The Last Post.

Day Twenty Nine:  Friday.

Travel isn't quite as much fun when one has luggage to haul around but I managed to get down to Reading in one piece.  The train journey took more than 4 1/2 hours.  My hotel was a short walk away from the train station and is very nice.  I'm on the 13th floor. 

While I'm more drawn to the countryside and villages and small towns, Reading is certainly a nice city.  I've enjoyed my day here today.

The reason for Reading being on the itinerary is that the Museum of English Rural Life is here and they also have archives.  I have found a number of items in their online catalogue which concern William Fisken - a great great grand uncle of mine who invented the steam plough (and in some ways was the impetus for me to get involved in genealogy).  For all of my life we had in our house GGGxUncle William's scrapbook.  It was mostly filled with newspaper cuttings about the development of the steam plough and the matter of the patent.  It also has a couple of items which my dad stuck in for some reason and also spelling practice in my childish hand!

A number of years ago I gave it to Alan and then more recently I thought maybe the best place for this tangible piece of English agricultural history was the Museum of English Rural Life.  Alan agreed and so he and Jenny brought it with them.  They also brought (and bequeathed to me) all the old family photos which were at 43 Baycliff - and that includes the one we are 99.999% sure is William Fisken because he is posing with a small model of a steam plough.  In all the hundreds of references one can find about William Fisken, I have never found a photograph of him so this is a real gem.  And it was decided that we should donate the photograph as well.

So, this morning found me taking a pleasant walk through Reading to The Museum of English Rural Life.  An archivist met with me and was quite thrilled about this donation.  And I was very pleased of course.  

I took the opportunity to ask to see a letter which I knew was archived:  a rather long letter written in Bank Foot (Perthshire, Scotland) by Thomas Fisken to his brother William, who was in Northumberland, about strategy in regards to the patent and a competition to develop a better plough.

After that business was done, I of course went around the museum proper and thoroughly enjoyed doing so.  

Of particular interest was the exhibition dedicated to the art of the iconic Ladybird book.  Lovely!











I also visited the Reading Museum where the highlight was seeing a "copy" of the Bayeaux Tapestry.  

The Bayeaux Tapestry was created before the year 1100 and tells the story leading up to the Norman conquest of England in 1066.  

In 1886 a group of embroiderers in Staffordshire copied the tapestry.  It took 35 of them a year to complete the project.  This huge piece of work - 20" high and 230' long was toured around and when it was in Reading in 1895 the decision was made to sell it and a former mayor bought it for the town and it's been here ever since.

An extension of the Reading Museum is the ruins of Reading Abbey.  So off I toddled in search of them.  How wonderful to have such history right in the middle of a city!  

Of particular interest is that Henry 1st is buried there.  












Anyway, apart from all this culture, I just wandered around (it's a very walk-able city) and thoroughly enjoyed myself.  

So I will now say adieu. Next stop Isla-ville!