Page 1056 - Reading Mercury

The Centre cost f40, 000. Some of the money was donated by the then Wokingham
Borough Council. Wokingham Rural District Council and Berkshire County Council.
The rest came from the people of Wokingham.
Five years ago Mrs. Davy decided something must be done for .the old people of
Wokingham and W.A.D.E. was formed. Their main object was to provide a day
centre where old people could go for company and cheap meals. At first it was hoped
a plot of land could be bought in the centre of the town and a new building erected,
but costs and scarcity of such plots proved too much so Littlecourt, an old house in its
own grounds in Reading Road, has been leased from .the County Council.
A great deal of renovation was needed to make the Centre possible. Now there are
two large lounges—one on the ground floor and one on the first floor—a dining room,
facilities for hair dressing, chiropody and medical aid.
There are pleasant gardens for the old people to enjoy, a television room and games.
Hundreds of people of all ages turned up for the opening ceremony when Mrs. Davy
cut a ribbon stretched across the entrance to the house.
With her was the Mayor of Wokingham, Mr. John Tattersall with his wife the
Mayoress, the deputy Mayor and Mayoress, Mr. Stanley Bowyer and Mrs. Joan
Foreman-Brown, and committee member, Mr. Albert Skedgel.
A fete run at the same time raised £l75 and a stall selling plants to be planted in the
gardens of the Centre made a further £36.
During the afternoon the prizes won by walkers who raised most sponsor money in
the Wokingham Walk, which took place in January, were presented by the Mayor.

th
Thur 13 June
LACK OF FUNDS THREAT TO BERKS CRAFT CENTRE
Having survived five years of struggle against odds, it would be sad to see the Berks
Craft Centre at Wokingham--the first such centre to be established in the whole
country--close for lack of funds.
In opening the Centre’s annual exhibition at the Town Hall on Friday, Peter Stark,
Director of the recently established South Hill Park Centre, Bracknell, said that he
was surprised there had been so little public help in the way of funds for them.
Apart from a small grant given by the local Council at the beginning and other very
minor donations from Craft organisations, they had had nothing.
They have been threatened with the loss of their building due to forthcoming,
redevelopment and numbers of interested people have stopped attending classes
because of the fuel situation when the crisis was on.
These old arts and crafts are rapidly becoming lost to the nation. Visitors to the hall
were impressed with the skills shown by “ordinary” people who have learned lace-
making, basketry, weaving lapidary and silver-smithing at the Centre.
Members were shown “how it is done” and watched many of the processes
demonstrated from beginning to end
The Mayor, Mr. John Tattersall, agreed that the Centre should be helped and
promised to see what could be done.
th
An extraordinary meeting is to be held at the Centre on June 24 to discuss the
problems and it will probably be decided then whether to continue the project. If
sufficient is shown by local people and new recruits come to swell the numbers of
regulars they could survive and would like to do so without having to depend on
grants.

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