Page 947 - Reading Mercury

JUMBLE SALE RAISES £15
At the Wokingham Horticultural Society’s jumble sale in the Church House,
Wokingham, a total of £15 was raised for association funds.

PENSIONERS ENTERTAINED
Members of the Wokingham No.1 branch of the National Federation of Old Age
Pensioners were entertained at their meeting in the British Legion Hall, Wokingham,
on Wednesday, by a company of handbell ringers from Mortimer West End.

LAST YEAR’S WEATHER
Meteorological records for the borough for 1960 show that the total rainfall—31.95
inches—was 6.52 inches below that of the average for the last 60 years. The lowest
th
th
temperatures recorded were 2.2 degrees on January 13 and February 17 . The
th
highest temperature was 81 degrees recorded on June 6 .

METHODIST CHURCH
Members of the choir from the Wesley Church, Reading, gave a concert in the
Wokingham Methodist Church in Rose Street on Tuesday. Services at the Methodist
Church on Sunday were conducted in the morning by the Superintendent minister of
the Reading Circuit, the Rev. A.E. Emerson and in the evening by the Rev. Leonard
Hale.

Fri 7th April
SHOP STILL SHUT AS SPINSTERS STAY PUT
The determined resistance to two elderly women, the Misses K. and R. Caiger, to
part with their 100-year-old family shoe business in Peach Street, Wokingham, may
be the reason that the former Johnson’s greengrocer’s shop next door still remains
empty and derelict Despite the fact that Mr. Jack Lass paid £8,900 for it on the death
of the Johnson, no planning permission has been applied for—and in the very heart of
a busy town it still stands dirty and boarded up--a public eyesore. The elder Miss
Caiger told the Times that almost immediately after the auction at which the Johnson
shop was purchased, Mr. Lass “offered thousands” if they would get out of the
premises.

NOT SELLING
“I told him that I didn’t want thousands and had no intention whatever of selling the
business,” she said. Miss Caiger has been informed only this week that Mr. Lass will
be calling on her in the very near future, “But our answer will still be the same.”
Now the position becomes even more complicated, for on Tuesday last week a man
walked into the Caiger’s shop and asked if they knew where Mr. and Mrs. Johnson
had moved to. He was astounded to hear of their death and said he was a brother of
Tom Johnson and had only just landed in England from abroad.
This may mean that the estate will revert to him (it has gone to the Crown) and the
fate of the unwanted shop could take a new turn.

WELCOME INN WILL BECOME A SHOP SITE
The Welcome Inn in Wokingham’s Peach Street has been sold. The brewers—
Brakespears—are giving up the licence and the pub will be demolished to make way
for a block of shops.

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