VCH Oxfordshire • Texts in Progress • Caversham (August 2019) • © VCH Oxfordshire • Social Hist. • p. 1
VCH Oxfordshire Texts in Progress Caversham Social History
Social Character and Communal Life
Caversham’s population was long split between the main settlements of Caversham and Lower Caversham in the south (which had ready access to the trading and social opportunities offered by neighbouring Reading), and the small scattered hamlets and farmsteads of the parish’s central and northern parts. Manor houses in the south-east (latterly in Caversham Park) were intermittently occupied by high-status resident lords from the Middle Ages onwards, but landownership became increasingly divided, and by the 18th century the riverside settlements were relatively ‘open’, with strong outside links and (by the 19th century) marked religious Nonconformity. Major residential development in the late 19th and early 20th century turned Caversham, Lower Caversham and (later) Emmer Green into suburbs of Reading both socially and administratively, while the northern upland areas remained rural.
The Middle Ages
During the Middle Ages Caversham manor was held by a succession of leading aristocrats of mainly comital rank and above, including the earls of Pembroke and Warwick. William Marshal (1146/7--1219), regent of England from 1216, chose Caversham as one of his main residences, and his generous endowment of the shrine and chapel there may have been part of a larger investment in the manor house, which stood close to the Thames.1 William kept a huntsman at Caversham,2 and either maintained or created the deer park, which was stocked with ten does in 1223.3 Free warren (the right to small game) was enjoyed as ‘of old’.4 Later lords maintained the house, which saw sporadic royal visits from Henry III,5 Edward I,6 and Edward II.7 Caversham was one of Margaret de Lacy’s regular residences
1 Above, landownership; for chapel, below, relig. hist. 2 Kemp, Reading Abbey Cartularies, II, pp. 225--6. 3 Rot. Litt. Claus. I, 545. 4 Rot. Hund. II, 38. 5 J.E. Kanter, ‘Peripatetic and Sedentary Kingship: The Itineraries of the Thirteenth-Century English Kings’ (London Univ. PhD thesis, 2011), 809; N. Vincent, ‘King Henry III and the Blessed Virgin Mary’, in R.N. Swanson (ed.), The Church and Mary (2004), 135. 6 E.W. Safford, Itinerary of Edward I, III (L&I Soc. 135, 1977), 40. VCH Oxfordshire • Texts in Progress • Caversham (August 2019) • © VCH Oxfordshire • Social Hist. • p. 2 during her widowhood (1245--66),8 and the park was well stocked in 1349 when it was reckoned that 50 deer could be taken from it every year.9 Even so Caversham never became a chief seat or caput, and the considerable local influence of its lords was tempered by their wider interests and frequent absences, as well as by the presence of other landowners especially in the northern part of the parish. The wider population comprised a mix of free and unfree tenants. In 1086 the Giffards’ tenants numbered 28 villani, 13 lower-status bordars, and two slaves,10 and by 1307 the manor also had seven free tenants, almost all occupying substantial holdings of several yardlands. The largest (John le Chamberlain), possibly a manorial official, had six, in all perhaps 180 acres. A much larger group of 66 villeins included a couple with two- yardland holdings, two thirds of the remainder occupying single yardlands, and a third only half-yardlands, which suggests that they partly relied on income from labouring. Thirty-two cottagers had no open-field land at all,11 some of them living probably (as later) beside the parish’s numerous commons and greens.12 Differences in wealth amongst the yardlanders are suggested by the fact that some owned their own ploughs while others did not,13 although in 1316 the range of taxpayer wealth was fairly typical for the area.14 Early collective action was manifested in the leasing of the manor by a group of leading tenants in the late 12th century,15 and members of the parish community were involved in administration of the Marian chapel at the manor house and possibly also in improvements to the parish church.16 The leading inhabitants (or ‘worthy men of the neighbourhood’) also helped William Marshal II’s steward measure and assign land.17 As in later periods, topography probably influenced social bonds and local identity. The manor house, church, and main open fields were all in the low-lying southern part of the parish,18 where inhabitants enjoyed particularly strong connections with neighbouring Reading.19 By contrast, in the hilly and wooded centre and north settlement was scattered and
7 E.M. Hallam, The Itinerary of Edward II and His Household, 1307--1328 (L&I Soc. 211, 1984), pp. 29, 196, 284. 8 L.J. Wilkinson, Women in Thirteenth-Century Lincolnshire (2015), 59--60. 9 TNA, C 135/105/1, m. 13. 10 Williams and Martin, Domesday Book, 432. 11 Above, econ. hist. (with refs). 12 For cottages on the commons c.1681, Berks RO, D/EC E4. 13 TNA, C 133/128/1. 14 Ibid. E 179/161/8, rot. 7, m. 1d. 15 Above, econ. hist. (medieval). 16 Below, relig. hist. (Middle Ages). 17 Kemp, Reading Abbey Cartularies, II, p. 227 (c.1220); Crouch, Acts and Letters of the Marshal Family, pp. 291--3. 18 Above, landscape etc. (settlement); landownership. 19 P. Rixon, ‘The Town of Reading, c.1200--c.1542’ (Oxford Univ. DPhil thesis, 1998), 46, 166--7; above, econ. hist. VCH Oxfordshire • Texts in Progress • Caversham (August 2019) • © VCH Oxfordshire • Social Hist. • p. 3 landownership divided,20 while church attendance, too, may have been less regular given the distance.21 A communal place for games, possibly near the river, may be reflected in the place-name ‘Pleystowes grove’ (1485--6).22 After the Black Death the parish retained a relatively large population, but as elsewhere there was a regular turnover and land and wealth became concentrated in fewer hands. In the 1480s the demesne farmer Stephen Coxeter also acted as ‘reeve’ or bailiff,23 while by 1525 the wealthiest inhabitant by far (taxed on goods worth £41) was Roger Hawe, one of a long-established local family who, with several other leading parishioners, was involved in the transfer of freehold land at Cane End.24 Of the 88 other taxpayers, ten were assessed at £10--£18, nineteen at £4--8, and the rest at £1--3, 24 people assessed on wages being presumably mainly farm servants, of whom some perhaps had smallholdings. Particularly prolific families included the Loverays, Atwells, Stevenses, and Wests. Day-to- day contact with Reading was reflected in a payment in 1498--9 for a ring of the great bell of St Laurence’s church at the burial of ‘Henburyes wife of Caversham’.25 Links also existed with neighbouring rural settlements,26 and some inhabitants had connections in Henley, where Thomas Avery owned a house in the early 15th century.27 Direct lordly influence was presumably weakest during long periods of absence, as during the Crown’s possession in the late 14th century and again from 1478. At other times lords made intermittent visits: Isabel Beauchamp gave birth to a daughter (Anne) at Caversham in 1426, and spent six nights at the manor in 1432, while her husband Richard made his will there in 1437.28 In 1444 feather beds were bought (in Reading) in preparation for their son the duke of Warwick’s stay.29 Manorial officials were a more constant presence, and were apparently worth cultivating: the Reading guild sent a hood to the park keeper in 1430--1,30 while in the late 15th and early 16th century the office of bailiff was obtained by well-connected Reading burgesses.31 Notley abbey, owner of the rectory and Cane End
20 Above, landscape etc.; landownership. 21 Cf. arrangements for Wm Marshall’s chapel, to be overseen by the reeve and ‘two nearer men of the parish’: below, relig. hist. (Middle Ages). 22 TNA, DL 29/641/10408; cf. Pearman, ‘Historical Notices of Caversham’, 28 (1502). 23 Pearman, ‘Historical Notices of Caversham’, 22--3. 24 TNA, WARD 2/8/27/2; WARD 2/8/27/11; WARD 2/8/27/21; C 1/982/71--72. For earlier refs to the family, ibid. E 179/161/201, rots 4--4d. 25 Dils, Reading St Laurence Churchwardens' Accounts, I, 2; cf. Slade, Reading Gild Accounts, Pt I, p. xlvii; Berks RO, R/AT1/78; ibid. D/EE/T1/1/6; TNA, E 40/564; E 40/584. 26 e.g. TNA, WARD 2/8/27/9; ibid. E 210/6046. 27 T.R. Gambier-Parry (ed.), A Collection of Charters relating to Goring, Streatley, and the Neighbourhood, 1181--1546, II (ORS 14, 1932), 251. 28 Complete Peerage, XII (2), 382, 393; J. Harvey, Gothic England (1947), 177. 29 TNA, SC 1/60/65; Cal. Inq. p.m. XXVI, 284. 30 Slade, Reading Gild Accounts, Pt I, pp. lxxxv, 107. 31 Hist. Parl. s.v. Ric. Smith, Ric. Justice. VCH Oxfordshire • Texts in Progress • Caversham (August 2019) • © VCH Oxfordshire • Social Hist. • p. 4 estates and lessee of the demesne, presumably maintained regular contact through its rent and tithe collectors, and through a resident canon at the St Mary chapel.32 c.1530--c.1850
For all or most of the 16th century there was no resident lord, Caversham manor passing from the Crown to high-status absentee owners including Francis Knowles (d. 1596), one of an influential local family based six miles away at Greys Court.33 The Knollyses were active in Reading, however,34 and Francis may have begun the new mansion maintained by his son William (d. 1632) in Caversham’s medieval parkland, which saw royal visits in 1601 and 1613.35 At Cane End the Brigham family of minor gentry were resident from the 1530s to 1740s,36 and were of similar standing to the Delavals of Kidmore End, who married into a branch of the Blount family of Mapledurham.37 In Caversham itself, affluent lessees of the rectory estate had a substantial house next to the church,38 and in the 17th century a handful of well-heeled incomers from Reading included the grocer Joel Stevens and the woollen- draper Thomas Curtis,39 eleven taxpayers in 1662 (including the two principal landowners) occupying houses assessed on five or more hearths.40 The existence of a brothel in the 1580s nevertheless suggests an absence of élite social control, compounded by a weak Anglican presence.41 The bulk of the population comprised tenant farmers, smallholders, and labourers. Affluent yeomen were a small minority, most tenants being of limited means,42 and in 1662 half of taxpayers (despite the few large houses) were assessed on only one or two hearths, and three quarters on three or fewer, suggesting fairly modest dwellings.43 Some cottages for poor families were recorded on the commons,44 and the poor were remembered in local wills.45 Unsurprisingly there was strong engagement with the life of Reading,46 while a more
32 Above, landownership; below, relig. hist. 33 Above, landownership; VCH Oxon. XVI, 290. 34 ODNB, s.v. Francis Knollys. 35 Above, landownership (Caversham Park). 36 Ibid. (Cane End estate). In 1662 Thos Brigham also had a house in Caversham ‘Street’: Powell, Records of the Hearth Tax for Reading and Caversham, 14. 37 Cal. Cttee for Compounding, IV, 3145; Hearth Tax Oxon. 12 (8 hearths); Oxon. Visit. 1669--1675, 80; TNA, PROB 11/342/468 (Fras Delaval). 38 Above, landownership (rectory estate). 39 M. Brod, The Case of Reading: Urban Governance in Troubled Times, 1640--1690 (2006), 4, 13-- 14 (n. 4); McLaren, ‘Stuart Caversham’, 100--101; TNA, PROB 11/342/625 (Stevens, 1673); PROB 11/529/360 (Curtis, 1712). 40 Powell, Records of the Hearth Tax for Reading and Caversham, 14. 41 OHC, MS Oxf. Archd. Oxon. c 7, f. 52v. Its location is unknown. 42 Above, econ. hist. 43 Powell, Records of the Hearth Tax for Reading and Caversham, 14. 44 e.g. Berks RO, R/D88/1/1 (cottage lease, 1633); ibid. D/EC E4. 45 OHC, MSS Wills Oxon., Caversham wills. VCH Oxfordshire • Texts in Progress • Caversham (August 2019) • © VCH Oxfordshire • Social Hist. • p. 5 local sense of community was perhaps encouraged by continued common-field farming and by sharing of resources such as commons, watercourses, and ditches, whose use was regulated in the manor court, and which to some extent probably cut across the upland- lowland divide.47 Longstanding families such as the Crockfords, Curtises, Berrys, and Peabodys provided a further element of social continuity.48 The Civil War brought disruption, especially in 1642--4 when soldiers demanded food and lodgings, houses were pillaged and burnt, and access to Reading market was hindered by the slighting of Caversham bridge.49 Higher than usual death rates were almost certainly a result of disease spread by troops.50 Inhabitants’ political views were presumably mixed,51 though local landowners included prominent Royalists,52 and at least one inhabitant (Mr Dolmer) harboured Royalist troops.53 The Restoration was marked by the setting up of the royal arms in the church,54 and in 1687 the earl of Kildare entertained the queen at Caversham while she was on her way to Bath,55 the church bells being rung to accompany her procession through the street.56 The following year troops were quartered at the rectory house during the Glorious Revolution.57 In 1690 Caversham’s freeholders voted unanimously for the Whigs, although in 1754 they were more divided.58 During the 18th century fragmented landownership (despite the manor’s continuance) and weak Anglican leadership contributed to the development of an ‘open’ parish. Inhabitants enjoyed strong outside contacts,59 and there was a regular turnover of population especially amongst the growing number of landless labourers created by the abolition of lifeholds.60 By 1738, out of some 146 houses in the parish, 96 (65 per cent) were cottages.61 Larger farmers exercised influence as the main local employers, and it was they
46 e.g. TNA, PROB 11/28/43 (Ric. Page, incl. grant towards pavage, 1537); PROB 11/147/322 (Edw. Read, 1625). 47 Above, econ. hist.; below, local govt. 48 OHC, par. reg. transcripts. 49 Jnl of Sir Samuel Luke, I, 25--6, 30, 62; II, 130, 160, 167; III, 193, 271; Royalist Ordnance Papers (ORS 43, 49, 1963--75), I, 166--8; II, 439 n., 476 n.; CJ, III, 126; VCH Berks. III, 357--60. For the king and Cromwell at Caversham in 1647--8: LJ, IX, 327; ODNB, s.v. John Ellis. 50 OHC, par. reg. transcripts; McLaren, ‘Stuart Caversham’, 265--7; J.A. Dils, ‘Epidemics, Mortality and the Civil War in Berkshire 1642--6', Southern History, 11 (1989), 46. 51 As in Reading: VCH Berks. III, 356--7. 52 Above, landownership (Lord Craven); below, Mapledurham. 53 Jnl of Sir Samuel Luke, I, 63. 54 Below, relig. hist. (relig. bldgs). 55 Complete Peerage, VII, 244 n. 56 Berks RO, D/P162/5/1. 57 Ibid. R/D138/3/1. 58 Gibson (ed.), 1690 Poll, 21; Oxon. Poll 1754, 25--6; Markham, John Loveday, 392--3. 59 For Reading links, e.g. TNA, PROB 11/ 1097/369; Reading Mercury, 27 Dec. 1784; 5 June 1786; 21 April 1788; Markham, John Loveday, 15, 18. 60 Above, econ. hist. 61 Secker Visit. 34. VCH Oxfordshire • Texts in Progress • Caversham (August 2019) • © VCH Oxfordshire • Social Hist. • p. 6 who most often acted as parish officers,62 working with their fellows in nearby parishes to enforce the settlement laws.63 Local gentry, besides the Cadogans and Marsacks of Caversham Park, included Henry Smith and his successor David Fell at Caversham Grove (both of whom served as high sheriff), William Vanderstegen (whose family succeeded the Brighams at Cane End), and Thomas Willatts.64 All lived outside Caversham village, although many were active in parish affairs, Charles Marsack (another high sheriff) persuading his fellow principal inhabitants in 1798 to form an ‘armed association’ in case of French invasion.65 Wider parish activities included celebrations of royal events and military victories,66 while labourers presumably frequented the various pubs and beer houses scattered through the parish.67 The parish’s continuing agrarian character in the early 19th century was reflected in thanksgiving prayers (in October 1801) for a plentiful crop of corn.68 In 1835 Caversham could still be described as a ‘neat’ village, and in 1850 as a ‘pleasant’ one,69 although the arrival of new detached houses brought some clear social zoning, with Caversham Hill characterized in the 1820s as ‘peculiarly fit for the residence of the wealthy’, given its ‘beauty’ and the ‘extent of its prospects’.70 The better-off kept the usual complement of domestic servants, the Crawshays employing a dozen at Caversham Park in 1841, and the banker John Stephens five at Caversham Rise.71 Near the river, there was a contrast between Caversham ‘Upper’ and ‘Lower’ streets, the former including the church and rectory house and a larger number of small owner-occupiers and people in non-agricultural employment.72 In the upland hamlets, owner-occupation was most prevalent in Gallowstree Common.73 Poverty was a serious issue in what was described in 1850 as ‘an open parish in every sense’,74 the more transient element of the population including seven people in 1841 (three of them young children) living in a barn at College Wood in the far north.
62 e.g. Berks RO, D/P162/12/2. 63 Ibid. D/P162/13/3--6. 64 Peters, Sheriffs, 56, 61, 62, 63; Markham, John Loveday, 106 (for Smith). For Vanderstegen’s foxhounds and work as a Thames commissioner, S. Oliver, ‘The Desire to Metabolize Nature: Edward Loveden Loveden, William Vanderstegen, and the Disciplining of the River Thames’, in N. Heynen et al., In The Nature of Cities (2006), 99--102. 65 Reading Mercury, 21 May 1798. For Marsack’s retinue at Caversham Pk, above, landownership; for relations between landowners, Markham, John Loveday, 16, 49, 345--6. 66 e.g. Berks RO, D/P162/5/2, s.a. 1788 (day of celebration for king’s recovery), 1794 and 1797 (victory over French and Spanish fleets). 67 For pubs, above, econ. hist. (industry). 68 Berks RO, D/P162/5/2. 69 Doran, The Hist. and Antiqs Reading, 278; M.R. Mitford, Recollections of a Literary Life (1857 edn), II, 4. 70 Henley Guide (1826 edn), 64; above, landscape etc. (built character).. 71 TNA, HO 107/874. 72 Ibid. tithe award and map; above, econ. hist. 73 TNA, tithe award and map; Dils, ‘From Village to Suburb’, 91. 74 Cottages (Maple Durham &c.) (Parl. Papers 1850 (732), l), p. 14. VCH Oxfordshire • Texts in Progress • Caversham (August 2019) • © VCH Oxfordshire • Social Hist. • p. 7
Reading provided a focus for well-to-do social life alongside more local diversions such as boating, fishing, and shooting,75 while the organisation of boat races by young men led to the establishment of a Caversham regatta in 1843.76 A liberal tone is suggested by freeholders’ support for reform in 1831.77 At a lower social level, rivalry between ‘Upper’ and ‘Lower’ Caversham was expressed in horse races held in 1836, in which the ‘Lower- streeters’ carried the day against their ‘aristocratic’ opponents.78 The two settlements each had their own beer houses and to some extent their own social life, and the same was true of the larger hamlets, Emmer Green acquiring a friendly society which met at the Black Horse from 1832.79 Throughout the parish, heavy drinking prompted attempts to enforce opening hours.80
Since 1850
From 1850 rapid population growth in the southern third of the parish had profound social consequences.81 Some incomers were well off, but most were lower middle-class and working-class families living in new houses in Caversham and Lower Caversham. The change brought new opportunities for many but also generated considerable problems. By the mid 20th century large-scale development had spread to Emmer Green, and agriculture ceased except in the newly created northern parish of Kidmore End, whose small rural settlements remained typical of neighbouring dip-slope parishes.
Caversham, Lower Caversham, and Emmer Green After 1850 well-off incomers including businessmen, professionals, and retired military officers continued to be attracted to the parish’s south-facing slopes, where they occupied large houses and slightly more modest villas.82 In the parish as a whole the number of affluent private residents increased from 40 in 1876 to 94 in 1895, and to 199 in 1907.83 The growth of the lower middle-class and especially working-class population was numerically far more significant, however, especially from c.1880, the middle class favouring areas such as Caversham Heights, and manual workers being concentrated in terraces in Caversham and Lower Caversham.84
75 The Reading Guide and Berkshire Directory, V (1805); Reading Mercury, 5 Mar. 1832; 10 Feb., 21 July 1838. 76 Thacker, Thames Highway, II, 235; Oxf. Jnl 9 Sept. 1843. 77 Wing, 'Lecture on Old Caversham'. 78 Reading Mercury, 16 May 1836. 79 Oxon. FS, p. 86. 80 e.g. OHC, QS1832/4/L1/27; QS1833/4/L1/7; QS1838/3/L1/8; QS1847/1/L1/18. 81 Above, landscape etc. (popn). 82 Dils, ‘From Village to Suburb’, 103--6; above, landscape etc. (settlement; built character). 83 Harrod’s Dir. Oxon. (1876); Kelly’s Dir. Oxon. (1895 and 1907 edns). 84 TNA, RG 11/1490; RG 12/1158; RG 13/1371. VCH Oxfordshire • Texts in Progress • Caversham (August 2019) • © VCH Oxfordshire • Social Hist. • p. 8
Many of the newcomers worked in Reading,85 notably at Huntley & Palmers biscuit factory and for the ironworks and railway,86 producing a daily flow of people walking across Caversham bridge and the rickety ‘Clappers’ footbridge in Lower Caversham.87 New religious and social groups reflected in part paternalistic initiatives by better-off inhabitants. Thus concerts, amateur dramatics, and boating flourished at the same time as football and cricket clubs, the last receiving strong clerical support.88 Jubilee celebrations in 1887 included a dinner in the grounds of General Radcliffe’s Balmore Park,89 and church- based social activities thrived, including brigades and bands for children.90 A parish room cum working-men’s institute opened in Gosbrook Lane (now Gosbrook Road) in 1883,91 and a hall at Emmer Green in 1893,92 followed by Balmore Hall (Hemdean Road) in 1903,93 and an Arts-and-Crafts-style public library on Church Street in 1907.94 The library’s supporters hoped that ‘access to good books’ would ‘make the workman a better workman’ and help reduce crime,95 and public parks and recreation facilities began to be provided around the same time, partly by Caversham urban district and (later) by Reading borough, some of them near the river.96 For many working men pubs and beer houses nevertheless remained the main social outlet, despite attempts by temperance supporters to reduce opening hours and the sale of liquor.97 The five adult friendly societies (and one of the two juvenile societies) established between 1870 and 1903 all met in pubs and inns, the largest of them (with 313 members in 1910) in Emmer Green at the Black Horse.98 The Caversham Working Men’s Club, formed in 1908, continued in 2018, still for male members only.99
85 Caversham Free Church (pamphlet 1876), mentioning ‘artisans employed in Reading’. For attendance at Reading hiring fair in 1884, Thiam, Hard Times but Happy, 277. 86 Kelly’s Reading Directory (1914); Reading and District Post War Information Guide (1947): copy at Berks RO; Dils, ‘From Village to Suburb’, 102--3. 87 Alexander, Borough Government and Politics, 115--116. 88 R. Taylor, Shadows on the Green: A History of Caversham Cricket Club (1999); W.E. Townsend, One Hundred and Forty Not Out: Kidmore End Cricket Club 1863--2003 (2003); Reading Mercury, 12 Nov. 1892; 23 Nov. 1895. 89 Reading Mercury, 4 June 1887; M. Kift, Life in Old Caversham (1980), 53--4. For separate celebrations at Kidmore End, Reading Mercury, 9 July 1887. 90 Berks RO, D/P162/28A/1; Reading Mercury, 15 Dec. 1894. 91 ChCh, MS Estate 66, f. 161v.; Berks RO, D/P162/28/47 (for use as a reading room); Smith’s Dir. Reading (1887 edn); plaque on building. 92 Kelly’s Dir. Oxon. (1887 and later edns), the hall being converted from a Primitive Methodist chapel: below, relig. hist. 93 Reading Mercury, 24 Dec. 1903. 94 D. Cliffe, Roots and Branches. The Centenary History of Battle and Caversham Libraries, Reading (2007), 10--28. 95 Cliffe, Roots and Branches, 26. 96 e.g. G. Clark, Down by the River: The Thames & Kennet in Reading (2009), 130--2, 157; Malpas, Caversham Names. 97 Berks RO, D/P162/28A/1; OHC, PS/5/A12/14, 18--19, and 28--33; Bodl. MS. Top. Oxon. d. 535 (Emmer Gn). 98 Oxon. FS, pp. 86--8. 99 Reading Chronicle, 18 Sept. 2008; https://cwmsc.org/club-history/. VCH Oxfordshire • Texts in Progress • Caversham (August 2019) • © VCH Oxfordshire • Social Hist. • p. 9
The parish room (1883)
Rapid development put pressure on housing, sanitation, educational provision, policing, and transport (especially inadequate bridges),100 the Reading alderman Felix Parfitt complaining in 1908 that Caversham had ‘the resources of a village and the requirements of a town’.101 Parts of Lower Caversham were characterised by squalid conditions,102 and to some extent poverty bred petty crime.103 The formation of Caversham urban district in 1890 was intended to meet such challenges, early achievements including the establishment in 1896 of a sewage works in Lower Caversham (which remained in use until 1962), and the opening in 1907 of a large new council school.104 Ultimately, however, and despite considerable opposition, recognition that Reading borough was best placed to administer its suburbs led to Caversham’s absorption in 1911.105 Change created, for some, a sense of bewilderment. In 1894 the local architect William Wing decried the loss of old buildings and landmarks, and the replacement of farmland and commons with rows of houses and streets lit by gas lamp.106 For Wing the consequence was a loss of identity, reflected, he claimed, in a general understanding ‘that ours is a place without a history’.107 The local pride that fostered opposition to incorporation tells a different story, and conscious efforts were made to promote Caversham’s past. Thus in 1908 the recently rediscovered ‘ancient well of St Anne’ on Priest Hill was dedicated to the parish, and the associated memorial drinking fountain ‘handed over to the Urban District Council in the presence of a large company’.108
100 Alexander, Borough Government and Politics, 105--119. 101 Ibid. 90. 102 Dils, ‘From Village to Suburb’, 112. 103 Reading Mercury (various edns). 104 Reading Mercury, 11 May 1895; OS Map 1:2500, Oxon. LVI.15 (1899 and later edns); photo of opening of sewage works, Reading Central Library, BRN 4631247; Malpas, Caversham Names, 5; below (educ.); local govt. 105 Below, local govt. 106 Wing, 'Lecture on Old Caversham'. 107 Ibid. 108 Kift, Life in Old Caversham, 40--1. For the well, below, relig. hist. (Middle Ages). VCH Oxfordshire • Texts in Progress • Caversham (August 2019) • © VCH Oxfordshire • Social Hist. • p. 10
The First World War brought heavy losses, and as elsewhere hastened social change. A memorial of 1928 in the then newly laid out Christchurch Playing Fields (next to Reading bridge) commemorates 216 dead,109 a locally preferred memorial site at Berry’s Corner having been opposed by Reading Corporation,110 while church memorials included a window dedicated to members of the bible class at St John the Baptist’s church, Lower Caversham.111 During the war itself the mansion at Caversham Park was used as a convalescent home for soldiers,112 but during the inter-war decades, as larger houses (including Caversham Park) became increasingly unaffordable to run, they were either demolished or converted to flats or institutional use, and their grounds built over.113 Church associations and uniformed activities for children continued,114 and new adult groups were formed, amongst them a social club started at Emmer Green in 1949, which ran classes and retained a large membership in 1965.115 The establishment of a golf course,116 cinemas,117 boating and bathing clubs,118 and masonic lodges,119 as well as the proliferation of allotment gardens,120 catered for other leisure pursuits, while in Lower Caversham Samuel Elliott & Son, a major local employer, had their own staff recreational activities.121 Renewed outside influence came with the many hundreds of foreign BBC staff employed at Caversham Park, of whom some were billeted during the Second World War with residents in and around Emmer Green.122 During the later 20th century Caversham remained overall one of Reading’s more attractive and prosperous residential suburbs,123 new estates in Emmer Green attracting Reading office workers and commuters with young families.124 Nevertheless, mass motoring
109 VCH fieldwork (2018); D. Phillips, The Story of Reading (3rd edn, 1999), 151; cf. Berks RO, D/P162/28/70 (listing 214 dead); NHLE, no. 1445141 (listing 260). The Second World War brought 150 losses. 110 Reading Mercury, 5 Feb. 1921. 111 OHC, MS Oxf. Dioc. c. 1008 112 Berks RO, D/EX 965/28/1--2. 113 Malpas, Caversham Names; Emmer Green Past and Present, 28--9, 31, 33--5; above, landscape etc. (built character). 114 Berks RO, DMS29/3A/1--7; DMS30/3A/1--4; DMS30/3C/1--8; Phillips, Story of Reading, 165; Caversham Bridge, Aug. 1967 (scout camp); A. Asquith, Third Reading Scout Group, St Peter's, Caversham. A Brief History (1984); local information. 115 Bodl. MS. Top. Oxon. d. 535. 116 In 1910--13: above, econ. hist. 117 The Caversham Electric Theatre/Glendale (1911--77) and The Regal (1938--58): I. Meyrick, Oxfordshire Cinemas (2007), 49--50; D. Cliffe, Picture Palace to Penny Plunge: Reading’s Cinemas (2017), 50--4, 79--80. 118 Clark, Down by the River. 119 From 1918: www.oxfordshirefreemasons.org.uk/centres.htm#3831. 120 E. Williams, Reading Allotments (free ebook, 2013). 121 A. Beardmore, Samuel Elliott & Sons (2 vols. 2006--8). 122 Bodl. MS. Top. Oxon. d. 535; Emmer Green Past and Present, 90. 123 Reading Standard, 28 Dec. 1962; Census, 2011. 124 Emmer Green Past and Present, 42. VCH Oxfordshire • Texts in Progress • Caversham (August 2019) • © VCH Oxfordshire • Social Hist. • p. 11 brought persistent traffic congestion to Caversham’s narrow streets,125 and residents of the new ‘model’ community of Caversham Park Village, many of them commuters to Reading and London,126 strongly criticised the dullness of Reading and its lack of cultural amenities.127 In the 1970s (after the closure of several local factories) Lower Caversham was condemned as ‘a depressing suburb of Reading’,128 and there was general opposition to Reading’s continued expansion.129 More positively, Caversham Park Village’s vocal residents’ association was one of several residents’ groups supporting social clubs, youth groups, drama, and sports facilities,130 while at Emmer Green a youth and community centre was opened in 1969, and Millennium celebrations prompted several other projects there.131 Caversham Park Village’s Milestone Social Centre opened in 1978.132 Despite such initiatives, early 21st-century Caversham remained divided between more affluent areas in the north and west and less prosperous ones in the south. Mapledurham, Thames, and Peppard Wards were Reading’s three least deprived, whereas Caversham Ward ranked eighth out of 16, containing pockets of ‘moderate’ and (in the east part of Lower Caversham) ‘severe’ deprivation. It also had the highest black and minority ethnic population, 25 per cent of the total in 2011 compared with 17 per cent in Peppard Ward, 15 per cent in Thames, and 11 per cent in Mapledurham.133 Recreational opportunities were considerable, with numerous clubs and societies focused on (amongst other things) sport, music, dance, drama, and gardening. Participation, however, was uneven.134 Amersham Road Youth and Community Centre in Lower Caversham received a £600,000 refurbishment in 2017, when it was renamed The Weller Centre.135
Kidmore End, Chalkhouse Green, Gallowstree Common, and Cane End Social change came more slowly to the northern hamlets, though here too rural society was greatly altered. Enclosure of the commons in 1865 deprived the rural poor of important resources,136 in
125 e.g. Caversham Bridge, Oct.--Dec. 1965, May 1973, Mar. 1987, Mar. 1991. 126 J.B. Macarthur, ‘Caversham: The Growth and Development of a Minor Shopping Centre’ (unpubl. thesis for Berks. College of Education, 1971), 3. 127 Phillips, Story of Reading, 170. 128 Pevsner, Oxon. 691. 129 Local Government Boundary Commission Report 145 (1976). For crime problems at Amersham Road, https://www.getreading.co.uk/news/loca l-news/call-improve-life-crime-hit-estate-4268372. 130 Malpas, Caversham Park, 109; Emmer Green Past and Present, 43, 70, 118; www.getreading.co.uk/news/local-news/new-road-caversham-named-honour-6508556; Caversham Bridge, Jan. 2018 (CADRA celebrates 50 yrs). 131 Emmer Green Past and Present, 70, 81. 132 Law, Eye & Dunsden, 121; Caversham Bridge, May 1978. 133 Reading ward profiles and deprivation index (accessed online). 134 www.choosecaversham.co.uk/EicCommunity/listings.php?catid=25 (accessed May 2018). 135 www.getreading.co.uk/news/reading-berkshire-news/popular-postman-remembered-weller-centre- 13619108 (accessed May 2018). 136 Reading Mercury, 17 Dec. 1859. VCH Oxfordshire • Texts in Progress • Caversham (August 2019) • © VCH Oxfordshire • Social Hist. • p. 12 exchange for allotments totalling just 3 a., and with none supplied at Kidmore End until the 1890s.137 Wages (including for piecework on farms) were low,138 poverty and poor housing widespread,139 and regular migration common.140 The Vanderstegens of Cane End exercised authority as employers, landlords, and local officeholders,141 while local clergy encouraged the provision of amenities including a school, public wells, a lending library, and a parish room.142 From 1853 Kidmore’s curates and vicars also played a significant role in organizing concerts, garden shows, fêtes, and entertainments (including a ‘nigger minstrel troupe’), besides reviving a ‘harvest home’ at Kidmore House.143 A cricket club was formed in 1863, followed by a football club.144 Gallowstree Common, with its many small owner- occupiers, retained an ‘atmosphere of independence and distinctness from its neighbours’.145 From the early 20th century dwindling agricultural employment radically altered the hamlets’ character,146 one elderly inhabitant in 1928 lamenting the ‘loss of old village life in the rush of modern time’.147 Farmhouses were bought by wealthy incomers,148 and the number of private residents increased from 6 in 1907 to 28 in 1939.149 During the First World War a woman verger was appointed for the first time at Kidmore End church,150 and a war memorial hall was built on the edge of Sonning Common in 1922, an initiative led by people from Sonning Common and Gallowstree.151 A recreation ground at Gallowstree Common followed in 1948.152 By the late 20th century Kidmore End was a typically affluent Chiltern parish, with Cane End in particular home mainly to wealthy professionals. The larger hamlets of Kidmore End, Chalkhouse Green and Gallowstree remained more socially mixed, albeit
137 TNA, MAF 1/409 (allotments at Gallowstree, Cane End, Emmer Green); Reading Mercury, 26 Oct. 1895; Wing, 'Lecture on Old Caversham'. 138 Bodl. MS. Top. Oxon. d. 535. 139 Thiam, ‘Hard Times but Happy’, 281, 294; Dils, Rural Life in South Oxfordshire, 7, 27--30. 140 Dils, Rural Life in South Oxfordshire, 10--11. 141 Ibid. 37; Thiam, Hard Times but Happy, 276, 278. 142 Smith-Masters, The History of Kidmore End, 21--2, 59; Thiam, Hard Times but Happy, 296; K. Tiller, ‘Priests and People: Changing Relationships in South Oxfordshire, 1780--1920’, in People, Places and Context: Essays in Local History in Honour of Joan Dils (2016), 34--5. 143 Dils, Rural Life in South Oxfordshire, 23--4; Smith-Masters, The History of Kidmore End, 71; Reading Mercury, 18 Sept. 1880; 25 Feb. 1882; 20 Nov. 1886; 9 July 1887; 4 Oct. 1890; 15 Dec. 1894. 144 W.E. Townsend, One Hundred and Forty Not Out: Kidmore End Cricket Club 1863--2003 (2003), 7--9. 145 Dils, Rural Life in South Oxfordshire, 2--3. 146 Ibid. 39; above, econ. hist. 147 Thiam, Hard Times but Happy, 316. 148 e.g. Smith-Masters, The History of Kidmore End, 51, 55; above, landscape etc. (built character). 149 Kelly’s Dir. Oxon. (1907 and later edns). 150 Thiam, Hard Times but Happy, 315. 151 The Kidmore End War Memorial Hall was located within Kidmore End ecclesiastical parish, just over the Eye and Dunsden (later Sonning Common) boundary: ibid. 127. 152 Reading Mercury, 9 Nov. 1923; Char. Com. website, nos. 242685, 304326; Thiam, Hard Times but Happy, 127--9 (for the hall’s use in subsequent years). VCH Oxfordshire • Texts in Progress • Caversham (August 2019) • © VCH Oxfordshire • Social Hist. • p. 13 with little affordable housing.153 Community activities were hosted in pubs (notably The Reformation in Gallowstree Common), Kidmore End school, and the war memorial hall (refurbished in 2014).154 A £590,000 ‘green’ sports pavilion was built at the recreation ground in 2011, paid for partly by the parish council.155
Education
Sporadic educational provision in the late 17th and 18th century was substantially expanded from the early 19th, with parochial schools established in Caversham and outlying settlements, and foundation of several private and Nonconformist schools. The 20th century saw further provision for the expanding population, including state and private secondary schooling, and adult education and training.
Before 1900
In 1683 the curate Peter Shelley apparently acted as a schoolmaster,156 and in the 18th century private donations and offertory money paid for a mistress to teach poor children or, later, to put them to school outside the parish.157 Anglican and Nonconformist Sunday schools were established in the early 19th century (when provision for the poor was woefully inadequate),158 and a church day school set up in Caversham village c.1820 catered by 1834 for 35 boys and 57 girls.159 By the late 1850s it was affiliated to the National Society, and moved from Little End to larger premises designed by Horace Jones on School Lane (south of the Church Street--Gosbrook Lane junction),160 where an extra classroom and an infant school were added in 1869.161 By 1872 there were some 220 pupils including 80 infants,162 and in 1885 the school was enlarged to cater for 475 boys, girls and infants.163 By 1892 there was demand for a further 200 places, prompting fundraising by the ‘friends of church schools’ who, led by the vicar, opposed the formation of a school board.164 As a result additional infant and mixed schools were opened next to the recently built St John’s
153 Local information. 154 Parish council newsletters; www.hallshire.com/halls/view/2637/kidmore-end-war-memorial-hall. 155 www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-14341196. 156 OHC, MS Oxf. Dioc. e 22, p. 39. 157 Secker’s Visit. 35; OHC, MS Oxf. Dioc. d 555, f. 104. 158 Educ. of Poor Digest, p. 720; below, relig. hist. 159 OHC, MSS Oxf. Dioc. d 580, f. 55v.; b 39, f. 74; TNA, tithe award, no. 460. 160 Reading Mercury, 12 Sept. 1857; 29 Aug. 1863; Berks RO, D/P162/28/9/1--3 (1859 plans). 161 OHC, MS Oxf. Dioc. c 335, f. 75v.; ibid. S53/1/Y1/1--4 (plans); TNA, ED 103/93. 162 OHC, MS Oxf. Dioc. c 338, f. 88v. 163 Kelly’s Dir. Oxon. (1887 edn). 164 P. Horn (ed.), Village Education in Nineteenth-Century Oxfordshire (ORS, 51, 1978), pp. xxxi-- xxxii; ChCh, MS Estates 66, ff. 161v., 183--5, 190--1. VCH Oxfordshire • Texts in Progress • Caversham (August 2019) • © VCH Oxfordshire • Social Hist. • p. 14 church in Lower Caversham in 1893 and 1895 respectively, each accommodating 250 pupils.165 Funding (as elsewhere in the parish) was by voluntary subscription, children’s pence, and government grant.166 In the hamlets, parish schools were established by the 1850s at Gallowstree Common (average 36 pupils) and Chalkhouse Green (23 pupils). By the early 1860s they had apparently been superseded by a school opened in 1857 at Kidmore End,167 which before its enlargement in 1863 and 1878 housed up to 90 children in a single classroom, and was likened to the ‘Black hole of Calcutta’.168 Improvements were paid for mainly by local subscription, with small contributions from the National Society, and in 1866 the school had an average attendance of 70 boys, girls, and infants,169 rising to 143 by 1901.170 Attendance was badly affected by poor weather, although coffee supplied at lunchtime encouraged pupils to stay for the afternoon.171 A separate school-cum-chapel at Emmer Green, established in 1864 chiefly for the under-sevens, was extended in 1878 to serve as a mixed and infants’ school.172 Its enlargement in 1886 created a capacity (by 1895) of 114, with an average attendance of 102.173 Non-Anglican day schooling was also established in the 19th century. Three small Nonconformist day schools were reported in 1812,174 and before 1861 the Congregational chapel on Peppard Road had a school house for 70 pupils, though it reverted solely to Sunday-school use after Ebenezer West established a larger undenominational British school in 1877,175 housed in a disused Baptist chapel on Gosbrook Lane (now Gosbrook Road). In 1879 that had capacity for 200, with 112 on the roll and an average attendance of 88, mainly girls.176 It closed briefly in 1893 following condemnation of its facilities, but was allowed to continue because it was the only school catering for non-Anglicans,177 and by 1895 it had accommodation for 230 mixed and infant pupils and an average attendance of
165 Kelly’s Dir. Oxon. (1898 edn); TNA, ED 21/1174. 166 OHC, MSS Oxf. Dioc. c 332, f. 111v.; c 335, f. 218v.; c 338, f. 88v.; Emmer Green Past and Present, 52. 167 Gardner’s Dir. Oxon. (1852); Billing’s Dir. Oxon. (1854); TNA, MAF 1/409. Neither is mentioned in TNA, tithe award. 168 ChCh, MS Estates 66, ff. 85, 96; Reading Mercury, 7 Oct. 1882; TNA, ED 103/41; Dils, Rural Life in South Oxfordshire, 15--16; Smith-Masters, The History of Kidmore End, 23; Thiam, Hard Times but Happy, 295--6. 169 OHC, MS Oxf. Dioc. c 332, f. 256v. 170 B. Dove, 'Hidden Treasures in School Log Books', Berkshire Family Historian, 26:3 (2003), 147. 171 Ibid. 144, 146. 172 TNA, ED 21/1172; Berks RO, D/P162/28/31; Emmer Green Past and Present, 52--3. 173 Kelly’s Dir. Oxon. (1895 edn); TNA, ED 21/1172. 174 Educ. of Poor Digest, p. 720 (together catering for just 37 pupils). 175 Bodl. MS. Top. Oxon. d. 535; Emmer Green Past and Present, 49; TNA, RG 9/883; ED 21/14394; ED 103/93; Brunel University Archive, BFSS/1/7/2/1/8/22; ‘Caversham Hill Chapel 1827--1977: A Brief History’ (typescript in Reading central Library), mentioning a short-lived re-opening in the 1880s. 176 Brunel University Archive, BFSS/1/7/2/1/9/17; for the chapel, below, relig. hist. 177 TNA, ED 21/14394. VCH Oxfordshire • Texts in Progress • Caversham (August 2019) • © VCH Oxfordshire • Social Hist. • p. 15
170.178 The premises remained highly unsatisfactory, and the school closed in 1907 when county council provision became available.179 A Roman Catholic school-cum-chapel opened at the junction of Washington Road and South View Avenue in 1899, the building surviving as part of St Anne’s RC primary school.180 A number of private schools catered for Caversham’s prosperous incomers, although some were short-lived, amongst them a school advertised in 1791, and an establishment for young ladies at The Priory (c.1830--8).181 More successful was the Knighton family’s Caversham House Academy, which operated in a large house on Church Street from 1849 to c.1917,182 and offered a ‘sound commercial education’ including French, Classics, and Mathematics for around £25 a year.183 In 1861 it taught 65 boys, its clients including the curate and several Irish professionals.184 A girls’ school established by the Knightons at Hemdean House focused on French and other refinements.185 Amersham Hall was a more academic, ‘high class’, and Nonconformist ‘collegiate’ boys’ boarding school, which moved from Buckinghamshire to newly built premises in Caversham in 1860 under its Baptist head (and future local benefactor) Ebenezer West.186 The school closed in 1892, and two years later its premises were taken over by Queen Anne’s girls’ school, part of the Westminster- based Grey Coat Hospital Foundation.187 The parish also had several private tutors in languages and music.188
The 20th and 21st Centuries
In the early 20th century Caversham’s schools were overcrowded, and though some 200 pupils attended schools in Reading the town authorities refused to admit more.189 Thereafter the county council and (from 1911) Reading borough improved provision. A council school for 550 boys, girls and infants opened on Harley Road (south of Gosbrook Street) in 1907,190
178 Kelly’s Dir. Oxon. (1895 edn). 179 TNA, ED 21/14394; below. 180 TNA, ED 21/1173; Tyack and Pevsner, Berks. (2010), 480. 181 Reading Mercury, 12 Dec. 1791; 19 July 1830; 4 Aug. 1838; TNA, HO 107/874; OHC, MS Oxf. Dioc. d 707, f. 36. 182 M. Casey, The Story of Hemdean House (1984), 9--12, 21--2; Reading Dirs. (various edns). 183 Reading Mercury, 24 June 1871. 184 Ibid. 10 Aug. 1865; TNA, RG 9/883. 185 Reading Mercury, 10 Sept. 1864; Casey, The Story of Hemdean House, 13--14. 186 Reading Mercury, 2 June 1860; 4 June 1892; PO Dir. Oxon. (1869 edn). For West, D.T. Williams, ‘Caversham Baptist Church (1875--77). What Social Influences May be Discovered in its Planning and Design’ (Open Univ. thesis [c.1980]): copy in Reading Central Library. 187 M. Driver and A. Scott (eds.), Queen Anne's School, Caversham: The First Hundred Years (1994), 6--8. 188 e.g. Melville’s Oxon. Dir. (1867); Harrod’s Dir. Oxon. (1876); Kelly’s Dir. Oxon. (various edns). 189 TNA, ED 21/14394; ED 21/1174; Smith-Masters, The History of Kidmore End, 28; Alexander, Borough Government and Politics, 116. 190 TNA, ED 21/1171; OHC, S53/2/A1/1; Kelly’s Dir. Oxon. (1907 edn). VCH Oxfordshire • Texts in Progress • Caversham (August 2019) • © VCH Oxfordshire • Social Hist. • p. 16 and found favour with Nonconformist parents who objected to the ‘High Church’ religious instruction given at the National schools.191 The Catholic school and Emmer Green school were both enlarged at the same time,192 although the latter (like Kidmore End school) suffered a fall in numbers after Sonning Common council school opened in 1913.193 Caversham parish school (School Lane) was reorganized in the 1920s, taking most of the older pupils from Emmer Green, and in 1932 Reading borough took over the parish schools except for St John’s and Kidmore End, closing that at Emmer Green in 1933.194 Ongoing difficulties included the division of Caversham council school’s senior pupils between two sites, and the dilapidated state of the infants’ department at St John’s, where the National Society resisted takeover.195 Kidmore End school continued under Oxfordshire County Council.196 An additional council school for 500 pupils opened on Hemdean Road in 1938,197 taking the juniors and infants from the existing council school (which continued as a senior school), and the juniors from St John’s (which became an infant school).198 In 1944 Micklands County Primary School was established to cater for the adjacent working-class estate,199 while further north The Hill County Primary School (renamed Caversham Park School 1963--70) opened on Peppard Road in 1950, serving Emmer Green’s expanding suburbs.200 At Emmer Green itself a new county primary school opened in 1952, its 250 pupils drawn from children living in recently built council houses.201 St John’s infants’ school was finally taken over by the borough in 1946 and closed in 1969, its buildings subsequently occupied by a nursery.202 Earlier nursery provision included the Babies’ Nursing Home (now Chiltern College) on Peppard Road, opened in 1931.203 The 1940s brought the first state secondary schooling, when the council school on Harley Road became a secondary modern, reverting in 1970 to a primary renamed
191 OHC, S53/2/A1/1, pp. 17, 150. 192 TNA, ED 21/1173; ED 21/1172. 193 Ibid. ED 21/23890; Thiam, Hard Times but Happy, 281; below, Eye and Dunsden, social hist. (educ.). 194 TNA, ED 21/23889; ED 21/23890. 195 Ibid. ED 21/23889; ED 21/23891; Reading Education Committee Report for … 1931 (1932), 5 (on temp. removal of infants to council school). 196 TNA, ED 21/14480; ED 21/38013; Smith-Masters, The History of Kidmore End, 29, 31. 197 TNA, ED 21/47563. 198 Ibid. ED 21/23891; ED 21/47563. 199 TNA, ED 21/59563; above, landscape etc. (settlement). 200 TNA, ED 161/560; The Hill Primary School, Caversham: Official Opening (1952): copy in Reading Central Library; Malpas, Caversham Park, 94; Emmer Green Past and Present, 56. 201 The Builder, 5 Feb. 1954, 256--60; Emmer Green Past and Present, 53--4 (incl. earlier temp. bldgs); above, landscape etc. (settlement). 202 TNA, ED 161/545; OHC, DIOC/7/D/3/27. 203 The Chiltern Nursery Training College, Reading (c.1976); ‘Chiltern Nursery Training College’, surveyor’s report, 1980. For other provision, TNA, ED 69/596a; Malpas, Caversham Names, 23; OS Maps (various edns). VCH Oxfordshire • Texts in Progress • Caversham (August 2019) • © VCH Oxfordshire • Social Hist. • p. 17
Thameside.204 A further secondary modern was established at Caversham Grove (Surley Row) in 1953, becoming (as Highdown School) the borough’s first comprehensive in 1970, and catering for over 1,000 pupils.205 Further north, Chiltern Edge School was established as a secondary modern in 1957 as part of the reorganisation of an all-age school in Sonning Common, its catchment including Rotherfield Peppard, Kidmore End, Mapledurham, Micklands, and Dunsden.206 Pupil numbers there were as high as c.1,300 in 1977, falling to c.500 by 2015.207 In the 1970s two new primary schools were established, Caversham Park Primary School (in 1970), and the adjacent St Martin's Roman Catholic Primary School (1974).208 By the early 21st century most of Caversham’s primary schools had more than 200 pupils, the largest over 450.209 A shortage of primary school places in the west of Caversham prompted the establishment in 2014 of The Heights Primary, which in 2018 secured a permanent site for 350 pupils on Mapledurham playing fields despite local controversy over the loss of green space.210 Funding problems at Caversham Primary prompted the school to ask parents for voluntary contributions in 2017.211 In 2010 Highdown School became Berkshire’s first academy, specialising in maths and computing; in 2015 it had 1,279 students including 240 sixth-formers,212 and a new music centre opened in 2017.213 Chiltern Edge school (taken into Sonning Common parish by a 2014 boundary change) then had 506 pupils aged 11--16.214 Adult education, long supplied by the borough council and (until c.1971) by the Reading Quakers, continued on a reduced scale in 2018.215 The private sector thrived in the 20th and early 21st centuries. Balmore House was used c.1918--36 as a ‘high-class’ prep boarding school for children of ‘gentlefolk’,
204 TNA, ED 162/131; Malpas, Caversham Names, 31. 205 Education in Reading, 1965 to 1971 (County Borough of Reading, 1973), 10--14; Emmer Green Past and Present, 58--9. 206 OHC, S243/1/A1/2; TNA, ED 162/1621; OS Map 1:2500, Oxon. LVI.2 (1963 and later edns); below, Eye and Dunsden. 207 Richens, ‘The Village that Never Was’, 40; Sonning Common Neighbourhood Development Plan [c.2015] (accessed online). 208 Malpas, Caversham Park, 107. 209 ‘Primary School Provision in Caversham’ (Reading Borough Council, 1999): copy in Reading Central Library; Oftsed reports (accessed online); www.churchofengland.org/more/policy-and- thinking/research-and-statistics. 210 www.theheightsprimary.co.uk/about-the-heights-primary-school; www.inyourarea.co.uk/news/plans-to-build-the-heights-primary-school-on-mapledurham-playing- fields-approved. 211 www.getreading.co.uk/news/reading-berkshire-news/struggling-caversham-state-school-appeals- 12564865 212 School website (accessed 2018); Ofsted report (2015). 213 www.berkshiremaestros.org.uk/MC_Caversham.html. 214 Ofsted report (2017). 215 Reading Dirs. (various edns); Education in Reading, 1965 to 1971, 69; J.B. Macarthur, ‘Caversham: The Growth and Development of a Minor Shopping Centre’ (unpubl. thesis for Berks. College of Education, 1971), 41; Local Government Boundary Commission Report 145 (1976); Reading Chronicle, 20 Mar. 2017. VCH Oxfordshire • Texts in Progress • Caversham (August 2019) • © VCH Oxfordshire • Social Hist. • p. 18 accommodating boys aged up to 10½ and girls up to 14½, and gaining ‘successes in entrance and scholarship examinations’.216 Similar in character was the Excelsior School (or College) at Caversham Heights (c.1911--19),217 while St Peter’s Hill School on St Peter’s Avenue (1925--66) offered a day school for girls preparing for the London school certificate.218 The Oratory (1922--41) offered secondary and (from 1923 at Rosehill) prep schooling,219 before moving to Dorset and later to Woodcote. There were also small schools at Blenheim House on Peppard Road (c.1900)220 and at Cane End House (a Second World War evacuation).221 Queen Anne’s expanded in the later 20th century,222 and by 2011 the school occupied a 35-a. site and catered for c.400 girls aged 11--18, of whom over a third were boarders.223 Hemdean House school (which admitted boys to the junior department in 1912) enlarged its buildings in the 1970s, and in 2015 was a mixed school with 136 pupils, the boys aged 3--11 and the girls 3--16.224 Chiltern College School (on the Chiltern College site), opened in 1993, was renamed Caversham Preparatory School in 2009.225
Welfare
From the 16th century one-off bequests to the poor were made by wealthier parishioners,226 and in 1707 the earl of Kildare gave £200 which was used to buy c.18 a. of land, the rent (£13 in 1820) used for apprenticing poor children.227 The countess of Kildare gave £100 for the same purpose in 1748, although there were intermittent problems in obtaining the interest.228 Parish poor-relief costs were the highest in the hundred after Henley, presumably reflecting the parish’s ‘open’ character and its large number of landless cottagers.229 In the 1730s--50s disbursements totalled £100--£200 a year, raised in 1748 by a parish rate of 9d. in the pound.230 Widows and others received money, shoes and clothes, the overseers being assisted by a paid officer. Expenditure rose from £497 in 1776 to an average of £515 in
216 Reading Mercury, 10 Aug. 1918; TNA, ED 21/23891 (dated 1931). 217 TNA, ED 35/64; Reading Mercury, 2 Sept. 1916. 218 Malpas, Caversham Names, 29; Berks RO, D/ENS/B41/24; D/P162/28A/23. 219 Malpas, Caversham Park, 95--9; Anon., The Oratory School Caversham, Reading [c.1936]. 220 Bodl. MS. Top. Oxon. d. 535. 221 OHC, Acc. 4906/1--3. 222 Driver and Scott, Queen Anne's School, Caversham, 95--7; D. Talbot, The Scarlet Runners: A Social History of Queen Anne's, Caversham (2008). 223 Ofsted report (2011). 224 www.hemdeanhouse.co.uk; Ofsted report (2015). 225 Reading Evening Post, 1 May 2009; www.getreading.co.uk/news/local-news/caversham- preparatory-school-now-lawful-10880590. 226 e.g. TNA, PROB 11/68/517 (Geo. Abbott, gent., 1585). 227 Rep. Com. Char. (Parl. Papers 1820 (312) iv), 199; TNA, CHAR 2/220. 228 Berks RO, D/P162/5/2 (1796 memo); Rep. Com. Char. (Parl. Papers 1820 (312) iv), 199--200. 229 Above, econ. hist. (c.1530--1800). 230 Berks RO, D/P162/12/1--2. VCH Oxfordshire • Texts in Progress • Caversham (August 2019) • © VCH Oxfordshire • Social Hist. • p. 19
1783--5,231 and by 1803 the figure was £726, with 75 people (including 31 children) relieved permanently, and 80 occasionally: in all c.14 per cent of the population.232 In 1813 (when as many as 202 people received occasional relief) expenditure was £1,297, and though it fluctuated thereafter, falling to £775 in 1815,233 post-war slump briefly raised it to £1,557 in 1818, followed by a lesser rise to c.£1,200 in the late 1820s.234 Several houses for the poor were acquired from 1788,235 and in 1820 the parish built eight cottages as pauper accommodation in Little West Field.236 In 1834 chief responsibility passed to the new Henley Poor Law Union, although between 1830 and 1927 additional charitable bequests of £100--£500 were made by Ann Burchett, Ann Clissold, John Stephens, William Williams, and Stephen White.237 The funds (which were administered together) were used mainly to purchase bread, clothes and fuel, with White’s bequest designated for nursing care. The Kildare charities were worth £1,025 by 1900 and produced almost £25 a year, although by then apprenticeships were little sought after by masters or lads.238 All the funds were later combined as the Caversham Consolidated Charities, which ceased before 2017.239 Coal and clothing clubs established at Caversham c.1836 and at Kidmore End c.1860 continued until the early 20th century,240 while other initiatives included soup kitchens, nursing associations, a penny bank, a provident club, and maternity and sick loan societies.241 Distribution of charity money at Kidmore End led in 1895 to a public spat between members of the parish council (including the vicar),242 although Dorothea Vanderstegen of Cane End nevertheless gave £500 towards coal for poor widows there in 1924.243 The charity had ceased by 2009.244 In the 1870s Admiral Henry Coffin (of Springfield) built four almshouses in Westfield Road, which were refurbished in the 1960s.245 A boys’ home at Emmer Green (St Benet’s) ran from 1903 until 1980, its residents (who attended the local school) drawn mainly from
231 Poor Abstract, 1804, p. 398. 232 Ibid. 398--9. 233 Poor Abstract, 1818, p. 352. 234 Poor Rate Retns, 1822, p. 135; 1825, p. 170; 1830, p. 158; 1835, p. 153. 235 Berks RO, D/P162/18/1--5. 236 Ibid. D/P162/18/6; D/P162/18/9. 237 Ibid. D/P162/25/2; E.T. Long, Guide to the Parish Church of St Peter Caversham (1938), 14. In 1904 the first three charities produced £17 16s. 8d. a year: Berks RO, D/P162/25/4/1--8. 238 Reading Mercury, 8 Dec. 1900. 239 Berks RO, D/P162/25/15--17; Char. Com. website, no. 203339. 240 Berks RO, D/P162/28/39--44; Thiam, Hard Times but Happy, 288--90. 241 Dils, Rural Life in South Oxfordshire, 29; Thiam, Hard Times but Happy, 290, 311--13; Smith’s Dir. Reading (1887 and later edns); Reading Observer, 23 Nov. 1923. 242 Reading Mercury, 13 April 1895. 243 Thiam, Hard Times but Happy, 315; Coventry Evening Telegraph, 18 Nov. 1924. 244 Char. Com. website, no. 237684. 245 Berks RO, D/QR11/4--5; Caversham Bridge, Apr. 1978; Malpas, Caversham Names, 17; Char. Com. website, no. 250881--11 (dissolved 2009). VCH Oxfordshire • Texts in Progress • Caversham (August 2019) • © VCH Oxfordshire • Social Hist. • p. 20 outside the parish,246 while a home for maladjusted children operated in a house on St Peter’s Hill from 1949 to 1965.247 Caversham had resident private medical practitioners by the late 19th century, and NHS surgeries were established from the 1950s.248 Old people’s homes were established from the mid 20th century, and sheltered housing from the 1980s.249
246 Reading Mercury, 30 May 1903; Emmer Green Past and Present, 50. 247 TNA, ED 122/90; P. Pick, Children at Tree Tops. An Example of Creative Residential Care (1981). 248 PO Dir. Oxon. (1877); Kelly’s Dir. Oxon. (1883 and later edns); Emmer Green Past and Present, 60. 249 Malpas, Caversham Names, 35; Emmer Green Past and Present, 42.