Page 1024 - Reading Mercury

th
Thur 5 Aug
ALMSHOUSES
A block of cottages has been demolished by the Charity Commissioners at the
junction of Peach and Cross Streets. The borough says that it is all part of the
proposed re-development for the area. A spokesman for the council says that the
vision of lorry drivers turning into Cross Street will be greatly improved.

th
Thur 26 August
NEW LOOK FOR HOLME GRANGE
David Langton, (32) has just taken on the invidious task of succeeding to Mr. John
Graves who, for 30 years was supreme of the school set in 31 acres of fields and
forest behind Easthampstead Road. He has two sons, aged two and four. Educated at
Abingdon and Goldsmith’s College, London University, he has taught for eleven
years in prep schools, most recently as a housemaster at Bedford Lower School.
Lesley, his wife, is also a qualified teacher.
When Mr. Graves took over the school in 1951 there were 20 boarders and 32 day
boys. In the coming term there are to be 53 boarders and 52 day boys paying £75 a
term each for tuition. He is hoping to increase the number of day boys.
What does the school have to offer? Acres of land, of course, including three
playing fields and a lake, an extended dining hall, a reference library, and eight
teachers for 102 pupils which gives about twelve boys to each class.

th
Thur 16 Sept
THE NIGHT OLD HAVELOCKER WAS CAUGHT IN A RAT TRAP
Reading about Wokingham’s so-called out-dated railway station reminds me of my
school days when the level crossing gates were hand-operated and when horse-drawn
carts, milk floats, brewers’ drays and council tip-carts were the main traffic delayed.
During the dark winter evenings a favourite after-school game was “Dicky Dyke.”
Two boys would go out with a lighted candle in a jam jar or an old policeman’s
bullseye lantern to be chased by a happy band of followers. Usually the two boys had
a ten-minute start, and often if the chase went on or there was a downpour of rain, the
Dykers (the boys with the candles) would hide under a tarpaulin-covered wagon in the
railway yard. There they would keep fry and warm while the chasers were soaked to
the skin.
One dark and wet evening I remember I and the other Dyker thought Minchin’s corn
and hay store was warm and inviting, so we went in to hide just on top of the trusses
of hay under the rounded roof.
I turned three somersaults in my haste to get out and landed with my backside
caught in the powerful jaws of a rat trap secured by cord. I broke the cord to get free
but with the rat trap firmly fastened to my backside, I ran across the Laundry
Meadows and down the school playground. There I was freed from the jaws of the rat
trap though a major part of my short trousers was torn away.
I never did return to Minchin’s hay loft, for fear of another trap.

th
Thur 30 Sept
TOWN CLERK SAYS FAREWELL
Leonard Goddard Smalley has been Wokingham’s town clerk for 25 years. Today
(Thursday) he leaves his desk in the borough council’s Wellington Road office for the
last time. Because today Mr. Goddard Smalley retires after a lifetime in local

1022