Page 890 - Reading Mercury

After the parade the Mayor, Cllr. Mrs. C.E.A. La Bouchardière, accepted an
invitation to join the officials of the local branch of the R.A.F.A., and officers of the
units taking part, for tea at the Drill Hall—being the first Mayor to do this.
Accompaniment for the hymns at the service in the Market Place was provided by
the St. Sebastian’s band. The collection taken at this service amounted to £15 1s. 9d.
The annual old-time ball organised by the Wokingham and Woodley branch of the
R.A.F. Association was held in the Waterloo Restaurant, Wokingham, on Saturday,
and was a great success, both from a social and financial point of view. Music for
dancing, came from Gordon Fowler’s Orchestra and the M.C. was Mrs. Jane Sparkes.
This year the association was able to arrange their own catering from gifts made by
the public. A novelty sale—of “mystery parcels”—was also made possible by gifts
and this resulted in a profit of over £4.
The response to the house-to-house and street collections for the R.A.F.A. was said
this week to have been good, but the figures will not be available until next week.

th
Sat 4 Dec
SEVERE DAMAGE BY THE GALE
Roof Of Football Club Stand Blown Off
TRAIN SERVICE DISLOCATED AT WOKINGHAM
The severe gale which struck Reading and district on Friday last week did much
damage, many trees being brought down, whilst broken telephone lines and electric
cables caused engineers to work at full pressure over the week-end. Most serious
damage of all, however, was at Wokingham, where the roof of the newly-erected
stand of the Wokingham Football Club was flung on to the adjoining railway track
and dislocated train services.
Due mostly to falling tree branches, telephone lines were broken everywhere, the
Reading area staff being called upon to remedy no fewer than 1,500 different faults;
so well did they tackle the task that by Monday morning only 300 remained for
attention. Damage to the Southern Electricity Board’s overhead wires in rural districts
kept repair men working all day Saturday and Sunday, although, in fact, the amount of
damage experienced was considered small in view of the severity of the gale.
A hoarding at the corner of Broad Street and the Butter Market was wrecked. A
wooden crucifix outside Holy Trinity Church, in Oxford Road, was forced over at a
grotesque angle. A Reading Man woke on Saturday morning to find a television aerial
in his garden—and he has no TV. set! Tiles, fences, sheds and so on suffered in all
parts of the borough.
A tree falling across the road at Pangbourne Hill caused traffic difficulties until it
was hauled out of the way. A massive, very old oak tree blocked a lane at Bunces
Shaw, Farley Hill.
Railway Line Blocked
A gust, which ripped the roof from the newly-erected stand at the Wokingham
Football Club ground on Friday, carried it on to the Wokingham-Bracknell railway
track, blocking both lines of traffic. As it fell the asbestos roof tore down telephone
wires, which short-circuited the electric conductor rails. Many people in the town saw
a brilliant blue flash in the sky soon after 10 p.m., when the initial damage was done.
Railway workers hurried to the scene, and, working by the light of hand lamps, set
about clearing the lines.
The “up” line was restored for traffic enabling the 10.24 p.m. train to go through to
Waterloo—at about 11 p.m.—but no sooner had this been done than heavy winds
hurled more debris on to the lines, blocking both. It was not until 2.15 on Saturday

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