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Mémoire – Trevor
STUBBERFIELD (AAS
Arborfield 52A) “Wokingham Revisited” Our walk around Wokingham starts with what, for me, was the
jewel in the Wokingham Crown. It still is but the Crown is now rather
tarnished.
The Queen's Head This is a photo taken in the early 1900s but to all intents
and purposes it was the same when we frequented it. The Hewett &
Co. brewery must have been situated fairly locally in those
days. In the bar to the left of the entrance the ceiling was very low
and beamed. The dartboard had a metal tray above it, between the beams, and
there was an art in throwing an arrow and bouncing it off the shield and into
the board. As a mixed group of friends we would gather and sit outside
on the grass embankment, supping our lemonades and eating crisps, probably
Smith's Crisps with the blue salt twist in the corner of the
packet. They might even have been Crimpy Crisps from the factory down
the road towards
2003 - The Queen's
Head This photograph (above)
was taken on my first trip back to Wokingham in nearly 50 years. It was
my birthday so I got to use the camera. My Mavis is between our old
friends, and this would be the first time we had come face-to-face with them
in nearly 50 years. Jim joined the RAF but we don't hold that against
him. With them we walked around the town centre, being shown all the old
bits and all the changes. As you can see, the old pub has hardly
changed; perhaps it looks better than in its early days. I wonder if the
same could be said about the Mafia standing in front of it. Another jewel of architecture was …
1965 - Ye … pictured ten years after we left, with a few alterations I
don't remember, but still a very good looking building. It was a
slightly up-market hostelry which had retained all the character of the old
coaching inn that it once was. It stands at the top of
2003 - The When I saw this desecration (above) I could not believe that any town council could stand by
and allow this to happen to such a fine old building right at the heart of
the town. Indeed it provoked some considerable anger from the local
citizens and the owners were told it had to be restored, but unfortunately,
not back to its original style. In the meantime, it was sold to new
owners who promised to tone it down, which I'm told has been done, but as yet
I haven't seen it. Things never stand still, but not all "improvements"
are to the good. I nearly gave my life to take this picture. You will
notice I was standing on a paved pedestrian area in safety, as I
thought. The streets around the town centre are now a one-way,
glorified urban race track except near the Town Hall where buses are
allowed to contra-flow. To turn into Whether or not you gravitated to Wokingham or Reading, you
will certainly remember this place, where we started our trip down memory
lane in 2003 with our friends.
circa 1960 - The photograph (above)
was taken circa1960 when it was owned by Lakeside Holidays, but looked very
similar in our day. I have been gripped by My Mavis who informs me that
she got there before I did, after the war (the 2nd one), as a wee lass
travelling by coach on a day trip from her Sunday School in the East End of
London. Quite a journey back in the "olden days", I'm
surprised she can remember that far back. My memories include Wednesday sports afternoon, forming
up in threes outside ‘F’ Spider dressed in vest PT red, shorts PT blue, socks
worsted grey, and boots ammo. "By the front, double march!"
for 100 yards, "Break into quick time!" for 100 yards and so
on, out past the Sick Bay onto the roads which circled “The
Cali”. At full tilt we must have looked and sounded like a
multi-coloured millipede on speed. Had a car parked in front of us it
would have been a case of up on the boot, over the roof, along the bonnet and
back on to the road, taking no prisoners nor stopping for obstructions. We
would come into “The Cali” from the far side and run alongside the lake
and if it was hot there was a chance we might strip down to our drawers,
cellular, green and frolic in the water.
(above and below) – “
Sadly we took no photos on our latest visit; there was nothing
to take. The art-deco buildings have been replaced with a long, low
wooden shack, and The California Country Park now consists of permanent
wooden cabins and mobile residential homes set in the pinewoods. There
is talk of trying to revive the area as an entertainment centre but the plans
seem to be ‘pie in the sky’. We will just have to console
ourselves with memories of the swimming, speedway and stock-car racing,
the beauty contests and dancing on the illuminated, sprung, superb dance
floor. Hey Ho, more history confined to the scrap heap. You may like to revive some memories
of ‘The Cali’ from HERE. Standing outside “Headquarters” aka The Queen's Head and
looking down the slope towards the railway station and the level crossing, in
the direction of Arborfield, to the right you would see The Hope & Anchor
pub as shown in the photo (below). I
have no particular recollection of this establishment except that it was
included in the last term pub crawl of old
The Hope &
Anchor Our return in 2003 saw us walking up from the
station. The old stylish station, from where we set off in droves for
our furloughs has been demolished and replaced with what looks like a post-war
prefab, typical of the 1960's architecture. Spirits were lifted when,
walking up the slope towards The Terrace, the picture was just as it was in
our days, a preservation order had seen to that. Pity they hadn't issued a
lot more of them.
2003 – The Hope
& Anchor The vehicles are modern but The Hope & Anchor is
substantially the same as I remembered it, only the traffic cone has been
changed to protect its identity. One of the main streets in town was
Peach Street On our return in 2003 the picture was quite different.
Not quite the same viewpoint but still Peach Street, looking
towards Denmark Street to the left, and sweeping right into Broad
Street. The main building is still probably the most recognisable in
town, the Town Hall-cum-Fire Station as was. The road is now one-way
towards the Town Hall and is part of the race track that surrounds the town
centre. Step off the kerb at your peril, as indeed I found out.
Peach Street Where stood the fire engines, probably with horses in the
"olden days", there are now compact and bijoux shops, or small and
"arty-farty" boutiques. To the top right is a sign
representing The Bush. This was the site of another of the town's finest
old buildings, "The Bush Inn", a picturesque old coaching inn. The
courtyard was quiet and dark, a fine trysting place. It's now the
entrance to a very mediocre shopping area which is now virtually
unused. The Civic Worthies of the town passed plans for the shopping
centre to be redeveloped. It was to be realigned so that it faced out on
to Rose Street, this street containing lots of old historic buildings which
would be swept away. It was planned to be a piazza-style
development. All of the shops were at the end of their leases or agreed
to give them up, except one. The owners refused to move before they had
to, which is in a few years time. It dragged on and eventually the
developers walked away, leaving the shopping precinct with loads of empty
shops and no potential tenants, bearing in mind the Council plans for
redevelopment. The empty lane in the road is where buses travel in the
opposite direction to the traffic and swing right across to go down
Town Hall On the right would be the
1954 - Fusilier Ted
Blowers riding his motorbike Here (above) we have
an all action shot of one of our Arborfielders, namely Fusilier Ted Blowers
in 1954 aboard his 750cc Dominator.
2003 – Town Hall By 2003 and the scene hasn't changed very much, just that the vehicles
are more modern and all going the same way. To the left of the picture (above) can be seen a shop in The façade of the previously mentioned Drill Hall still looks
original. When we went back in 2003 we believed the passage that led to
the Drill Hall was the entrance to Tesco's Supermarket, the Drill Hall having
been demolished. However, at about that time it was altered, Tesco's had
moved out of town and the building became a health and fitness club, a coffee
house and an
The former Drill
Hall
The Red Lion was another fine hostelry with exposed timber
beams. Parts of it are incorporated into the present
property. Another architectural disaster for Wokingham.
The Red Lion
The Red Lion sign still sits over the Red Lion
passage. To the right is a sandwich bar, leaning rather
ominously. The passage way led to The Waterloo, the best dance hall in
town. Originally it was a British Restaurant during the war, where you
could buy a full meal without using any coupons from your ration book.
As a dance hall it was a much more intimate place than the Drill Hall,
friendlier, and less formal. The Top Five were the top band, if you were
lucky it would be the Top Five Plus Two. By this time the dancing lessons that I had taken at the camp
were beginning to have some effect and I could now shuffle round the
floor without doing too much damage. The Creep was an "in"
tune of the time and it fitted my style of shuffle. They persisted with
the Ladies Invitation dance and I now got invited on to the floor more often,
but once there I would be trapped for the Paul Jones where we
formed two contra-rotating circles, circling while the music played and
dancing with the girl you were facing when the music stopped. There was
often a lot of last minute re-arranging of partners, probably my reputation
as a dancer had spread. Some desperate soul usually grabbed hold
before I managed to escape to the side of the floor. Another
disastrous sequence was the Ladies Invitation followed by the Ladies Excuse
Me dance. Usually the poor lass who had me didn't get relieved by
anybody else, she was stuck with me. As I walked around town on our 2003
visit I looked at some of the old grannies hobbling along with walking
sticks and Zimmer frames, and thought that I might have been the cause of
their injuries, fifty years earlier. Serves them right. I only
wanted to listen to the music. After starting these meanderings we had a query about Molly
Millar's establishment. Not one of my haunts but it started life as the
Railway Hotel before changing to the Molly Millar. With typical
Wokingham sophistication, at some time it was given the dreaded paint
make-over and renamed Big Hand Mo's Good Time Emporium. Don't even ask,
but there must have been a reason. Happily we are informed it is once
again the Molly Millar. Sanity reigns. Viewed from the air, in 1955, the building in the centre of
the picture (below) doesn't look
very exciting, a bit like a battery chicken house, but for me this was the
hub of Wokingham, the best place to go for fun, frolic and friendship.
The British
Restaurant Known variously as The British Restaurant, The Waterloo Restaurant, The Waterloo
Jazz Club & Dance Hall, it provided me with a complete break from the
rigours of Arborfield. Why Wokingham? Why not Reading? The explanation is
long winded but quite simple. Back with HQ Company we had extra time
off, and we could wear civvies quite early on. I started by going to
Reading for relaxation, first port of call would be Ma Beasley's for the best
and cheapest food in town. They knew where we came from and that we
didn't have a lot of cash to spare and we always got very good portions.
Followed that with a quiet stroll through the park that ran alongside the
river to relax. Might go through the shopping area but having got a
return bus ticket and had a meal, there wasn't much left from the 6/- pocket
money we drew. A case of nose pressed up against the window pane. On
the odd occasion I bought a ticket for the "Gods" at the Palace
Theatre, right up at the top of the house, sitting on the concrete steps that
doubled as seats. Looking down on the stage was like looking down on a
goldfish bowl through the wrong end of a telescope. But it was live
entertainment. And then I met my personal Nemesis. I went to the Majestic
Ballroom a couple of times. First visit OK, good music and some nice
arm-candy to look at. Second visit, standing at the edge of the dance floor I
must have looked like a homing beacon for trouble. Short hair, traditional
suit and tie, leather shoes with shiny toe-caps, a squaddy on a night
out. Perfect target. I was surrounded by half a dozen Teddy Boys looking
for a bit of fun. First the remarks, then the touching, then the digs
getting a bit harder. The "TILT" sign was flashing before my
eyes. In for a penny, in for a pound, I flashed my most charming smile
at the one in front of me, then decked him, rewarded with the sight of a
crimson flow from his nose. One second later I was the bottom layer of a
Teddy Boy Pizza with a topping of punches and kicks. Luckily they were
wearing "Brothel Creepers" with regulation one-inch-thick soft
crepe soles, so I didn't suffer too much damage. Unseen by me with my
face pressed up against the floor, this was the signal for Majestic Mass Mayhem
with everybody piling in for a bit of the action. I came out from the
bottom of the pile like toothpaste coming out of a tube. Standing up, I
looked down and saw two of my assailants trapped under the pile. Another
charming smile and then I buried my hard shiny pointed toecaps into
some soft flesh. Remembering the family motto "Health in stealth" I
made a quick exit on to the street, checked my bits and pieces and adjusted
my clothing. Whilst doing this, two trucks pulled up and disgorged a
good number of blue-suited, white-capped and white-gaitered Royal Air Force
Police who went clattering in to The Majestic. Time to be somewhere
else. I set off back to base, stopping only for a glass of "Tizer
The Appetizer" on the way. It would be one of the rare times when I
would be glad to be safely back at camp. So Wokingham became my preferred destination. You Reading
visitors reading these memories will now know that there was an alternative
to the bright lights of For is it not writ: "We should not live our lives in our
memories, yet shall we not know, through our memories, that we have lived our
lives?" My thanks go to George MILLIE (49B) who once
again will collate and correct these jottings of mine and find space for them
on the September49'ers & Others. The origins of some of the older photos are
lost in the mists of time, but I acknowledge the work of those
photographers who recorded these scenes of our past so that we may
see them in our present. Published: 1st March
2006 |
Continued.