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Sixty years serving our community

THE CAVERSHAM BRIDGE was founded in 1964 by Canon John Grimwade of St Peter’s church, working with clerics from other church denominations in our area. It aimed to report local news and events, and to bring our churches closer together. As he prepared to retire in 1982, he sought representatives from each of the denominations to set up an editorial board which could oversee the continued production of the paper.
One of the nominees from the Methodist church was Eric Chappell, who went on to serve in this voluntary role for 30 years. Writing in the October 2014 edition for the paper’s 50th anniversary, he reflected on the revolution in the production of the paper over the years…Read more

Bridge over the water

AS WELL AS the usual regular contributions, this special anniversary edition is celebrating both the practicalities of bringing you your newspaper – three of the team of 100 deliverers who pop the paper through your letterbox each month share their thoughts in They Bring You Your Bridge (p 3) – while our Anniversary Talking Point (p 2) by the recently retired Bishop of Reading, Olivia Graham, dwells on the original purpose of the newspaper…Read more

Cultural and literary connections: The long and short of bridges

BRIDGES ARE, on the face of it, rather functional. Long, short, wide, thin; they get us from one place to another. The longest I’ve crossed is the eight-mile Confederation Bridge in Canada, the world’s longest over ice-covered waters, although predictably the drawcard for me was not the bridge but the region’s Anne of Green Gables literary links. Yet that falls rather short of the world’s longest, the hundred-mile Danyang–Kunshan Grand Bridge viaduct in China – and contrast that with what is considered the world’s shortest international bridge, the three-metre El Marco joining Portugal and Spain…Read more

They Bring You Your Bridge

VOLUNTEERS HAVE been at the centre of the production and delivery of the Caversham Bridge newspaper from the start. Our current team of nearly 100 who distribute and deliver the paper are successors to many hundreds over the last 60 years. Some have taken on the role in recent years, and others have been delivering the paper for longer than they can remember!
The early editions included a regular They Bring You Your “Bridge” feature, with a photo and short introduction to volunteers. The first edition featured John Sholl and ‘O’ Level student Glenys Goodier.
We asked some of our current deliverers for their thoughts…Read more

60 Years of working together

60 YEARS AGO, the churches in Caversham had a far-sighted vision, to establish a newspaper which could link the whole of our community. We are now celebrating the maintenance of the newspaper through all that time and the many volunteers who have contributed over the years.
The churches of Caversham still work closely. Each month the leaders meet together and they also go on an annual Retreat together. This bond of respectful friendship has great value in itself, as well as generating fresh, creative thinking…Read more

Friends of St Peter’s Church

ST PETER’S CHURCH is first recorded in 1162, but is probably much older. So there has been a church here in Caversham, serving the village and the wider parish, with weekly services and marking special significant occasions in parishioners’ lives for many, many years. The baptisms, weddings and funerals of thousands of parishioners over the centuries have been held here…Read more

For your bookshelf….

60 years!! Congratulations to Caversham Bridge. We are incredibly proud to be a part of the paper and well done to everyone who has been involved with it over the last 60 years.
THIS MONTH is a little bit different. I’ve picked two books which were published in 1964, 60 years ago. Both famous books, hence why they are still being read today. The first is the one and only Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It’s sold over 20 million copies across the world. I can’t even imagine what that number of books looks like.
I’m sure I don’t need to write much about the story of a young boy desperate to get a golden ticket to visit the local chocolate factory, so instead I have a couple of fun facts…Read more

Bridging the community – CADRA and Caversham Bridge

AS CAVERSHAM BRIDGE celebrates its 60th birthday, we look back on some of the Caversham District and Residents’ Association (CADRA) writers who have contributed to the paper over the years.
CADRA was founded in 1967, three years after Caversham Bridge. CADRA’s goal to keep Caversham residents informed about local issues made the connection almost inevitable: Caversham Bridge had the audience, and CADRA had the pieces of interest.
CADRA writers have featured regularly in the paper. The first and the longest contributor was Molly Casey, founder member of CADRA, who wrote for Caversham Bridge for nearly 40 years under the pen name ‘Watchdog’…Read more

Happy Wanderer hedged in with PRIVET

LIKE MANY other people, I’m sure, I grew up surrounded by privet. For me it was a 1920s council house on the edge of a town in northern England. Every house in Cranford Avenue had a privet hedge in front, and sometimes on all sides. One house was a bit different – it had a golden privet hedge. Many of the Victorian houses in town had once had iron fences and gates in front, which had been removed in 1941 as part of the war effort. In many cases, a privet hedge had succeeded the railings. In the one medium-sized town there must have been hundreds of miles of privet hedge.

As a boy, I’d watched my father clipping our hedges with the garden shears, and enjoyed helping him…Read more

Sporting Profiles – Tales of an Elderly Gym Bunny

WELL, IT HAS happened – I have actually reached 80 years of age and, being a gym bunny (of a sort), I wonder how I got here. In childhood, I was overweight with co-ordination and balance difficulties, and weird feet. Release from school allowed me to enter a non-exercise world.
Fast forward decades to the podgy pensioner who, at last, decided something needed to be done. Walking, combined with gradually increasing distances covered each week and a revised diet, resulted in weight loss…Read more

The Haunted Gardens

ON THE WEEKEND before Halloween, 26 and 27 October, Caversham Court Gardens will once more be haunted by all sorts of ghosts, witches and weird creatures lurking amongst the trees.
There will be lots of new displays for you to discover, as well as some old favourites from previous years.
Everything has been hand-made specially for this atmospheric setting. The creators of the displays are textile artist, Hester Casey, who is proud to make nearly everything from recycled materials, and talented craft knitter Jill Knight.
The trail is designed to be fun for families, but will also appeal to adults, with touches of humour and some more serious messages…Read more

Miracle grow

ALTHOUGH SOME people do not believe in miracles, they occur all the time in our gardens.
Every year tiny seeds grow into wonderful creations. Even the most novice gardener can sow a small dark speck and it becomes a large onion, a small bean which develops into a tall runner bean plant, and a yellow speck growing into a magnificent sweetcorn plant.
Sowing seed and caring for the tiny seedlings is so rewarding when the proud owner surveys the result. Even in the dodgiest years, when there has been prolonged drought or too much rain, there is always something in the garden to gladden hearts…Read more

A Riverside Jewel

THE HISTORIC gardens at Caversham Court have been the scene of Church Fêtes, Christmas Tree sales and family fun for many decades. This photo from the 1960s shows the view from the Church Road entrance across the herb garden to the former gateway into the allotments.
Sixty years ago, the gardener was 56-year-old Sam Reed, a gardener since he was 14, with six grandchildren and a passion for raising and showing bantams. In an interview reported in the November 1964 edition of the Caversham Bridge, his advice for keeping the lawns in good order was to mow regularly. He said, “It’s the same as having your hair cut, the more you cut it, the quicker and healthier it grows”…Read more

MORE TRICK THAN TREAT

IN 2019, ENVIRONMENTAL charity Hubbub reported that more than 39 million UK families dress up for Halloween, with 90% buying new costumes every year. Their research showed that the majority of these costumes (69%) were made from polyester, a synthetic plastic, and 40% are worn once and discarded. That’s around 7 million costumes weighing in at 2,000 tonnes…Read more

50 Years On The River

THAMES RIVERCRUISE is celebrating 50 years on the Thames this year. In the early ‘70s, owner Tim Deaton was working in theatre set design and construction. This kept him busy except in the summer. Tim had started working on boats at the age of 15 and saw a chance to fill in the quieter time by buying his first vessel, the Windsor 3 from a friend in Windsor.
This 45-foot launch was renamed the Scenic 1. The owners of Mapledurham Estate liked the boat, and a service was started between Caversham and Mapledurham…Read more

True Food Co-op: local sustainable living, community shop celebrates 25 years

TRUE FOOD CO-OP began in 1999 as the True Food Club. Members of The Club pooled their resources to buy organic foods in bulk. The Club grew, and within two years was buying a wider range of goods and starting to operate more as a market.
Between 2004 and 2009, True Food operated mobile markets around the Reading area from a small warehouse base in south Reading. By 2009, new larger facilities were needed and premises were found in Emmer Green, which is where it continues to operate from today…Read more

The Local Scene – The White Horse, Emmer Green

THE PUBLIC HOUSE, The White Horse, has been at the centre of Emmer Green for many centuries. There is said to have been a pub on the site since the 16th century and now, while retaining its attractive period features and traditional atmosphere, it is a thriving modern business.
Graeme Humphries, the manager, started work there in 2020 during the second Covid-19 lockdown, and can remember the building being boarded up and he had to view it in darkness – thank goodness those days are over. Since then, the pub has come back to life…Read more

CAVERSHAM HEIGHTS SOCIETY

NEARLY 50 YEARS ago, Martyn Allies set up the Caversham Heights Society. Its aim was to promote an interest in educational, cultural and scientific topics, without political or religious bias, amongst residents of Caversham and the surrounding area. This took the form of a series of talks during the winter months, along with visits to places of interest, and even a short holiday to a location too far away for a day visit…Read more

Looking After Yourself – Anxiety

Community Connections – Meena Arch

MEENA ARCH, who runs the Angel Bar on Prospect Street, is a Reading native.
She was born on the other side of town and grew up in a variety of the hotels and guesthouses run by her parents. She went to school at Hemdean House and St Joseph’s, starting working life at 14 in the Gorge Café.
She worked in the hospitality industry for several years before moving into corporate training, but was then made redundant. She worked at Caversham Lakes but was always looking around for a new challenge. She was a fan of the Chapter Wine Bar and, when she spotted it was closing, arranged a meeting with the then owner and quickly found herself the new owner…Read more

Nineteen years a-wandering

The first ‘Happy Wanderer’ article appeared in April 2005, which means that by now there must have been well over 200 of them. In those days, the ‘Bridge’ was entirely black-and-white — colour arrived in October 2006…Read more

First Impressions Matter – Organisation

NO MATTER how many jobs you apply to, keeping organised will ensure you don’t miss key parts of your job search, and it will be easy to see what actions you need…Read more

Olfaction and wellbeing

THE HUMAN sense of smell is still much underappreciated, despite its importance for vital functions such as warning and protection from environmental hazards, eating behaviour and nutrition, and social communication.
Human beings typically have an excellent sense of smell, when compared to many other animals…Read more