Page 1070 - Reading Mercury

The fayre was attended by a record number of visitors who made good use of the
various sideshows and games put on for the occasion. Football and netball
competitions were watched and enjoyed as was disco and rides on a small scale fire
engine and on ponies.
The money raised will go towards the purchase of a mini-bus or van which will be
used to take pupils on trips to other schools and to their project at Tirabad, Wales.

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Thur 24 July
“MY WORK IS DONE”—RETIRING HEADMISTRESS
It is almost 28 years since Beryl Caudwell decided the White House, Finchampstead
Road, Wokingham, would make an ideal preparatory school, and her unfailing efforts
since that day “to keep the lamp of learning burning bright” were acknowledged at a
farewell party given at the school last week to mark her retirement as headmistress.
Parents and pupils packed into what was once the drawing room of the original
house and heard Miss Caudwell say that the love that existed at the White House
School was beyond expression. Because of that love the occasion was not a sad one.
“I do feel my work is done,” she said. “But I know that the school will continue to
flourish and grow.”
The Rev. Geoffrey Carr, chairman of the School Trustees presented Miss Caudwell
with a cheque for £200 on behalf of the trustees, parents and pupils past and present.
During her retirement Miss Caudwell will continue to live in her house in the grounds
of the school.

MANSION MAKES WAY FOR NEW GUIDE DOG TRAINING CENTRE
Folly Court, Wokingham, once a large, imposing mansion looking across its acreage
to Barkham Road, is now just a pile of rubble, apart from a carriageway tower which
is to be restored. Some older residents of Wokingham may have mourned its passing
last week, under relentless bulldozers, but for Mr. Terry Warner, Chairman of the
Wokingham and Bracknell Guide Dogs for the Blind Association, it was the
beginning of a dream soon to be realised.
It is on this site at Folly Court, that the Wokingham Training centre for Guide Dogs
will be built and a spokesman for the National Association offices in London said it
was hoped to start construction in October, with a good possibility that the Centre
would be enrolling its first puppies for training by Christmas 1976.
Meanwhile Mr. Warner, his wife Val. who is secretary of the local association and
the rest of the committee are continuing with fund-raising events to help finance the
new building.

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Thur 31 July
COUNCIL AGREE TO £40,000
Wokingham Town Council have agreed to contribute £40,000 towards a sports hall
scheme at St. Crispins School, with the understanding that it can be used after school
hours by the public. The overall cost of the improvements, modifications and
additions to the hall, to make it suitable for adult use, will be £120,000. The district
council will give £80,000 of this total and the two councils will offset the cost over
two years.
The county council have already invested £163,000 in the building of the sports hall
and will provide land for improvements free of charge. Working drawings have yet to
be completed, but the scheme is scheduled to start in 1976.

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