Remember when ...

Remember when ... the nearest shops were on Berkeley Avenue or over at the Southcote Estate. When the row of five shops were built on Wensley Road, it was a real godsend.

Before the Wensley Road shops were built (and for some time after), the early residents of the Coley Park estate were treated to many mobile traders. There was the milkman with his electric milk float, the fishmonger who sold fresh fish from the back of his small van, the baker's van which delivered fresh bread and rolls. 'Charlie' drove the big blue Grocery van that carried all sorts of household and grocery items (remember the free plastic flower with every packet of DAZ washing powder). They had all but disappeared by the mid 1960's.

Remember when ... the occasional visit of the 'Rag and Bone' man attracted children like flies to follow his horse and cart as it made its was around the estate. His call was something similar to "rag-and-bone", delivered in a sing-song fashion but usually ended up sounding more like "raa-boh". He would collect old rags and newspapers, (for converting into fabric and paper), bones for making glue, scrap iron and other items, often trading them for other items of limited value, like a goldfish in a small bag of water (which was totally useless unless you had a fish tank and the fish usually had a very limited life span).

Once the world became more mechanised, some rag-and-bone men traded their horses for a lorry or pickup van. Other social changes, such as the tendency for all members of a household to work outside the house, not to mention higher levels of traffic, made casual street-by-street pickup unworkable.

Remember when ... there was a regular collection of kitchen food scraps such as vegetable and fruit peelings, not to mention unused breads, cakes or biscuits. The local Coley Park farm provided metal bins to households on the estate, known as 'pig bins'. These were collected weekly and provided additional feed for pigs at that time - a practice since banned.

Remember when ... there was an air crash near Coley Park in November 1962. For the full story click the link ...

Remember when ... the local constabulary provided policemen on foot or bicycle to make regular patrols of the Coley Park estate (among other places), and you came to be on first name terms with the local plod. A clip around the ear for scrumping apples was about all the trouble the kids got into in those days. There were of course occasions of more hardened activities, like burglaries and assault, but they were definately in the minority in those early days. The local bobby would have to check back with 'central' by using a small phone box situated on the corner of Wensley and Lesford Roads opposite the old mansion. No, it wasn't like the Tardis unfortunately, but much smaller and similar in size to the photo below. But this is still not the exact box as I'm sure the Coley Park box was round and not square, but I stand to be corrected.

Old type police call box

Remember a time before ... Ice Cream vans patrolled the streets. During the warmer summer days there was an old chap who would walk the streets of Coley Park estate and sell Walls ice-creams from a small white push cart. He would stop for ages near the bus terminus by the flats. A favourite was called Four Feather Falls, an ice cream based on the 1960 animated puppet TV show created by Gerry Anderson.

Eventually the colourful Ice Cream vans infiltrated the streets with their monotonous tunes rousing the street as they vied for customers throughout the estate. In mid-summer there could be up to three vans on the estate at the same time. The kids just loved them. The main contenders were Tonibell and Mr Whippy. Tonibell vans were a sky blue colour and had the cow symbol on the front. They gave away free collector cards of movie stars etc. and sometimes included a voucher for a free ice-cream on their next visit. If you were really lucky, dad would buy the big block of ice-cream which came in a cardboard box container known as a 'brick'.

Remember when ... there were plenty of nearby woodlands to explore before they were gobbled up by houses and schools. There were huge hundreds of years old trees to climb (especially the giant 'hollow' tree as it was known, that was pulled down when they built the Coley Park Primary School). The field and woods surrounding nearby Coley Park Farm were the best playground any kid could wish for.

Besides climbing trees you could build wicked cubby houses, play endless games of hide and seek dodging the stinging nettles or just had endless fun trying to get the conkers down from the huge horse-chestnut trees. The field was abundant with buttercups and daises in late spring and sprang to life with butterflies over summer. There were a number of exceptionally large trees here, including a huge red beech tree, a cherry tree and a number of tall horse-chestnuts.

Another smaller woods was behind Wensley Road towards the railway line. This woods had more open ground in the middle and was a great gathering place for the local kids. It was probably part of the Coley House gardens which was used by the Department of Agriculture at the time.

Remember the ... allotments behind the houses in Lesford Road which could be rented if you had no garden of your own, especially suited to the residents of the High Rise Flats. Beyond the allotments and separated by the Holy Brook stream were green fields filled with constantly grazing black and white friesian cattle. In the distance ran the Coley branch railway line where the goods trains traversed the horizon every day. White Swans sometimes nested on the banks of the stream. (PS: You can still rent an allotment today from the Reading Borough Council).

Remember when ... you could walk or bike along the old lane that commenced at the West Lodge on Coley Avenue and ended up at the far end of Wensley Road near the railway line. This lane used to be the main access to the North Lodge until it was demolished in 1990s. Along the way on the left hand side, was located the old Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF), and they always had sheep in the paddocks that would come up to the fence for a feed of grass. Further along the lane on the right, was Simonds (famous Reading beer maker) sports grounds and clubhouse. Simonds was owned by Courage from 1960.

Remember when ... Soccer seemed to be the favourite team sport for the kids around Coley Park. There was always some locals to be found playing soccer on the grassed area near the northern-most block of flats (#193 Wensley Road), where everyone was welcome to join in. Some weekends the teenage kids challenged Southcote to a match which was usually a fairly even game. There was always a friendly rivalry between the Coley and Southcote kids.

Remember when ... you could sit on the steps of the Coley Branch footbridge and watch the trains come and go. It was always a great vantage point for trainspotters or just a relaxing stop on your way to somewhere else. The footbridge was removed in April 2001.

The foot-bridge over the Coley Branch in 1991
©Kevin Rosier - May 1991