Walked from home to Jacksons Corner and caught bus 17 to Palmer Park Avenue. PPA is a pleasant Victorian terraced street looking out over Palmer Park.
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| Houses on Palmer Park Avenue |
Walked along to the end of the road and under the A329M on to Culver Lane, and then turned right onto Anderson Avenue. Poor Anderson Avenue - the gardens of the properties on the west side of the road were completely ravaged by the construction of the A329 relief road. Not sure exactly when this was constructed - around 1970? There are initially no houses on the west side of the road and I'm wondering if some houses were demolished. The first pair of houses, numbers 34 and 36, looked to me to have no garden at all - the back windows must look straight out onto the road barrier. Awful. Did the residents get compensation for the compulsory purchase of their gardens? It must have massively devalued their properties in one hit. Anderson Avenue now ends in a dead end (pictured; the trough of the A329 is on the left hand side), though I don't know whether this was always the case.
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| The southern end of Anderson Avenue |
Walked along Church Road for a bit noting the two very old houses mentioned in Pevsner, tucked among the newer additions - Bulmershe Cottage (no.36) and no. 46 with its cute little Gothic-style windows. Of the 20th century houses, 'Pantiles' (no. 108) is interesting with its spare facade and black Crittall-style windows. Nipped into Eastcourt Avenue to take a look at Woodley Hill House, part of Bracknell & Wokingham College. There didn't look to be much else of interest there so I retraced my steps down Church Road stopping for a quick look around the churchyard of Earley St Peter's Church. Found some members of the Heelas family in the graveyard (not literally - buried ones); assume they were part of the family who owned the department store that became part of John Lewis.
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| Churchyard of Earley St Peter's |
Continued on to the Earley crossroads, and turned left down Wokingham Road to have a look for the lodge to Maiden Erlegh House mentioned in Pevsner, on the corner of Maiden Erlegh Drive, a tree-lined private road that I contemplated walking down but was too wimpy. It leads to Maiden Erlegh School, a well-regarded local comprehensive built on the site of Maiden Erlegh House, demolished in 1960. From the picture and the description, sounds as though it was a flamboyant place inside and out. Walked back to the crossroads and turned into Whiteknights Road, passing a bungalow on the right, opposite the University's Earley Gate entrance, that I always rather like (pictured). Passed Whiteknights Lake and then turned into Hamilton Road, a long avenue of some impressively large and imposing villas, as well as some lovely more modestly-sized Victorian semis.
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| House I like |
Reaching the end of Hamilton Road I crossed at Cemetery Junction and made my way back down King's Road into town. After a brief stop off at the library and M&S I walked back to Caversham via Reading Bridge.
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