History of Reading Society

THE subject of the talk at the History of Reading Society’s January meeting was “A trip along the IDR (inner distribution road)”.

The speaker was Graham Turner, who was born and raised in Coley and runs the Coley Local History Facebook page.

Graham is now the custodian of a collection of colour photographic slides made by the late Doug Noyes which chronicle the construction of the Reading inner distribution road.

The archive has views of the streets and buildings along the entire future route of the ring road where so many of them were scheduled for demolition.

The images were accompanied by an audio recording of Doug’s personal commentary where he referred to the features of interest, such as the names of shops and their trades.

The route of the first stage of the road would run between Caversham Road and Mill Lane. Construction began in 1969 but it was not completed until 1989 due to financial and planning problems.

Graham’s own family was displaced by the first phase of the road’s construction. He lived with his parents in a terraced house at Bright Street in Coley where, “even in 1969 many of the houses had no electricity and street lighting was provided by gas lamps”. The Turners were the last residents to leave.

Coley was the neighbourhood most altered by the arrival of the road. Many streets and their familiar names would disappear forever, Bright, Flint and Henrietta Streets among them.

Many businesses would either move or close. Especially missed were the local pubs like the Borough Arms in Brook Street and the Rose & Crown in Coley Street.

Many of the displaced residents moved to other parts of Reading.

In 1973, the part of the route that most incensed public opinion was the proposed link between Southampton Street and Forbury Road. One section would encroach into Forbury Gardens, the town centre’s principal open space.

The plan was to sink the road in a trench and drive it straight through the western half of the gardens. In addition, the Forbury Lion War Memorial would have to be relocated to the new pedestrian bridge that would cross it.

A small pressure group called “The Hands off the Forbury” successfully campaigned to prevent the road being built there.

To enable road widening some notable river crossings would go. The ornate Victorian lattice iron-work bridges along the River Kennet at Forbury Road and Watlington Street would be rebuilt.

In 1988, during the construction of the final stage of the IDR at Forbury Road, opposite the prison, a length of wall erected in the 19th century had to be removed to enable the road to be widened.

During excavations it was discovered that some of the material used in its construction might date from the medieval period. Furthermore, the route followed that of the northern perimeter wall of the former Reading Abbey, originally known as the Plummery Wall. It was therefore decided that the new wall of the central reservation of the dual carriageway would follow its old course with the earlier wall preserved beneath it.

More recently, proposed “improvements” to the road have included making the entire IDR one-way to improve traffic flow and decking-over the section between Castle Street and Oxford Road to create a public space.

The subject of the society’s next talk will be the Old Redlands Estate and the speaker will be Keith Jerrome. This will take place at Abbey Baptist Church, Abbey Square, Reading, on Wednesday, February 19 at 7.30pm. All welcome (£2 to non-members).

Sean Duggan