Page 879 - Reading Mercury

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Sat 17 Sept
THE WESTENDE ALMSHOUSES
The anxiety of the Wokingham United Charity Trustees over the finances for
maintaining the Westende Almshouses has been greatly eased by the recent
publication of a scheme by the Charity Commissioners merging a number of local
charities in order to make funds which were lying dormant available for this purpose.
The implementation of this scheme resulted from an application to the Commissioners
by the trustees to free certain money standing to the credit of the charities, which,
though not obsolete, were not as useful as in the past.
The effect of this amalgamation of charities, said Mr. W. Ireland, the clerk to the
trustees, was that half the income could be used to maintain and improve the
almshouses, whilst the other half would as in the past, be devoted to assisting the poor
in various ways. The Commissioners felt unable to include all local charities in the
merger, and a number are to remain as they were, and will be administered separately.
Next week the Charity Trustees are to receive a substantial cheque from the
Wokingham Rotary Club, collected as the result of an appeal by the club president,
Cllr. A.G. Skedgel.
The Westende Almshouses in Peach Street, Wokingham, are to be considerably
improved now that the money is in hand, and more extensive improvements are to be
made to the pair of semi-detached almshouses added to the charity on the occasion of
Queen Victoria’s Jubilee. Eventually it is hoped that the existing almshouses can be
rebuilt, and money is to be set aside for that purpose.

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Sat 1 October
A LUCKY ESCAPE
Working in the churchyard at All Saints’, Wokingham, on Thursday morning, the
verger, Mr. W. Pearce heard a crashing sound—and ran with his assistant into the
open. It was just as well that he did so, for close up to where he had been standing fell
a large bough of an elm tree, brought down by the high wind.

“LITTERBUGS” CRITICISED
The rector of St. Paul’s Church, Wokingham, the Ven. Archdeacon Thorndike
Shaw, criticises—in his parish magazine—the “thoughtless and dirty” people who
leave rubbish in the churchyard, and comments “our much vaunted education does not
appear to touch on even the fringes of the decencies of life.”

CASUALTIES UNION
Members of the Wokingham study circle of Casualties Union visited Ponders End
Gas Works, London, on Sunday, to watch the annual competition, sponsored by the
Union, for first-aid and diagnosis. The leader of the study circle, Mr. G. Wakelin,
assisted some members of the Union in “making up” before the contest.

N.S.P.C.C.
The Rev. Arthur Morton, National director of the N.S.P.C.C. spoke to a Wokingham
audience on Monday about the work of the society. The meeting was held in the
Town Hall, under the chairmanship of Mrs. S.V. Cullen, and was attended by the
Mayor and Mayoress, Cllr. and Mrs. W.J. Willey.

CARS WRECKED BY FIRE

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