Headlines for March Issue

Father Paul’s visit and presentation
On the weekend of 20th and 21st January 2018, Fr Paul Martin visited the parish of Our Lady and St Anne, Caversham, for a formal farewell. He had left Caversham in September 2017 to go to Wolvercote to take up a position as Director of the St Barnabas Society. He celebrated all four masses on Saturday and Sunday in the absence of Fr Patrick but the ten o’clock mass on Sunday was very special. At the…. (Read more)

Changes to the Caversham Heights bus (Route 22) from 19th February 2018.
Reading Buses carried out a consultation in October 2017. Concerned of Caversham was formed at the same time, by concerned local residents, to create awareness of the proposals, and has campaigned relentlessly since then for better proposals for all residents living within the 22 route. In February 2018 Concerned of Caversham has continued to engage with Reading Buses and, at the time of going to print, has secured the reinstatement of 5 further buses to the…. (Read more)

CADRA AGM.
The CADRA AGM will take place on Tuesday 17 April 2018 at 7.30pm in Thameside School Hall. Following the brief formal business, we will welcome Sue Holden, Chief Officer of the Conservation Board for the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The Chilterns lie on Caversham’s doorstep: their woodland, hills, views, chalk streams and history provide…. (Read more)

St Peter’s Conservation Area.
During 2017, the Conservation Area Advisory Committee, which includes several members from Caversham, completed a community–led appraisal of St Peter’s Conservation Area. This appraisal has now been…. (Read more)

Caversham Artisan and Farmers Market!
The new Sunday market started up before Christmas and looks forward to expanding as the weather improves and more people know about it. The development of St Martins will eventually…. (Read more)

Gardiner’s Homecare in the centre of Caversham is proudly celebrating 50 years providing care and support to people in the local area.
Gardiner’s was established in 1968 by Dorothy Gardiner and is based in the centre of Caversham at the corner of Priory Avenue. Dorothy trained as a nurse at the Withington Hospital in Manchester, before working as a midwife, as a district nurse and also at the Royal Berkshire Hospital. Dorothy and her husband Ivan, otherwise known as Gus, ran the business together….. (Read more)

THE CAVERSHAM HEIGHTS SOCIETY.
The Society held two meetings during January. On the 17th Catherine Sampson enthralled members with a talk on Purley from the 1800s to the 1960s, illustrated with sepia photographs and postcards, selected from over 60,000 photo plates taken through the years. She also used pictures taken by local photographers such as Dann and Lewis Studio [1856-1940], Rev Henry Wilder [1834- 1908] and Phillip Osborne Collier[1881-1979]. Each had a different aspect which…. (Read more)

Tribute to Jim Pilgrim.
From its inception, for 40 years, Jim was the Secretary and Treasurer of the Caversham Bridge Christian newspaper. Jim was registered as Herbert James Pilgrim. He was born in Reading and educated at Katesgrove Infants School, E. P. Collier and Reading Grammar School. As a lad, he joined the Scout Troop at Caversham Baptist Church where he earned his King’s Scout Badge. However he was denied the opportunity to receive the award from King George VI at Windsor due to…. (Read more)

Easter Services in you local Caversham Church.
See page 7 for full details of participating churches…. (Read more)

History of Reading Society.
The subject of the January talk was The History of Katesgrove. The speaker was Evelyn Williams who has lived in the area for almost twenty years. Evelyn has done much research into the area’s history, particularly its industry, and was a founder member and is a regular contributor to the Whitley Pump, the local news website for Katesgrove. The modern spelling of Katesgrove has several antecedents: Cadeles Grove, Catsgrove, Cattlegrove and Cattell’s Grove. The area developed around the old Reading to…. (Read more)

St John’s – Greyfriars Partnership – The Launch!
What a cracking day we had on Sunday 4th February, as the team from Greyfriars who have sensed a clear call from God to come and join us at St John’s were commissioned, sent out, and led by Bishop Andrew on foot through Reading, across Christchurch footbridge, and into St John’s. Richard, Jo and myself were present at Greyfriars for the sending out, and heard Bishop Andrew preach from Mark 16, encouraging us to be an ‘outdoors’ church rather than an ‘indoors’ church. David Walker (Vicar of Greyfriars), and Harvey and Katie (their wardens), accompanied the…. (Read more)

Let us have your thoughts.
You may have noticed that Caversham Bridge has made a few changes recently. Some have been forced upon us, but others we have sought to give the paper a more modern outlook such as developing a digital option for its publication and purchase. In November we were faced with the closure of the printing company which had served us for many years but I am glad to say that we now have a new group to provide your copy and that should not make any change to our production, but it was a worrying time! No doubt you will have noticed changes to our banner heading. Change always brings comment and we have…. (Read more)

Tribute to Tom Chadwick.
Born in Wheelton, near Chorley in Lancashire, Tom was a scientist by degree and training. He worked as a research scientist in various organisations before marrying Dorothy in August 1958. They lived in Blackburn, Lancashire where he worked as a lecturer at Blackburn College of Technology and whilst there, he wrote and published three Chemistry text books for A level students. They moved to Australia with their three children John, Anne and Philip. They lived in the State of Victoria and then moved to Melbourne until the early 70’s. On their return to U.K. Tom got a job at a private girls school (St Felix School) in Southwold, Suffolk. In 1976 Tom took a…. (Read more)

When it paid to shop at Baylis.
This month, it’s a story of businesses opening and closing. Caversham Eyecare, the opticians in St. Martin’s Precinct, closed in January. A very large version of this photograph was on the wall, and a friend kindly re-photographed it for me, and suggested I might write something about it for Caversham Bridge. We are looking out over the crossroads where Broad Street meets the Butts in the town centre. I can date the picture fairly accurately because it shows the…. (Read more)

Reading Düsseldorf Association.
In 1946 the remarkable Phoebe Cusden – then Mayor of Reading – led a successful appeal to help the people in the German city of Düsseldorf, and the town’s children in particular. Prompted by reports of deprivation and extremely poor living conditions in the town, she went to Düsseldorf herself, and in 1947 invited six Düsseldorf children to Reading for a three-month stay. This was to be…. (Read more)

Lorry barges it’s way through Caversham.
One Tuesday in January 2018 pedestrians and motorists in Caversham looked on in awe and disbelief as they watched an escorted articulated lorry transporting a barge taking 20 minutes to negotiate its way up Prospect Street. Home-Craft, the independent hardware shop, rushed to pull in…. (Read more)

Caversham WI.
Caversham W I held their January meeting at Church House. This was a Member’s Meeting where the floor was open to any member to speak on their chosen subject. We were fortunate to have two previous Lady Mayors as members, who each told us of their differing and varying experiences and events during their year of Office. It was really a unique evening and enjoyed by all. They both had travelled world-wide to represent Reading and experienced living in our twinned towns abroad. During their years they have raised money for a variety of…. (Read more)

Chazey WI.
Our Vice President welcomed everyone including Alan Copeland our guest speaker. Alan gave an interesting talk on Curiosities in the Chilterns using a screen and sound effects, which was both Interesting and very entertaining. A vote of thanks was given and then refreshments were taken. Our members were told that our President had been in hospital over Christmas and the New Year, and we wish her well. Five committee members gave a brief outline on this year’s resolutions, a vote was taken and the meeting voted for resolution 4 on mental health matters. Permission has been given from…. (Read more)

Caversham Heights Townswomen’s Guild.
The Guild entered a new era on the 21st of February: we now meet on the third Wednesday of the month at 2 p.m. We will still meet at the same venue: Caversham Heights Methodist Church Hall, Woodcote Room, 74 Highmoor Road, Caversham, and we hope the new time will be more attractive to old and new members. Our speaker was Mrs S Duggan, who spoke on ‘The Witness Service’. Our next meeting is the AGM on the 21st of March. In the months following the AGM we have…. (Read more)

News from St. Barnabas Church.
Some months ago, the Bishop of Oxford invited everyone in the diocese to explore the Beatitudes. Using his three-session booklet as a guide, a group in St. Barnabas Church have covered the topics – Contemplative, Compassionate and Courageous. The material which was accompanied by…. (Read more)

St Michael’s Catholic Church, Peppard Road, Sonning Common.
As well as serving Sonning Common and the surrounding South Oxfordshire villages, St Michael’s parish includes Emmer Green and Caversham Park Village. Our parish school, St Martin’s, is located in Caversham Park Village. During Lent, as well as our regular weekday…. (Read more)

Celebrating the Induction of Mgr Patrick Daly at Our Lady and St Anne.
One of the purposes of Caversham Bridge is to recognize and record significant events in the Christian life of our local communities and to do so within the ecumenical spirit of Churches in Caversham Together. The church of Our Lady and St Anne is the focus of Roman Catholic worship in Caversham and the parish has recently said farewell to Fr Paul Martin who was the parish priest for four years. The new parish priest, Mgr Patrick Daly, arrived in the parish in mid-September 2017 and his formal induction took place on Friday 2nd February, the day of Candlemas, the Feast of the Purification of the Lord. There was an atmosphere of great anticipation and joy at this very well attended ceremony at which the Liturgy of Induction was celebrated. The overall ceremony was…. (Read more)

Hatterpillar Day at St Anne’s.
St Anne’s Catholic Primary School, Caversham, took part in ‘Wear a Woolly Hat Day’ for St Mungo’s. St Mungo’s is a charity which helps homeless people get off the streets and all children and staff were asked to wear a woolly hat and make a donation to the charity. When we have the sort of chilly weather that we have had recently, it really brings…. (Read more)

 

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