Christmas Party - 2017

Christmas get-together

Living Heritage

John leads the team of bell ringers at All Saints, Wokingham, he told us about the social history of bell ringing and the lives and times of ringers in an English market town from the 18th century to the modern era

Fox-Talbot in Reading

William Henry Fox-Talbot is famous for his pioneering work on photography. What is less well known is his connection to the Reading area, Martin told us about the town's place in the development of photography

The Berkshire Women's Institute

There have been several branches of the WI within the parish of Wargrave and within the County as a whole their history stretches back a century or so

Wallingford Village Walk

As an additional 'social' event, we had a guided afternoon walk of historic Wallingford

Kingston Bagpuize

This year we had an afternoon visit to Kingston Bagpuize House, an interesting manor house and gardens that was also featured in the television series Downton Abbey

More about Antiques

Another 'sell-out' occasion, which took place in the Woodclyffe Hall on a Thursday evening. The well-known antiques expert Thomas Plant - familiar to many from several television series, and a director of Special Auction Services at Newbury, was accompanied by his fellow director Neil Shuttleworth

Historic Village Walk

A gentle stroll around Mill Green, Church Street and the High Street, hearing about people, buildings and episodes from over 900 years of Wargrave's history

Airships

Peter told us about the early history of airships

Wargrave 535

George, now operations director for the RNLI, grew up in Wargrave and shared some of his memories of the village at that time with us

The Annual General Meeting - 2017

The AGM followed by Peter Symons who spoke about the history of the Wargrave and Shiplake Regatta

The Lambourn Valley Railway

The railway branch through this part of Berkshire was not promoted by one of the 'big companies'. It had a special kind of traffic from the start - and a different special kind of traffic at the end of its life. Graham told us about the life of railway and some of the people associated with it