Category Archives: All Posts

Cecil and Ken in Conversation 1996. By Jim Bell

Jim Bell: “Cecil’s reminiscences are taken from three interviews by his old friend and historian, Ken Goatley. The first two were recorded on audio tape in 1996 when he described his life and reminisced about Wokingham during the first twenty-five … Continue reading

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1919: The British keep fighting.

For most of us there is a settled feeling that the Great War came to a nice clean end at 11 am on the 11th November 1918. Admittedly, thousands of men were killed that morning and there are instances whereby … Continue reading

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The local historians who pointed to Wokingham’s Future

Edna Goatley passed away on Wednesday the 3rd April 2013 at the age 86 years. Her funeral takes place at Easthampstead Crematorium on Thursday 18th April at 11am. By Mike Churcher This is not an obituary, the Wokingham Times already … Continue reading

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1919 Victory ! Wokingham celebrates.

Local Historian, Jim Bell unearths this extensive coverage of Wokingham’s Armistice Celebrations: “On Saturday, Wokingham duly celebrated the peace. The proceedings commenced at 7 a.m., when peals were rung on the church bells. At 10 a.m. the town band commenced to … Continue reading

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WW2 Garth: Wokingham’s Destroyer

Jim Bell provides us with a fascinating insight into Wokingham’s contribution to World War Two. Here we learn of how the local people raised hundreds of thousands of pounds to ‘sponsor’ HMS Garth throughout the latter part of the war. … Continue reading

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Wokingham’s news from The Mercury 1913-1923

Jim Bell continues his journey to provide us with an overview of Wokingham during the 19th and 20th centuries. This time he visits the archives to extract  Wokingham’s news from old Reading Mercury newspapers. They go as far back as … Continue reading

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Wokingham News from Reading Mercury 1859-1868

Jim Bell continues his journey to provide us with an overview of Wokingham during the 19th and 20th centuries. This time he visits the archives to extract  Wokingham’s news from old Reading Mercury newspapers. They go as far back as … Continue reading

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Hills Nicholson family: Four sons lost in two World Wars

The Nicholson family have no Wokingham street or building named after them and have sunk below the consciousness of today’s local community. In the 1800’s however, they lived in what is now the Cantley House Hotel and they invested in … Continue reading

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2013 Centenary: Wokingham’s First Cinema !

We have now mostly identified the names on the town’s memorial and have tried where possible to provide details of their short lives. We now have the opportunity to find out what life was like in Wokingham in the late … Continue reading

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Philip Tice, a Wokingham WW2 Veteran aged 95.

It’s fascinating to see how a network of contacts can pool information together and come up with some global connections. Wokingham Remembers has published hundreds of family trees on its website, as well as the genealogy site, www.ancestry.co.uk . The … Continue reading

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