@berksarchives.bsky.social
The Royal Berkshire Archives holds the archives of the Royal County of Berkshire. We look after nearly nine hundred years of the County's history. Website: royalberkshirearchives.org.uk
Final reminder for Mother's Day on Sunday! Make sure you've bought your cards and presents 😉 🎁 #MothersDay
The story of The Wind in the Willows began as a series of letters to a little boy called 'Mouse'. 🐭
#TheWindInTheWillows
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We have a mystery we hope someone can solve! 🕵 Does this building look familiar to you? We believe it could be somewhere in North Berkshire or maybe even Oxfordshire. Let us know in the comments if you recognise it!
Following International Women's Day yesterday & in advance of our exhibition 'Fallen' opening later this month, we wanted to share our highlight looking at the first-hand testimonies of the earliest women admitted to Clewer House of Mercy in the mid 19thC bit.ly/3P3l6Qa
A reminder that we have preparatory building works taking place in the office this week. It will be noisy at times and we will have reduced access to some of our collections.
Please contact us on archives@reading.gov.uk if you have any queries about visiting us this week.
Spotted in the searchroom this week was this 1510 probate with a very interesting seal! It appears to depict the murder of Thomas Becket and is in pretty good condition given its age! 📷 D/EBP/E33
Happy World Book Day! We found these lovely proofs of dust jackets for a couple of of Enid Blyton's novels, aren't they charming? 📸 D/EX2012/24/2
❗ Advanced notice for visitors. Some preparatory works for our extension are taking place 9-13 March, this work will be noisy at times. From 2-20 March we will also have reduced access to one of our strongrooms. Please check with us in advance that any docs you wish to see are available.
Happy St. David's Day for yesterday. Here we have members of the Reading and District Welsh Society enjoying their St. David's Day dinner in 1955.
The final part of our Wonderful Wallingford blog series is now available to read on our website: bit.ly/4kH6aD6. Read to learn about the role Wallingford Borough played in public health and housing in the 20th century.
Did you know that we hold the national archive of Yellow Pages telephone directories? ☎️ For #EYAConnections we’re shining a light on this once-essential tool that helped people stay connected!
We are one month away from opening our newest exhibition! "Fallen: The Clewer House of Mercy 1848-1954" opens on March 24 2026, and we couldn't be more excited for you to see it. #Exhibition #Fallen
It's been a busy week for Godric, who's been hard at work helping out with document production! Luckily he has his new jumper to keep him warm in the chilly strongrooms! ❄️ 👕
Learn about newly catalogued items at the RBA by reading Feb's Just Catalogued. Lots of additions to existing collections this month including the Wallingford Relief in Need Charity, Broadmoor, and Berkshire (later Berkshire and Oxfordshire) Farmers’ Union
Happy Pancake Day! 🥞 How do you like yours; chocolatey, fruity, syrupy, savoury, or the classic sugar and lemon combination? This author loves some chocolate spread 😋
Happy Chinese New Year! This year is the year of the horse 🐎 In this photograph, it looks like this dog decided to get a better view of the surrounding fields on the back of his pal! It doesn't look like the horse minds too much 😄
📸 D/EZ198/5/3/5
Its World Radio Day! 📻 What better way to celebrate than with this 1930s radio‑gramophone advert - an "exquisite entertainer" guaranteed to charm any room! 📷 D/EX1718/2/26/2
It's National Embroidery month, to celebrate we wanted to re-share Archives Assistant Amber's favourite item, a piece of silver wire embroidery. Watch the video to learn more about the item and why she chose it.
The stories that made us. The decades that defined us 🗞️
Uncover the “good old days” as they really were in 100 million pages of history.
Delve deeper into our newspapers for FREE until 16 February.
➡️ https://bit.ly/4r2KB2a
Have you had a chance to read our latest blog post? We sent out "A Surprising Window into the Past" with our February newsletter, read now to find out how a simple school logbook can show us how big events impacted small communities. bit.ly/4toqP2Y
We've got our bone skates and cold weather gear ready for the Winter Olympics! Anyone fancy joining us? 😆
#WinterOlympics #FridayFun
On 14 Feb, join members of Reading Civic Society in the Garden Hall of Watlington House for their AGM, complete with a talk about Jacksons Department store from Thomas Macey. Thomas will bring a selection of original archives to view during and after the talk.
buff.ly/XyQK0mh
This month’s highlight takes the saying "take a pew" to a whole new level. Discover the story behind a 17th century pew dispute case in Warfield, and why it still matters today, here: bit.ly/4ayYtdN
It's National Hedgehog Day! 🦔 To celebrate, we found this lovely pamphlet advertising the Berkshire Tame Performing Hedgehog, named Jimmy. He could jump through small hoops and even had a set of bells to play at home. He was also particularly fond of string music! #hedgehog
Today is National Puzzle Day! 🧩 To celebrate we spent some time piecing together this reversible jigsaw puzzle by Foster Brothers Clothing Company Ltd, Wokingham from c.1950s 📷 D/EX2694/1
We've found this photo of the Woodley / Slough train but we're not sure of the year! Any ideas?
Wonder what it's like to work in an archive? Wonder no more. One of our archive assistants has written a blog describing what a typical day at the RBA is like. Have a read to find out more:
Is anyone taking part in the RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch? T W Marshall did his own nature watch during the 1930s. His diaries and notes are housed here and contain a daily log about the weather and natural life he had seen. This includes many birds often accompanied by hand-drawn illustrations.
We're throwing it back to 2016 looking through our office archives. Staff received disaster training, we held a Heritage Open Day event, received a visit from the Anhui Province Local History Compilation Committee Office, and displayed records in the 'Art Angel' installation at Reading prison!
Thanks for sharing your memories ☺️