Page 541 - Reading Mercury

Both chimney stacks were at the back of the house, and were exposed to the full
force of the gale. Apparently one about 12 feet in height fell and struck the other
chimney, which was about eight feet away, and knocked it down also. The roof of the
kitchen, which is situated in a single storeyed part of the house, was completely
smashed in, and a large part of the glass roof of a greenhouse was smashed. There was
a strong smell of gas, but owing to the large quantity of debris is was impossible to
find out where the actual escape was. However, P.C. Wheeler, who was called to the
scene, got to the gas meter and turned off the gas.
Mr. Charles Shepperd, of 39, Pitcroft Avenue, Reading, who was hurt, said “There
was suddenly a crash and the roof fell on top of me. My head was knocked against the
kitchen door, and I was nearly buried. Mr. Aldridge (the licensee) helped me out, and
I found, that I had hurt my head and one shoulder and leg
After examination by Dr. Smith, of Wokingham, Mr. Shepperd was able to go
home.
Mr. George Aldridge, the licensee, told a “Mercury” reporter that he was in the
kitchen at the time and was on the point of going into the garden. “I heard a rumbling,
and as I dashed into the garden the kitchen ceiling crashed in.”
Mrs. Aldridge said her husband had a narrow escape. She said that they were
frightened to go to bed that night as they did not know if any other part of the house
had been loosened by the fall of the chimney stacks.
Many roads around Wokingham were blocked for some time owing to the gale.

SOLDIER HIT BY GLASS.
A curious incident occurred in Peach Street, Wokingham. A soldier was passing
through the street when he was struck in the chest by a flying pane of glass. He was
not hurt, and it could not be discovered where the pane of glass came from, but
apparently it had been blown out of a window.
Overthrown trees blocked both Wiltshire Road, Wokingham, and the road to Hurst.
At 59, Peach Street, one of the historical gabled houses with projecting upper storey, a
row of ridge tiles was blown off its bedding of mortar with a crash into the street,
while a similar mishap occurred at the waterworks, Finchampstead Road.

th
Sat 25 Jan
R.100
The sound of its mighty engines and the appearance of its lines of shimmering
beauty attracted general attention at Wokingham on Monday about mid-day when the
R.100, the giant airship, circled slowly and majestically over the town for about an
hour.

SKELETON OF BABY IN MONTAGU HOUSE
Workmen engaged in repairs at Montagu House, Broad Street, made on Tuesday a
gruesome find. Above the ceiling plaster in an attic, between that and the joists, they
discovered the skeleton of a baby. Medical examination was unable to disclose
whether the child had ever breathed or, if so, what had been the manner of its death.
The house is an old one, and very large, with long ranges of rooms. Within the past 60
years it has been occupied as a residence by a clerk to the magistrates, a lady of title,
used as a large girls’ school, also as a hostel for soldiers billeted in the district during
the war

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