Hi John,
The other reason I am emailing you is to congratulate you on your write up on early memories of Reading and Coley Park, because we lived in Boston Avenue, from 1952 behind the Coley Recreation Ground the other side of Berkeley Avenue, and often walked down Wolseley Street, into Reading town Centre. I remember Stoney Hill well and the good Fish and Chip shop at the top of it on Field Road.
The odd connection with Reading School is that I made and painted lots of plaster Disney type characters, and sold these through that fish and chip shop, and that money paid for me so that I could go on the Reading School Ski trip to Switzerland in 1958- 1959. That little shop got me started in skiing! If I had not raised that extra money, I would not have been able to have gone!
St Saviours Church was our local church – which I and my brother were choir boys and altar boys, and my father was treasurer for a number of years, I think from1955 on – and I remember him dealing with finances of the Church Hall – and of course Bert Norris the caretaker. I went to their Youth Club too! My mother was the driving force on that .
Lots of other memories too, as both my sister and brother Victor went to Coley primary school for a while and I recognised your house next to the Church too.
So it gave me a lot of pleasure to see your Coley, as it now — lots of other memories too of the area, of Holy Brook and Field Road at the top of Stoney Hill. Lots of other memories and stories came back to me, too with The Rose and Crown, beyond the primary school.
Hope we can meet up some time, and then we can see where we could have over lapped in Coley Park and Wolseley Street!
Kind Regards
Dave and Joanie