

 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.

 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.

 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.