Published: Thursday, 14th August, 2008 12:00
Retro: No dampened spirits
By David Cliffe, Reading Central Library
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THERE is no mystery about this week’s photograph, unless it is the names of the two men in flat caps and raincoats, walking by the churchyard railings in St Mary’s Butts.
From the two cars parked to the left, the picture appears to date from the 1920s.
It’s a rainy day, with the reflections off the pavement well captured, even in this small snapshot.
But the two men do not seem concerned – they look happy to be walking in the rain, and happy in each other’s company.
One of the interesting points about the picture is that the people dressed for rain – the two policemen in the background, and the two friends walking past the camera.
Not for them the car in the multi-storey car park at The Oracle. Also, the men’s trouser-legs are a bit wider than we would expect today.
Until I saw the picture, I had almost forgotten about those splendid railings and gate-piers round St Mary’s churchyard. The building in the background of this photograph was for a long time Tognarelli’s ice-cream parlour, and is now a branch of Pizza Express.
From there to the corner of Gun Street was a long row of almshouses, with a gap to give access to the church.
On the library website (www.readinglibraries.org.uk), you can see several photographs of the almshouses, including one, taken in 1886, where they are being demolished.
So the railings probably date from the late 1880s. They should have lasted for centuries, but in the event were removed after only about 55 years, as part of the war effort. The Russian cannon, captured at Sebastopol in the Crimean War, which stood for many years on Forbury Hill, was another victim of this salvage scheme.
Rumour has it that all this scrap iron was never actually used in the war, and lay in scrapyards until 1945 and later.
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