My office is in Reading and my customer office where I spend a fair amount of time is in Slough. Do people actually stop in Bracknell rather than just pass through it? Last time I stopped there must have been in the 1990s, red traffic lights aside.
Reading University also has the equation L=iN/c0LN/biS/cUiTS, found by the scientists Huntley and Palmer as the highest degree of boredom that any foodstuff can produce.
Thanks John - as entertaining as ever. A couple of fun facts - Gerry Anderson, of Thunderbirds fame, set up facilities in a warehouse on Slough trading estate for producing Supermarionation films and one of Reading Gaol's most famous 'residents' was Oscar Wilde.
Kind of surprising that Century 21 didn't even get a passing mention - for a while, in the mid-60's, they were the largest purchaser outside Hollywood of 35mm colour movie film.
Like some of the comments below, I too grew up in Bracknell and Wokingham and it was a great place to live and work. Back in the early Eighties there were well paid jobs to be had around the Western Industrial Estate with the likes of Ferranti, Sperry, Racal and other military electronic's companies. Then the Berlin Wall came down and we all became 'Big Mates' with the Russians and such companies where deemed not necessary any more... Look how that's turned out. Today Bracknell and Wokingham have just become dormitory towns with no such proper industry and with relative easy access to the M4/M3 corridors, most people just work elsewhere. Great series Jon, keep up the good work.
I have a friend who used to be a long distance coach driver. On a trip from Swansea to London he was diverted off the M4 into Slough. While sitting in the ineveitable Bath Road traffic jam, he treated his captive audience to a recitation of Betjeman's famous poem.
Sir John Betjeman’s poem, written in 1937 and simply entitled Slough, criticized the construction of more than 800 factories in the Thames Valley… “Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough! It isn’t fit for humans now.”
@@mb-3fazetime travel must be a thing then. As someone else said, it wasn't about the town, but the trading estate which he visited in the late 1920s, then it was literally a farm converted into an absolute post apocalyptic looking mess with little purpose.
@@ForeverNeverwhere1 Yeah - the time-line with the small disagreement, blitz, poem etc don't really match. I wonder what bombs Sir John was referring to?
@@abarratt8869yeah most of the immigrants and drug addicts. I'm one of very few white English non addict individuals with the misfortune of residing in Slough 😢
Two definitions of the word "slough"... -a hole full of mud or wet soil, such as one in a road. -a condition of degradation, despair, or helplessness. I don't need to add anything else.
4:03 An interesting fact about the construction of the Maidenhead Railway Bridge is that to appease the local community Brunel agreed to place some supporting structures underneath the arches, slowly removing them until the bridge was shown to be stable. However being Brunel he put the supporting structures together deliberately to the wrong measurements, there was always a gap of a few millimetres between the structures and the arches, meaning they were always stable anyway, and Brunel got one back against the town.
The Guildhall in Windsor is the same. It was designed by Christopher Wren, but when they saw the plans the councillors didn't believe the design would support the first floor, and so they insisted he had to put in some pillars to hold it up. He put them in, but they actually stop an inch short of the first floor.
And were you aware that the bridge is locally known as the Sounding Arch? Because it's over water, the echoes are absolutely magnificent. It entertained me as a schoolboy umpteen years ago, entertained my children, and gave me a good story for my taxi customers for 30yrs.
I grew up in Wokingham in the 1980s and 1990s. I now live in Crowthorne and work in Bracknell. Reading was a frequent destination in my teens, as was Bracknell. The John Nike Centre was where I learned to ski and where we had many birthday parties skating on the rink. I'm not sure either about what 55K people do in Wokingham all day, but it does have some quite nice pubs.
Having grown up in Reading, the Bracknell ski centre was my closest ice rink growing up, so I went there occasionally for friends' birthdays and whatnot, I have fond memories of it. I didn't know it had closed. Suddenly hearing it referred to as an "abandoned ski slope" was very jarring!
I skated there for about 10 years, too. The place was losing money (apparently quite common for ice rinks) and you could see it - it was falling apart. Then along came COVID lockdowns and that sealed the deal, it was financially unviable. Losing £250k a year and needing about £650k in maintenance isn't a great recipe. A great shame, really. The replacement rink up the road is much smaller. Demolished in June/July 2022. Still rubble a few weeks ago, but due to be a new warehouse by Q4 2024....
Think it was massively in debt so had to close. Took a while for it to be demolished but the ice rink is now a pile of rubble and only remnants of the ski slope remain.
I remember going there a handful of times as a kid in the late 80s / early 90s.. I still remember the smell of the place! A mixture of heavily salted (and curiously sugary) chips and slush puppies from the cafe, aging plastic crowd seating all around, rubber mats all over the floors for the skates, locker room funk and breeze block walls. Unforgettable!! 😆
came to the comments to make the very same lament - late 80s pre-alps school ski trips were always prefaced by trips to the Bracknell Alps (far better than Aldershit ski slope). I guess the rise of the indoor snowdomes at Hemel and Milton Keynes have greater allure and someone has no doubt made a lot of money on a property deal for the old site
You missed the listed hexagonal tower block (Point Royal) in Bracknell - 60's concrete at its best! Berkshire used to have a large area of land north west of Reading until the boundary changes 'swapped' it for Slough! Love your dry humour Jon!
Point Royal, or the 'threepenny building', was designed by architects Arup Associates, who I believe also worked on the Sydney Opera House and the Birds Nest Stadium in Beijing
I'm from a pre New Town local family, grew up in Bracknell, and moved to Wokingham when I left home. Thanks for reminding me why I now live in West Wales, close to a town very much like Bracknell was before it was demolished!
Wokingham is the home of the National Grid control centre, quite an important establishment I would have thought. I believe its exact location is kept quiet.
@@amazulu3401 Oh, is THAT what that place is?! Never knew that. Was always suspicious it was some kind of black site or at least somewhere you don't wanna f with.
Yes John - A lot of history at the Abbey and at Fry's Island. Fry's Island is famous as the location of a trial by combat between Robert de Montfort and Henry of Essex, the standard bearer to King Henry II.
As a Wokingham resident I can agree that it’s not very exciting apart from the 11 pubs and umpteen coffee shops. All in all nice place. You didn’t mention the Mars factory in slough but that’s understandable if you needed to wrap up and leave asap.
Re Slough Trading Estate, it was in Edinburgh Avenue that the Thunderbirds TV series was filmed. I used to work 4 doors up the road and never knew! It was also the location of the opening shots of "The Office".
Thanks John. But no mention of Gerry Anderson’s AP Films during your Slough visit. As creators of such masterpieces as Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet I’d have thought that was one thing (probably the only thing) to the town’s credit! 😢
Their early work was done in Maidenhead; the move to Slough Trading Estate came a bit later, although you're not wrong. A lot of the development work was done in a pub in Cookham, where Arthur became the basis for Parker and his "unique" style of speech was born! And I ended up driving Sylvia Anderson in her final years with some marvellous conversations and reminisces for us both about those wonderful productions....
The Office was filmed in one of the office buildings Brilcream was made in Slough Along with Radox bubble bath and bath salts Matty bubble bath also was made there
I love your subtle humour, like standing in the weeds in possibly worst corner of Bracknell (there are many to choose) next to what i call the Mordor car park. Fun fact, 2CVs were built in the Slough trading estate.
Lola racing car company were on the Slough Trading Estate. They designed and built many very successful racing cars there including the Ford GT40. Production of that moved to Ford Advanced Vehicles also on the Estate. (Mars Bars too were made on the Estate!)
Stayed in coppid beach a few months back. So strange as it's got multiple bars and clubs. The room was huge but super dated but had a balcony with spectacular views of the petrol station.
Since watching The Shining as a kid, this place always reminded me of the Overlook Hotel! Never stayed there but worked in the bar and "nightclub" glass collecting when I was 15. They didn't know I was 15 to be fair. 😅
Bracknell now joins up to Wokingham thanks to the development at the old Transport Research Laboratory. Locals assume it will be renamed soon - to Brackingham. Or Wokenell.
Thanks for the history lesson about the hotel in Bracknell. I have a nephew who live near there and wondered why someone would build a fake Alpine Lodge there, but the artificial ski slope answered that question.
That bit at 6:26, the ski slope. In the late 1990's I used to work out of the Hewlett-Packard HQ which used to be in the background next door to this ski slope. It was all built on reclaimed land with loads of Methane dispensers spinning around. It was a 1hr40 min slog from Portsmouth and back each day. 😞 The place was called Amen Corner, I never found out why.
I grew up there and still no idea. There is a T junction near where I live in Leeds called Amen Corner, and that appears to be after a church being there
Hi John, thank you for yet another entertaining video. There was a time, before 1974, when the county of Berkshire was a lot taller. It went up as far as the western side of Oxford, and Abingdon, home of the MG (until 1986?). The end of my address was Abingdon, Berkshire and in the Abingdon Borough Council area. A lot changed, not for the better, when Abingdon became part of Oxfordshire and lost its Borough status. Abingdon has been rebranded as Abingdon-on-Thames, and during flooding becomes Abingdon-in-Thames aided by the River Ock. Best wishes from I think you can guess.
Great video. But you missed of a lot of great info of the towns you visit. Wokingham for example, an old market town, Bracknell was the brickyard that build parliament and also housed Kathryn of Aragon, Reading Goal housed Oscar Wilde and was built on the graveyard of Reading Abbey, a place a king was buried.
The infamous poem is in fact a rant about the trading estate, and the rapid industrialisation of post-war England. Slough was also the location of the first zebra crossing in 1951, which was designed at the Road Research Laboratory in Langley during 1946, and would have been located in the now pedestrianised High Street, close to Boots.
Great video. You missed a trick with the railway bridge in Maidenhead. It is known locally as the Sounding Arches as you get a fantastic echo if you stand underneath it and shout.
I grew up in Farnborough, another jewel of the commuter belt. Having the same name as the trainer company old Johnny N, convinced 1000's of kids that the 'john nike leisure centre' was actually something to do with the NIKE, INC. In the era of Air Jordans we all flocked there expecting some form of U.S.A grandiose experience... The reality was bracknell in the 90s...
Jon, that was excellent for the industrial archaeology and the fun. That library at the beginning was wonderful. I never knew it existed. I didn't know Wokingham existed either, but since it doesn't seem to, that's alright.
Wokingham, during WW2, had a fire station of retained firefighters. My Great-uncle Fred was the driver. They could be called out anywhere in Berkshire or Hampshire, even down to Southampton Docks, in the dark, during blackout. As a result, he could find his way about the county, technically blindfold. However, when returning to home, they were "required" to report to Reading Fire Station to be formally "stood down". For some reason he could never explain, Fred could never find the road into Reading, and always ended up phoning Reading from Wokingham that they were safely home.
It used to be an interesting place as a kid.. but bit by bit, swimming pools were bulldozed for housing, the central green space used for monster truck rallies and fun fairs was turned into a crappy swimming pool, futuristic looking (for the early 80s) buildings fell into disrepair and were bulldozed for housing, lots of industry and manufacturing buildings were left to ruin and demolished for housing, fun and unique sporting and leisure venues were bulldozed for housing, carparks and blander leisure venues... I miss Hacienda That (the Mexican themed restaurant in the Phoenix Plaza (before First Bowl).
The ski-slope material (6m:40s) is called "Dendix", colloquially known as toothbrush. Brilliant for dislocating or fracturing thumbs (from personal experience).
When I’ve finished with Slough, there’s Reading, Aldershot, Bracknell. Didcot, Yateley. You know. Winnersh. Taplow. Because I am my own boss. Burghfield.
If you had turned off the A329 between Wokingham and Reading you could have visited Woodley and what remains of the old aerodrome there. It's all houses now but was where Douglas Bader had a slight disagreement with the ground in his aeroplane.
I was born in Slough. My dad had a building company in Ledgers Road, and he built many houses in Wokingham. My grandfather started a bus route number 81 from Slouh to Uxbridge
Princess Square was the 1990s regeneration, leaving the town centre a wasteland which needed the Lexicon to revive it in 2017. In between was the Peel Centre which also did its bit to pull trade away from the centre.
A little more than 40 years ago I flew from the US to the UK to set up a new manufacturing line at our sister company in Slough. There I was introduced to British hospitality (airport gaol), cuisine (sugared beer, full English), and, of course, Slough. Good times indeed.
I lived in a place called Newell Green which is technically a hamlet outside Bracknell........ now it is almost swallowed up in the increasing conurbation that is Bracknell. This place spreads quicker than the flu.
Anyone remember the buzz and excitement around Wokingham when a make your own pizza stand was opened in the (then) new waitrose?! I could barely close the lid on my pizzas!!
I once had a go on that ski slope when someone held a kids party there and my daughters went along. It was horrible, burns and broken thumbs if you fall over. Also Wokingham is or was home to Microsoft UK, so that explains the massive growth in nerds in the area.
Ah Reading, the first of three Universities that I have attended at one time or another as I collected my various degrees. You were talking about Reading Gaol, which of course notoriously housed Oscar Wilde at one point, inspiring him to write "The Ballard of Reading Gaol". Meanwhile behind you the flint built church is Greyfriars the last remnant of an ancient Franciscan Friary. There is actually quite a lot to see and do in Reading, but then I am probably biased. Sadly Studying Physics, which was my reason for being there in the late 70's is no longer one of the activities that is possible as the JJ Thompson lab closed in the late 2000's. Anyway great video nostalgia - thank you.
I'm quite disappointed that you visited the Slough Trading Estate and didn't mention The Office. I have, on several occasions, driven one of these little yellow and blue buses in and out of Slough Bus Station and EVERY TIME that tune popped into my head. I'm so glad it was a good one. One of the best parts of my job was leaving Slough behind for another day, and Reading for that matter.
Some of the film Bugsy Malone was filmed at the old Huntley and Palmers biscuit factory and the Sean Connery film The Offence was filmed around Bracknell.
All my old haunts! I used to work in Bracknell. I remember them building the ski-slopes. Even went to a company Christmas party at the hotel. Surprised you never mentioned the Twin-Bridges roundabout - it had a history of being a pain to get across as it was always busy! Even having said that, I remember those days with fondness. When you got to Reading, I used to work just around the corner from the biscuit factory. Walked along the river many, many times with friends as we went into town for lunch.
I used to play ice hockey at Bracknell… a bit shocked to learn that the building is no more. And, I learned to ski on that very dry slope! Sad to see it in ruins.
The story I heard was that the reason reading Borstal (as it was then known) closed so abruptly was because it was overlooked by a new high rise office block and people there were complaining about the way the inmates were being treated. Dunno if that's true.
So wait Slough was in Buckinghamshire before? and we Berkshire had the some nice green parts of what is now Oxfordshire? We got scammed, we need to retake Vale of white horse and return slough to it’s rightful owners: Buckinghamshire. Slough would definitely fit in with other Buckinghamshire towns such as High Wycombe, Aylesbury and even Milton Keynes.
Yes Berkshire used to have much more pleasant places like Abingdon, Wantage & Farringdon. And berkshires county town used to be Abingdon till they re drew the boundaries and we lost them & gained slough
My Mother in Law came from Slough and my late father in law came from Reading, but moved to Scotland back in 1972. I remember visiting Slough and walking there at night to a shop for my wife to get a bottle of juice. I actually felt uncomfortable as people outside looked dodgy. Imagine my delight a week later back home watching Roadwars when said shop I had been in a week earlier got robbed 😂😂 Reading I thought was ok and Bracknell I stayed in the premier inn there and thats all I done! A excellent video as always Jon.
We used to “sluff” or 💩hole instead of slough. When Richmond ice rink closed we all went to Bracknell and took the place over. When we left we found most of our cars had been vandalised or broken into.
Reference that bridge, Brunel did it on a sketchbook next to the river Thames when he needed to work out some extra dimensions. The bridge started to crack which everybody started to jump up and down and point up Brunel saying “I told you so” unfortunately a local cement supplier actually said that there was a fault with the cement, the cement was replaced and the bridge still stands Another fun fact about Brunel: did you know that if we had used Brunel’s dimensions with regards to the width of the railways? We’ve naturally had high-speed rail on every Rail network that we lay down??
I live in Wokingham (Woosehill) and I can tell you we go everywhere except Wokingham because all there is is coffee shops and charity shops. If you want to do something decent, head to Bracknell or Reading. And yes that does show how poor Woky is when we call Bracknell ‘decent’
I used to work on Slough trading estate. If the wind was blowing in the right direction you got the strong smell of caramel from the mars factory. If it was blowing from another direction........sewage works!
Wokingham was a popular trade stop between Bristol, Bath to London and had one of the highest number of pubs in a square mile. The town had over 30 in 1900 and still great for a round of pub golf today. This was a fun one 👌
Wokingham is a near London commuter town - famous for manufacture of Bells, which would be in the guide book - should have been to Bell foundry lane - they made some famous Bells.
As a boy born in Kent and grew up in SE, London I loved your opening remarks about Slough, I have over the years, been forced to visit the area, either for an hour or two, or too the extent of BnB to attend courses, @ Ford(Langley) love what you do John, Please don't tire of that which you do, Got any plans reff, Worksop
The regeneration that "finished" a couple of years ago, started planning in the 1990s. The actual plan wasn't agreed until 2003, and work started a few years later.
"It was deliberately laid out to keep prisoners isolated from one another, and the area out front would have been used for public executions, the last of which occured in 1913."
Reading AND Slough?
Give this man a bravery award.
And Bracknell 😮
@@gryff8400 "When a man is tired of Bracknell he has been there 20 mins"
-a BBC Radio 4 comedy, possibly Concrete Cow
And Banksy! Now we'll expect Banksy to make a portrait related to this video.
My office is in Reading and my customer office where I spend a fair amount of time is in Slough. Do people actually stop in Bracknell rather than just pass through it? Last time I stopped there must have been in the 1990s, red traffic lights aside.
I'm just surprised he survived Slough.
Reading University's best contribution to society is equation E = M4². E being the total energy it takes to get out of Reading.
😂😂😂
I moved out of Reading 30 years ago but there are a hell of a lot worse places to live.
@@redmille1000 As someone from Aldershot, I can confirm
Reading University also has the equation L=iN/c0LN/biS/cUiTS, found by the scientists Huntley and Palmer as the highest degree of boredom that any foodstuff can produce.
@@terrynixon2758Christ, I studied in Reading and have lived in Bracknell and Aldershot. Also Leeds. Can confirm
Slough (where I used to live), Bracknell (where I work) and Reading (where I live now) all in one video! Cheers John! Have a coffee on me 🫡
You didn't happen to be Hitler in a previous life and are now suffering the payback this time around?
Better luck in your next life...
Calling at Wokingham, Winnersh, Earley and Reading... 🤭
@@paulsengupta971Reading isn't bad actually. It was a lot worse 25 years ago. Improving, unlike Slough.
@@beboshi69 Yes, at least it isn't the gun crime capital of the UK any more. I don't think. It's where my office is.
Thanks John - as entertaining as ever. A couple of fun facts - Gerry Anderson, of Thunderbirds fame, set up facilities in a warehouse on Slough trading estate for producing Supermarionation films and one of Reading Gaol's most famous 'residents' was Oscar Wilde.
Kind of surprising that Century 21 didn't even get a passing mention - for a while, in the mid-60's, they were the largest purchaser outside Hollywood of 35mm colour movie film.
Or infamous residents.
The Ballad of Reading Gaol
Poem by Oscar Wilde
Huntley and Palmers in Reading is where the custard cream was invented
Huh - rumour has it they were totally wiped out at the Battle of Lidl Cream Horn . . .
Matey lives there too
@@peterthebricky The bubble bath?
Most important place in the world, then! (and I'm NOT being sarcastic)!
United Biscuits have a lot to answer for.
This must be the only video that features Reading Gaol and doesn't mention Oscar Wilde. Well done.
He's much too young...
That's a good point, and earnestly made too
The only thing worse than talking about Oscar Wilde is not talking about Oscar Wilde.
Or Rock Hudson
@@frankupton5821 'his majesty is like dose of clap'. One of whistler's I believe.
Like some of the comments below, I too grew up in Bracknell and Wokingham and it was a great place to live and work. Back in the early Eighties there were well paid jobs to be had around the Western Industrial Estate with the likes of Ferranti, Sperry, Racal and other military electronic's companies. Then the Berlin Wall came down and we all became 'Big Mates' with the Russians and such companies where deemed not necessary any more... Look how that's turned out. Today Bracknell and Wokingham have just become dormitory towns with no such proper industry and with relative easy access to the M4/M3 corridors, most people just work elsewhere. Great series Jon, keep up the good work.
" not so much a luxury resort , but as a last resort" 👍😁🤣🤣🤣
I have a friend who used to be a long distance coach driver. On a trip from Swansea to London he was diverted off the M4 into Slough. While sitting in the ineveitable Bath Road traffic jam, he treated his captive audience to a recitation of Betjeman's famous poem.
That's the one referring to the hopeful demise of Slough by some 3rd party actor during disagreement 2?
Sir John Betjeman’s poem, written in 1937 and simply entitled Slough, criticized the construction of more than 800 factories in the Thames Valley… “Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough! It isn’t fit for humans now.”
@@mb-3fazetime travel must be a thing then. As someone else said, it wasn't about the town, but the trading estate which he visited in the late 1920s, then it was literally a farm converted into an absolute post apocalyptic looking mess with little purpose.
@@ForeverNeverwhere1 Yeah - the time-line with the small disagreement, blitz, poem etc don't really match. I wonder what bombs Sir John was referring to?
I'm sorry you had to get within 50miles of Slough for us, but thank you
I reckon there's about 20million people living within 50miles of Slough...
@@abarratt8869we should pray for those 20 million people.
Yes, we really appreciate the sacrifices you make for us, Jon!
😂😂😂😂
@@abarratt8869yeah most of the immigrants and drug addicts. I'm one of very few white English non addict individuals with the misfortune of residing in Slough 😢
Two definitions of the word "slough"...
-a hole full of mud or wet soil, such as one in a road.
-a condition of degradation, despair, or helplessness.
I don't need to add anything else.
perhaps better than being called grimsby.
Except in those meanings, the word is pronounced 'slew'.
@@eddiewillers1 "Ackchewally..."
@@eddiewillers1 Hmm? In what language?
Years ago, one of the "Welcome to Slough" signs was graffiti embellished with "Twinned with Chernobyl"... Says it all.
4:03 An interesting fact about the construction of the Maidenhead Railway Bridge is that to appease the local community Brunel agreed to place some supporting structures underneath the arches, slowly removing them until the bridge was shown to be stable. However being Brunel he put the supporting structures together deliberately to the wrong measurements, there was always a gap of a few millimetres between the structures and the arches, meaning they were always stable anyway, and Brunel got one back against the town.
The Guildhall in Windsor is the same. It was designed by Christopher Wren, but when they saw the plans the councillors didn't believe the design would support the first floor, and so they insisted he had to put in some pillars to hold it up. He put them in, but they actually stop an inch short of the first floor.
And were you aware that the bridge is locally known as the Sounding Arch? Because it's over water, the echoes are absolutely magnificent. It entertained me as a schoolboy umpteen years ago, entertained my children, and gave me a good story for my taxi customers for 30yrs.
"But are these roundabouts any good?" "No, not really" Jon sums it up so succinctly!
I grew up in Wokingham in the 1980s and 1990s. I now live in Crowthorne and work in Bracknell. Reading was a frequent destination in my teens, as was Bracknell. The John Nike Centre was where I learned to ski and where we had many birthday parties skating on the rink.
I'm not sure either about what 55K people do in Wokingham all day, but it does have some quite nice pubs.
Having grown up in Reading, the Bracknell ski centre was my closest ice rink growing up, so I went there occasionally for friends' birthdays and whatnot, I have fond memories of it.
I didn't know it had closed. Suddenly hearing it referred to as an "abandoned ski slope" was very jarring!
Yes, i think when John Nike pulled out the whole thing went downhill (no pun intended).
Same here! I didn’t realise it closed! Such a shame…
I skated there for about 10 years, too. The place was losing money (apparently quite common for ice rinks) and you could see it - it was falling apart. Then along came COVID lockdowns and that sealed the deal, it was financially unviable. Losing £250k a year and needing about £650k in maintenance isn't a great recipe. A great shame, really. The replacement rink up the road is much smaller. Demolished in June/July 2022. Still rubble a few weeks ago, but due to be a new warehouse by Q4 2024....
Think it was massively in debt so had to close. Took a while for it to be demolished but the ice rink is now a pile of rubble and only remnants of the ski slope remain.
I remember going there a handful of times as a kid in the late 80s / early 90s.. I still remember the smell of the place! A mixture of heavily salted (and curiously sugary) chips and slush puppies from the cafe, aging plastic crowd seating all around, rubber mats all over the floors for the skates, locker room funk and breeze block walls. Unforgettable!! 😆
Reading is indeed famed for it's seed. My great grandfather's notebooks on seed growing and marketing are kept at Reading university.
Sutton’s?
@@chriswalford4161 Related to King’s
John you are right about Wokingham, we live there and the most notable thing is the length of the Post Office queue.
I did not know the Bracknell ski centre had closed. I learned to ski there. It 'starred' in the 2015 film 'Eddie the Eagle'.
I learned to ski there too. Wikipedia says it opened in 1985, but I'm sure I was falling over there somewhere around 82/83.
skiied there many times. Like you, never knew it had closed - what has happened to all those skiiers?
came to the comments to make the very same lament - late 80s pre-alps school ski trips were always prefaced by trips to the Bracknell Alps (far better than Aldershit ski slope). I guess the rise of the indoor snowdomes at Hemel and Milton Keynes have greater allure and someone has no doubt made a lot of money on a property deal for the old site
An Ali G impersonator did a video saying to 'save the John Nike centre', it was bloody hilarious
@@Stealth360stealth Ali G (Sasha Baron Cohen) started his career on Bracknell Cable.
You missed out Winnersh between Wokingham and Reading.
We have houses and... erm... a train station...
And a triangle. Don't forget the triangle.
What about Lower Earley - or Legoland as it was affectionately known....?
Two of them in fact: Winnersh, and Winnersh Triangle
Woodley and Earley
@@steve.b.23 ..and a Microsoft
Auto shenanigans at its finest. You did forget the Mars Bar factory and the fact that Citroens were built in Slough.
You missed the listed hexagonal tower block (Point Royal) in Bracknell - 60's concrete at its best!
Berkshire used to have a large area of land north west of Reading until the boundary changes 'swapped' it for Slough!
Love your dry humour Jon!
Point Royal, or the 'threepenny building', was designed by architects Arup Associates, who I believe also worked on the Sydney Opera House and the Birds Nest Stadium in Beijing
I'm from a pre New Town local family, grew up in Bracknell, and moved to Wokingham when I left home. Thanks for reminding me why I now live in West Wales, close to a town very much like Bracknell was before it was demolished!
…..in an eco hamlet?
to be honest Bracknell is much nicer these days, they've spent millions on the town centre and its far nicer than Reading to get in and out of
@@Stealth360stealth Does anyone actually stop in Bracknell rather than just pass through?
I've watched every one of this series and even as a Northerner only 2 mins into the episode, this is easily the best one!😂
Wokingham is the home of the National Grid control centre, quite an important establishment I would have thought. I believe its exact location is kept quiet.
Not really that secret. Its down Bearwood Road and is called St Catherines Lodge.
@@amazulu3401 Oh, is THAT what that place is?! Never knew that. Was always suspicious it was some kind of black site or at least somewhere you don't wanna f with.
it's literally called that on a map, so certainly not top secret. Is a nice area though
Reading Abbey is right by the gaol and worth a visit to note the old est recordest notated music or something like that.
I guess it wasn't mentioned in the guide book. As you say, well worth a visit even if there isn't really much of it left.
Yes John - A lot of history at the Abbey and at Fry's Island. Fry's Island is famous as the location of a trial by combat between Robert de Montfort and Henry of Essex, the standard bearer to King Henry II.
As a Wokingham resident I can agree that it’s not very exciting apart from the 11 pubs and umpteen coffee shops. All in all nice place. You didn’t mention the Mars factory in slough but that’s understandable if you needed to wrap up and leave asap.
OMG! I’ve just noticed that the junction number on your intro equals the episode number! Neat 😁
Summed up Slough very nicely. The only good thing there is the Mars factory because it emits an amazingly sweet smell.
You tire of it after a decade or two…
Nope as the saying goes the best part of Slough is the M4 taking you straight past it 😂
6:59 This made me think of The Overlook Hotel but they actually look nothing alike..
Re Slough Trading Estate, it was in Edinburgh Avenue that the Thunderbirds TV series was filmed. I used to work 4 doors up the road and never knew! It was also the location of the opening shots of "The Office".
Thanks John. But no mention of Gerry Anderson’s AP Films during your Slough visit. As creators of such masterpieces as Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet I’d have thought that was one thing (probably the only thing) to the town’s credit! 😢
Their early work was done in Maidenhead; the move to Slough Trading Estate came a bit later, although you're not wrong. A lot of the development work was done in a pub in Cookham, where Arthur became the basis for Parker and his "unique" style of speech was born!
And I ended up driving Sylvia Anderson in her final years with some marvellous conversations and reminisces for us both about those wonderful productions....
The Office was filmed in one of the office buildings
Brilcream was made in Slough
Along with Radox bubble bath and bath salts
Matty bubble bath also was made there
I love your subtle humour, like standing in the weeds in possibly worst corner of Bracknell (there are many to choose) next to what i call the Mordor car park.
Fun fact, 2CVs were built in the Slough trading estate.
Just gets better and better....really slick and fast-paced this week...a weekly treat; cheers John, wicked sweet awesome.
Lola racing car company were on the Slough Trading Estate. They designed and built many very successful racing cars there including the Ford GT40. Production of that moved to Ford Advanced Vehicles also on the Estate. (Mars Bars too were made on the Estate!)
Stayed in coppid beach a few months back. So strange as it's got multiple bars and clubs. The room was huge but super dated but had a balcony with spectacular views of the petrol station.
Since watching The Shining as a kid, this place always reminded me of the Overlook Hotel! Never stayed there but worked in the bar and "nightclub" glass collecting when I was 15. They didn't know I was 15 to be fair. 😅
Went to university at Reading 25 years ago. A grim place.
Bracknell now joins up to Wokingham thanks to the development at the old Transport Research Laboratory. Locals assume it will be renamed soon - to Brackingham. Or Wokenell.
To the east it's becoming Brascot with for example "Mercedes-Benz of Ascot" (in Bracknell).
That development joins it with Crowthorne, it was already joined with Wokingham by the developments near the hotel in the video.
It’ll all soon be the Central Berkshire Metroplex
The South Wales valleys have always been like that. The towns/villages all merge into each other, with only a sign to separate one from the next.
Thanks for the history lesson about the hotel in Bracknell. I have a nephew who live near there and wondered why someone would build a fake Alpine Lodge there, but the artificial ski slope answered that question.
It's featured in several films and TV series including the film Loch Ness where they pretended it was in Scotland!
That's the Overlooked Hotel.
That bit at 6:26, the ski slope. In the late 1990's I used to work out of the Hewlett-Packard HQ which used to be in the background next door to this ski slope.
It was all built on reclaimed land with loads of Methane dispensers spinning around. It was a 1hr40 min slog from Portsmouth and back each day. 😞
The place was called Amen Corner, I never found out why.
I grew up there and still no idea. There is a T junction near where I live in Leeds called Amen Corner, and that appears to be after a church being there
That HP site is now an AWS datacenter!
Hi John, thank you for yet another entertaining video. There was a time, before 1974, when the county of Berkshire was a lot taller. It went up as far as the western side of Oxford, and Abingdon, home of the MG (until 1986?). The end of my address was Abingdon, Berkshire and in the Abingdon Borough Council area.
A lot changed, not for the better, when Abingdon became part of Oxfordshire and lost its Borough status. Abingdon has been rebranded as Abingdon-on-Thames, and during flooding becomes Abingdon-in-Thames aided by the River Ock. Best wishes from I think you can guess.
And part of Wokingham used to be an exclave of Oxfordshire.
Great video. But you missed of a lot of great info of the towns you visit. Wokingham for example, an old market town, Bracknell was the brickyard that build parliament and also housed Kathryn of Aragon, Reading Goal housed Oscar Wilde and was built on the graveyard of Reading Abbey, a place a king was buried.
The infamous poem is in fact a rant about the trading estate, and the rapid industrialisation of post-war England. Slough was also the location of the first zebra crossing in 1951, which was designed at the Road Research Laboratory in Langley during 1946, and would have been located in the now pedestrianised High Street, close to Boots.
Great video. You missed a trick with the railway bridge in Maidenhead. It is known locally as the Sounding Arches as you get a fantastic echo if you stand underneath it and shout.
I grew up in Farnborough, another jewel of the commuter belt. Having the same name as the trainer company old Johnny N, convinced 1000's of kids that the 'john nike leisure centre' was actually something to do with the NIKE, INC. In the era of Air Jordans we all flocked there expecting some form of U.S.A grandiose experience... The reality was bracknell in the 90s...
Jon, that was excellent for the industrial archaeology and the fun. That library at the beginning was wonderful. I never knew it existed. I didn't know Wokingham existed either, but since it doesn't seem to, that's alright.
Wokingham, during WW2, had a fire station of retained firefighters. My Great-uncle Fred was the driver. They could be called out anywhere in Berkshire or Hampshire, even down to Southampton Docks, in the dark, during blackout. As a result, he could find his way about the county, technically blindfold.
However, when returning to home, they were "required" to report to Reading Fire Station to be formally "stood down". For some reason he could never explain, Fred could never find the road into Reading, and always ended up phoning Reading from Wokingham that they were safely home.
Slough Trading Estate is where Mars Bars are made and where Gerry Anderson produced 'Thunderbirds' etc.....
And Citroen had a factory there
And the first Williams F1 factory I think....🤔
And the home of Lola racing cars, especially the underpinnings of the first GT40
Spot on about Wokingham.
It used to be an interesting place as a kid.. but bit by bit, swimming pools were bulldozed for housing, the central green space used for monster truck rallies and fun fairs was turned into a crappy swimming pool, futuristic looking (for the early 80s) buildings fell into disrepair and were bulldozed for housing, lots of industry and manufacturing buildings were left to ruin and demolished for housing, fun and unique sporting and leisure venues were bulldozed for housing, carparks and blander leisure venues...
I miss Hacienda That (the Mexican themed restaurant in the Phoenix Plaza (before First Bowl).
At least 2x lols before 1:00. Another quality production.
Wokingham has a nice Gail’s. So there’s that
The ski-slope material (6m:40s) is called "Dendix", colloquially known as toothbrush. Brilliant for dislocating or fracturing thumbs (from personal experience).
These artificial ski slopes don't have much staying power do they. The old one in Sheffield has a knack of catching fire on a regular basis.
@@antonycharnock2993 My old stomping ground,Hillend (Edinburgh), still going !
Every birthday party I went to there always had some poor kid dislocating something 🤷♂️
@@antonycharnock2993I’m glad someone else said that, so I didn’t have to.
Wokingham is the home town of an old gf of mine, so I have happy memories of her and the town. So there's that
When I’ve finished with Slough, there’s Reading, Aldershot, Bracknell. Didcot, Yateley. You know. Winnersh. Taplow. Because I am my own boss. Burghfield.
Callback to the very friendly horse! Excellent! Now I have to watch that video too... Thanks Jon, have a great week. 👍
If you had turned off the A329 between Wokingham and Reading you could have visited Woodley and what remains of the old aerodrome there. It's all houses now but was where Douglas Bader had a slight disagreement with the ground in his aeroplane.
Musme of Berkshire Aviation is still there though
I was born in Slough. My dad had a building company in Ledgers Road, and he built many houses in Wokingham. My grandfather started a bus route number 81 from Slouh to Uxbridge
The no. 81 still runs, but from Slough to Hounslow. I'm not sure why...
6:15 the town centre was regenerated in the Mid 2010s not 1990s, it opened in 2017.
Princess Square was the 1990s regeneration, leaving the town centre a wasteland which needed the Lexicon to revive it in 2017. In between was the Peel Centre which also did its bit to pull trade away from the centre.
I believe the regeneration was announced in the 1990s, but somehow it took over 20 years for them to actually regenerate the town centre
One of the Slough estates steam locomotives runs at Middleton railway leeds
You could have called in at Woodley, formerly home to Miles aircraft factory - the last remaining trace of which has sadly recently been demolished 😢
With a cracking free aviation museum
I can't wait the episodes when you visit Devon and Cornwall.
I lived in Bracknell for almost 20 years, left in 2002. Only been back a couple of times since. Never, ever missed the place.
You have a good aim then?
The poem about slough in The Office, which was set there, is hilarious.
That's brilliant! I know a funny story, too.
A little more than 40 years ago I flew from the US to the UK to set up a new manufacturing line at our sister company in Slough.
There I was introduced to British hospitality (airport gaol), cuisine (sugared beer, full English), and, of course, Slough.
Good times indeed.
I lived in a place called Newell Green which is technically a hamlet outside Bracknell........ now it is almost swallowed up in the increasing conurbation that is Bracknell. This place spreads quicker than the flu.
Love "Field" being marked on the map from Maidenhead Bridge to Bracknell and the friendly horse reference!
Anyone remember the buzz and excitement around Wokingham when a make your own pizza stand was opened in the (then) new waitrose?! I could barely close the lid on my pizzas!!
Gutted you didn’t demonstrate the brilliant echo that is produced when standing under Brunel’s bridge!
Great video as always!
That's an odd place to print newspapers.
I once had a go on that ski slope when someone held a kids party there and my daughters went along. It was horrible, burns and broken thumbs if you fall over. Also Wokingham is or was home to Microsoft UK, so that explains the massive growth in nerds in the area.
Ah Reading, the first of three Universities that I have attended at one time or another as I collected my various degrees. You were talking about Reading Gaol, which of course notoriously housed Oscar Wilde at one point, inspiring him to write "The Ballard of Reading Gaol". Meanwhile behind you the flint built church is Greyfriars the last remnant of an ancient Franciscan Friary. There is actually quite a lot to see and do in Reading, but then I am probably biased. Sadly Studying Physics, which was my reason for being there in the late 70's is no longer one of the activities that is possible as the JJ Thompson lab closed in the late 2000's. Anyway great video nostalgia - thank you.
Worked at the Ski Slope for a number of years in its peak .. what a blast from the past
Biscuits caused Reading to expand? They have the same effect on me...
I'm quite disappointed that you visited the Slough Trading Estate and didn't mention The Office.
I have, on several occasions, driven one of these little yellow and blue buses in and out of Slough Bus Station and EVERY TIME that tune popped into my head. I'm so glad it was a good one.
One of the best parts of my job was leaving Slough behind for another day, and Reading for that matter.
Some of the film Bugsy Malone was filmed at the old Huntley and Palmers biscuit factory and the Sean Connery film The Offence was filmed around Bracknell.
Hey !, you're in the Langley Massive !.................welcome, leave as you find ☺
All my old haunts! I used to work in Bracknell. I remember them building the ski-slopes. Even went to a company Christmas party at the hotel. Surprised you never mentioned the Twin-Bridges roundabout - it had a history of being a pain to get across as it was always busy! Even having said that, I remember those days with fondness.
When you got to Reading, I used to work just around the corner from the biscuit factory. Walked along the river many, many times with friends as we went into town for lunch.
I used to play ice hockey at Bracknell… a bit shocked to learn that the building is no more.
And, I learned to ski on that very dry slope!
Sad to see it in ruins.
Shame to see the ski center gone, I learnt to snowboard there back in 2006!
The story I heard was that the reason reading Borstal (as it was then known) closed so abruptly was because it was overlooked by a new high rise office block and people there were complaining about the way the inmates were being treated. Dunno if that's true.
So wait Slough was in Buckinghamshire before? and we Berkshire had the some nice green parts of what is now Oxfordshire? We got scammed, we need to retake Vale of white horse and return slough to it’s rightful owners: Buckinghamshire. Slough would definitely fit in with other Buckinghamshire towns such as High Wycombe, Aylesbury and even Milton Keynes.
Yes Berkshire used to have much more pleasant places like Abingdon, Wantage & Farringdon. And berkshires county town used to be Abingdon till they re drew the boundaries and we lost them & gained slough
Sad to see the ski slope. Used to teach there back in the late 80s. Happy days.
You could possibly be standing near Henry I's grave at the end in the prison car park, or on it.
shorts and winter cap ... perfect 🧐🤭😉😁😂🤣
My Mother in Law came from Slough and my late father in law came from Reading, but moved to Scotland back in 1972. I remember visiting Slough and walking there at night to a shop for my wife to get a bottle of juice. I actually felt uncomfortable as people outside looked dodgy. Imagine my delight a week later back home watching Roadwars when said shop I had been in a week earlier got robbed 😂😂 Reading I thought was ok and Bracknell I stayed in the premier inn there and thats all I done! A excellent video as always Jon.
Well now they all just st*b eachother up and rob you in broad daylight
We used to “sluff” or 💩hole instead of slough.
When Richmond ice rink closed we all went to Bracknell and took the place over. When we left we found most of our cars had been vandalised or broken into.
Reference that bridge, Brunel did it on a sketchbook next to the river Thames when he needed to work out some extra dimensions. The bridge started to crack which everybody started to jump up and down and point up Brunel saying “I told you so” unfortunately a local cement supplier actually said that there was a fault with the cement, the cement was replaced and the bridge still stands
Another fun fact about Brunel: did you know that if we had used Brunel’s dimensions with regards to the width of the railways? We’ve naturally had high-speed rail on every Rail network that we lay down??
I grew up Reading and lived in lots of places since. Love going back
I live in Wokingham (Woosehill) and I can tell you we go everywhere except Wokingham because all there is is coffee shops and charity shops. If you want to do something decent, head to Bracknell or Reading. And yes that does show how poor Woky is when we call Bracknell ‘decent’
The population of wokingham spend their days commuting to work outside of the borough, it’s 99% houses 1% business.
A number of BA pilots live there. A lot better than living in Hounslow or Slough.
A reservation on the outskirts of Reading.
I used to work on Slough trading estate. If the wind was blowing in the right direction you got the strong smell of caramel from the mars factory. If it was blowing from another direction........sewage works!
Especially noticeable riding a motorbike down the M4 .
Wokingham was a popular trade stop between Bristol, Bath to London and had one of the highest number of pubs in a square mile. The town had over 30 in 1900 and still great for a round of pub golf today. This was a fun one 👌
Wokingham is a near London commuter town - famous for manufacture of Bells, which would be in the guide book - should have been to Bell foundry lane - they made some famous Bells.
The Copwood Hotel was known as the Copoff Hotel as many people on training courses would stay and wet their whistles whilst staying away from home…..
Perfect description of Wokingham and Bracknell!
As a boy born in Kent and grew up in SE, London I loved your opening remarks about Slough, I have over the years, been forced to visit the area, either for an hour or two, or too the extent of BnB to attend courses, @ Ford(Langley) love what you do John, Please don't tire of that which you do, Got any plans reff, Worksop
Hotel and ski centre were on episode 2 of pie in the sky. Nebditch International Hotel and Conference centree
The regeneration of Bracknell Town Centre happened only a few years ago, not in the 90’s. How many other porkies in these clips?
The regeneration that "finished" a couple of years ago, started planning in the 1990s. The actual plan wasn't agreed until 2003, and work started a few years later.
Mostly finished in 2017 although we're still waiting for some parts...
@@marcwaller3657 My only gripe is that Wimpy fell through. Would have been my first port of call on my regular visits to Bracknell.
The last public execution at Reading gaol was in 1868 (?). 1913 was Reading gaol's last execution, but it wasn't public.
Good stuff, as ever.
Thanks.
You misheard there. John says last execution in 1913
"It was deliberately laid out to keep prisoners isolated from one another, and the area out front would have been used for public executions, the last of which occured in 1913."
“The First Small Disagreement”!! Brilliant!!
Excellent!
The corridors inside The Coppid Beach Hotel are like something out The Shining!
Not only that but the headboards on the beds are made from carpet!
I used to deliver laundry to the area and the Coppet Beach Hotel, was one of my drops