Page 963 - Reading Mercury

competition was highlighted on Friday when about twelve finalists battled for
supremacy.
The girl who stole the spotlight was 11-years-old Josephine Breeze, of 227, London
Road, Wokingham, who perkily sang “I Enjoy Being a Girl,” from the “Flower Drum
Song.”
But, as one of the organisers said after the show: “She was too young and lacked the
maturity that some of the others had, although she was very good and had talent.”
Led by beautiful Sheila Matthews, the panel of judges included Max Miller, Robert
Beatty, Arthur Helliwell and Robin Richmond.
The finalists in the competition included two comedians, solo singers and musical
groups.
As a prize the group are entitled to spend a week’s free holiday in any one of
Butlin’s holiday camps in Britain. While there they will be eligible to participate in
another contest being run by Butlin’s.
They have also been presented with a record of the numbers they played in the
contest in Wokingham.

th
Sat 29 Sept.
TH
WOKINGHAM COUNCIL’S 750 HOUSE WILL BE OPENED TO-DAY
A landmark in Wokingham housing is being marked today (Saturday) by the
th
opening of the 750 permanent post-war house built by the Wokingham Town
Council.
But the Wokingham housing manager, Mr. Claud Hawkins, said this week that the
waiting list still approached the 500 mark, although many of these were people who
did not already live in the town, but qualified for a place on the list by virtue of their
employment in Wokingham.
Between 1921 and 1939 the council built only 40 houses, and acquired 16 more due
to the extension of the borough in 1927. Since the war, however, the face of
Wokingham had been changed by large scale housing building. In 1945 the late Ald.
F.J. Barrett was chairman of the Housing Committee, and land was bought at Norreys
Barn, Commons Road and Embrook Road
The first traditional type houses built for the council after the war—a group of six—
were started in Evendons Lane in 1946. Two days later the Norreys Barn estate started
to take shape.
The first scheme here resulted from the co-operation of seven local firms—and the
competitive effort was highly successful and produces 38 houses. In 1949 a further
estate was bought on the Waterloo Road, and here, 50 pre-fabricated permanent
houses were erected.
The first attempt at “low-cost” housing—the so-called “people’s house”—was made
on the Finchampstead Road estate in 1951. Given a plot of land near the town centre
by the family of the late Ald. Philip Sale, the council built the Memorial Homes which
bear his name—a block of thirteen bungalows and a caretaker’s flat.
In 1955 the council went ahead with a further scheme of prefabricated permanent
houses, and over a period of years 146 “Cornish Unit” homes took shape.
The development of the Norreys Barn estate continued with traditional type houses
and flats until the latest 240-unit scheme was implemented. The needs of owner-
occupiers have also been taken into account by the council which has built 48 houses
for sale to people of the waiting list. Nine houses have been sold to sitting tenants and
22 plots of land have been sold to people wishing to build for themselves.

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