| Description | [The Reading and Berkshire Review was a locally published magazine, produced at 46 Market Place, Reading.]
(Warning: occasional use of outdated racial terminology.)
(Includes advertisements for local shops; news articles and features; theatre, book and recorded music reviews; regular column by the novelist Alan Wykes; sports reports; etc. Not in complete chronological order, but arranged as follows:
January 1951 issue includes criticism of exhibition of 'Modern Art; that is, work so crude and coarse, both in conception (if it can be said to have any) and in execution (suggestive of the babbling of children or idiots) that it seemed devoid of either meaning or purpose'; note of a new Berkshire County Council scheme to provide temporary accommodation for homeless families on the estate of Cannon Hill House, Braywick, Maidenhead; photograph of pupils at Katesgrove School, Reading, caring for the school rabbits ('artists' models, subjects for lessons [including sex education], and allotment workers'; description of the work of the cleaner of the public street gas lamps; article on the Women's Institute's new Denman College; photographs of display by the Women's League of Health and Beauty and visit by HRH Princess Elizabeth [later Queen Elizabeth II] to the show of Windlesham Camera Club, in review of 1950; article on Basildon, including a visit to Upper Basildon Primary School by Gilbert Spencer, artist; note on work by three 15 year old Reading schoolboys to clear the Kennet and Avon Canal; and features on the Queen Victoria Nursing Institute, Reading, and the Mayor of Reading's Festival Fund (for the proposed Festival of Britain), the use of rubbish to reclaim floodland in the Thames Valley.
February 1951 issue includes reference to the establishment of the University of Reading's Museum of Rural Life; article on Detective Sergeant Walter Crombie, chief of Berkshire's CID; reference to 'the biggest plague of rats in living history' in Bradfield Rural District; and obituary of Henry Thomas Morley of Reading, former Town Councillor, Justice of the Peace and local historian.
March 1951 issue includes feature on the recruitment of teenagers to Binfield bellringers; reproductions of photographs of the premises of Kench's Furniture Emporium in London Street, Reading [c.1880-1885] and West Street, Reading [c.1885-1890]; and photograph of pupils at Piggott School, Wargrave, working on a Newtonian Reflector telescope. Includes Reading Chamber of Commerce supplement on the proposed Festival of Britain.
November 1951 issue includes short snippet on the RAF Photographic Reconnaissance Branch at Benson, Oxfordshire, and the work there of girls belonging to the WRAAF; feature on Wokingham Telephone Exchange; feature on the Women's Voluntary Service centre in Reading. Includes Reading Chamber of Commerce Supplement, which reflects on the 'lack of success' of the industrial and retail trades exhibition held in conjunction with the Festival of Britain.
October 1951 issue includes reference to the beginnings of Bracknell New Town; and article on visit to Cologne [Koeln], Germany. Reading Chamber of Commerce Supplement includes proposals to alter winter closing hours for local shops.
September 1951 issue includes part 2 of an article on a visit to Kenya; and short snippet on the dolls' hospital in King's Road, Reading. Reading Chamber of Commerce Supplement includes warning of drastic power cuts over the winter.
August 1951 issue includes part 1 of the Kenya article.
July 1951 issue includes reference to the reopening of Wellsteed's department store; article on Royal Ascot; short feature on the building of the new atomic energy establishment at Aldermaston; reference to the Arthur Hill Memorial Baths as being 'so small that it is unsuitable for much more than to learn to swim in ... because in years gone by, when building could have been done easily and cheaply, the Town Council were too slow-witted or short-sighted to realise that a swimming bath is a necessary adjunct of the public health service'; and list of events being held in Reading as part of the Festival of Britain.
June 1951 issue includes reference to paper shortages and increases in printing costs; photograph of John and June Drury on honeymoon at the Robinson Crusoe Holiday Camp, Finchampstead (June, aged 16, had gained permission to marry John, 20, from the justices of the peace at her home in Kent following her parents' refusal); short snippets on the work of the landcsape consultant for Bracknell New Town, and the grant of planning permission for Reading University's new campus at Whiteknights Park; and article on the Reading X-ray Unit and its work monitoring for tuberculosis. Reading Chamber of Commerce supplement refers to a 'whale of a rise' of 50-60% in the price of gas.
May 1951 issue includes article on Progress Theatre; appeal for 'social contacts for the large number of coloured people [sic] in Reading and district', with comment that 'there is no noticeable colour prejudice'.
April 1951 issue includes editorial on paper shortages and price rises; snippet on local opposition to the use of Greenham and Crookham Commons as a permanent American air base; snippet on the progress of Bracknell New Town and its 'four-in-one' style of factory; snippet on the need for accommodation for a stonemason engaged to carry out the restoration of Donnington Castle; note on the toll bridges at Swinford and Whitchurch; short article on the Camera Club at George Palmer School, Reading; and article on Handley Page (Reading) Ltd, aircraft manufacturers based at Woodley.) |