I WAS intrigued by Terry Allsop's photograph of the two ladies in flowery clothes, standing chatting outside their front doors, with the little dog looking quizzically at the camera, which appeared on the Retro page on Thursday, June 30.

As mentioned last week, thanks to a reader, we now know that the houses were Nos. 14 and 15, Blake's Cottages, still standing by the River Kennet, behind King's Road.

I took my copy of the paper round there and found that all the windows and doors had been replaced since the picture was taken, but the brickwork was exactly the same.

I noticed that the numbering of the cottages began with No. 9, and surmised that Nos. 1-8 must once have existed, nearer to Blake's Bridge.

In the Central Library, I found a map of 1834, which showed that Blake's Cottages had not yet been built, but the Board of Health maps, dating from around 1853, showed the cottages, numbered 1-17.

This gave a good idea of when they were built. The later large-scale Ordnance Survey maps show all the cottages standing in 1956, but Nos. 7 and 8 have gone by 1970.

This is the state of affairs shown in this week's picture. By 1989, Nos. 1-4 had gone, and since then, Nos. 5 and 6 have gone, with new buildings on the site of Nos. 1-8.

The next question to enter my mind was that of who Mr Blake might have been. Blake's Bridge, now rather plain, replaced a metal bridge with decorative iron flowers in the parapets, and stone plaques on the abutments, carved with the arms of the Borough. As you can see from the photograph, the appearance of the bridge was spoiled by having a large-diameter pipe, probably a gas-main, fixed to it.

Then there was Blake's Wharf, which appears on old maps, including one in 1802. In later years, Huntley and Palmers built warehouses on it, and now, the site is occupied by Homebase in Forbury Road.

Lower down the river, by the "New Cut" on Kennet Side, is Blake's Lock, the first lock on the Kennet Navigation. It would originally have been a flash lock and the first pound lock was built in 1802.

Gillian Clark's book, Down By The River, reveals the identity of Mr Blake. The story goes back almost 300 years - to 1727 - when Robert Blake signed his will.

He must have been a substantial landowner in the area, and his will mentions his estate, with a house, a wharf, and the lock. The bridge was adjacent, and the cottages came along somewhat later.