Page 1028 - Reading Mercury

that an enforcement notice would be more effective in the long run and could save the
Council costly legal complications.
The Council decided that a carefully drafted enforcement notice should be served
upon the owners and occupiers of the Blue Pool forthwith.

PARK PLANNED AT WOKINGHAM
Plans for a children’s boating/ paddling pool and a small recreation park in the
centre of Wokingham were heard at the Wokingham Town Council meeting on
Thursday last week. Members were told that the Borough Engineer and Surveyor
were preparing a scheme to convert the Howard Palmer Bowling Green into a small
park and recreational area.
The land had been given to the Council by Deed of Gift in 1968 in order to
perpetuate the memory of the late Howard Palmer.

DEATH OF ALD. N. LAWRENCE
Wokingham has lost an outstanding personality and former Mayor through the death
at his home in Reading Road, Wokingham, on Sunday of Ald. Norman Lawrence. He
was eighty.
Ald. Lawrence, who leaves a widow, worked in the postal service at Wokingham for
44 years before retiring and devoting himself more assiduously to local affairs. He
had the distinction of becoming Wokingham’s first Labour Mayor in 1946 and had
been on the Council continuously since November 1937 when he succeeded in
securing a seat at his first attempt.
In February 1948 he was elected an alderman. For 13 years he was Chairman of the
Housing Committee, and until last year was Chairman of the Finance Committee. The
funeral takes place today (Thursday) at St. Paul’s Church. Wokingham.

th
Thur 9 March
WOKINGHAM’S HISTORY ON DISPLAY
The Wokingham Society’s Exhibition, “Wokingham from 1800 to the present day,”
was opened at the Town Hall on Thursday by the Mayor, Dr. Reginald Child. The
Mayor congratulated Mr. Anthony Cross, Chairman of the Society, the Secretary,
Mrs. J. Caldwell, and all the representatives of churches and organisations who
prepared the stands on the excellent result of their hard work, and pointed out to the
assembled crowd some aspects of the stands such as the “Royal Table,” part of the
Borough Council’s exhibit showing the Queen’s and Prince Phillip’s signatures in the
Visitors’ Book which they signed in 1962. Press reports and pictures of Queen
Victoria’s visit in 1845.
He quoted from a guide book of 1913 which Mentioned Wokingham stating that it
was “a quiet self-centred country residential town,” and pictures on the stands around
the room bear this out. Tree-lined dirt roads, attractive houses with here and there a
few people with time to spare sitting or standing in the sunshine.
Modern Ideas
Still quoting the Mayor said:”Let no one think of Wokingham as a place asleep. It is
governed by a Mayor and Corporation, who, while, they have succeeded in
maintaining its aspect as that of an old Berkshire borough have yet contrived to keep
it abreast of modern ideas.” He hoped the present Mayor and Corporation were doing
just that.
The Mace Bearer was kept very busy answering numerous questions by the children
on the history of the Borough Council exhibits. They were particularly interested in

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