Wokingham Memories It Shall Be.

[Phodgetts]

Thanks for the additional information Joyce and RanR, and I assume David is talking of the school image rather than the first one of the street scene event? It would be nice to see an image of the modern building.

Anyway, for you further entertainment I will add two more images of the school that I have come across in a family collection of postcards, hopefully they will jog more memories and clarify that you do indeed have the correct place in mind.

I only know it was a girls school as my Maternal Grandmother was sent there. She was the youngest of twelve. Her family was from Winkfield only two miles away and after speaking to my mother I now understand that my G'ma was not a boarder there. No doubt for the distance involved she walked each day. By the time she was born (1912) the family was doing rather well for itself having a longstanding laundry  business. My Grandmother was the only one of the family to get private education. She seemingly was at the school from about the age of 11, so it would put her in the school about 1923. Before I waffle any more here are the other two images, one of the inner stairway and one of the grounds at the rear of the school. One of the cards was sent as a Xmas card to my G'ma's mother in 1925 wishing the family well for the new year and was signed by a J or L ? Baker. Enjoy.

Philip

[joyce341]

Maybe just co-incidence,but that is how I remember it,the front door can be seen,to the left as i described and the other door inside to the house mothers room,how can I forget these stairs,LOL,we had to que up at the bootom every morning,a small thin cupboard was there and we were given Cod liver oil and malt,at the top of the stairs to the right was Wooky Hollow where my sister slept and opposite mine sleepy hollow,these were dormitaries,maybe just the same layout as Montague House.
Joyce

[behindthefrogs]

The front image today is very little changed except all the ivy has been removed and a new gate constructed in the last year in the middle of the wall.

The rear will be completely different as the garden is now partly occupied by Waitrose carpark.  I will try to take a photograph but I suspect that I will have trouble with traffic and parked cars.

David

[behindthefrogs]

You can see a recent picture of Montague House at:

http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/Details/Default.aspx?id=41642&mode=quick

There is also a picture of Tudor House which originally housed the school at:

http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/Details/Default.aspx?id=41646&mode=quick

David

[joyce341]

Hi David,
               you are definately right,round the corner from Tudor house is the Baptist church,I went there from aged four till about 13,while in childrens home,then back home,the layout for montague house is similar to Oakfields though.

Joyce

[behindthefrogs]

I took a photograph this morning of Montague House.  As you will see it now has a new entrance and railings

David

[shillen]

When it was the library you use to enter the door on the right and only half this building was used as it ....the bit of the building from the old /new main door was closed to the public ......

[behindthefrogs]

The library only used the ground floor of the right hand wing.  I am not sure how much of the rest of the house was used as the arts centre. 

I did take a picture of the rear from the car park but it is just a mess of added buildings mainly obscured by the parked cars that it isn't worth posting.

Just to complete the picture here is a drawing of the original house.

David

[RanR]

Dear all,

This great.  I love this!  I'm very sorry if I put everyone onto the wrong place in the first place.  I too remember Montague House and the library and the stairs inside and the local arts society painting exhibition held there every summer in the forecourt outside the library, with the bus stop outside - but ... is it just my memory or have they put up a much more substantial wall since those days in the 1960s & 1970s and early 1980s (my parents moved away - after I had done - in 1987)?

This is a big favour and I realise I'm climbing on the back of the original request for information but my g g grandparents Rev Philip George Scorey and his wife Charlotte Denslow Stroud were in Wokingham for a few years while he was the minister at Wokingham Baptist in the 1860s.  They had my g. grandmother Charlotte Scorey there in 1862 as well as a couple of other children after that.

In the 1861 census it says that Philip George Scorey was living in Broad Street with his father George (ret'd draper about 9 dwellings away from the baording school - presumably where we're talking about).  then in the 1871 census after his marriage, Philip is living in Market Place about 3 dwellings away from 'Down Street'.

I can't work out where or which side of the road either of these properties would have been and whether they are still standing.  Also, where was Down Street?  Was it what is now called Denmark Street?

If anyone has access to the 1861 & 1871 census returns and can work it out, could you tell me if the buildings are still there and if so maybe point me to photos of them or their positions in the two streets?  I would be most grateful.

My doctor at that surgery in Tudor house and then in the surgery in Rectory Road was Dr Kerr.  He seemed a very nice man and took good care of us all.

Again, huge apologies for putting people onto the wrong building in the first place!  Thanks for sorting it all out.