The Hampshire Family Historian | Vol.48 No.1 | June 2021

Member’s article

The Reading family and their postcards When helping with the research for an article on the history of ‘Normandy Street School, Alton’ (for ‘Alton Papers no.20’), found in the school attic was a document which showed that Laura READING was An agreement dated early 1888 between the Managers of the Girls’ British School and Laura and her father provides for her to be engaged as a pupil-teacher under a certified teacher. Interestingly, no mention of Laura has been found so far in the log books of the

apprenticed as a pupil-teacher at the school. This led to some research into Laura’s background. Laura Reading’s grandfather, George, was born in Mattingley in Hampshire but was living in Alton by 1842. He was a wheelwright and he and his wife Sarah moved to Holybourne for a while before returning to Alton. The 1851 census shows that the children of the family were Eliza (10), George (7), James (4) and Mary Ann (5 months) and that they were living near Spicer’s Paper Mill. George READING junior became a gardener and went to work for Frederick CROWLEY on his new estate at Ashdell in Alton. Stretching from near Kings Pond to Windmill Hill, the grounds were landscaped and a new house built in the early 1870s. George and his wife, Jane Susannah, settled in one of the Ashdell Cottages, which were in the grounds and accessed from Windmill Hill. The area included a kitchen garden, stabling, and model farm. The other cottage was occupied by the coachman. George and Jane had daughters Jane Ann, Laura Elizabeth and Alice Helena and then a son George Frederick. Sadly, daughter, Jane died in 1889 aged only 17 and was buried in Alton Cemetery. By the 1891 census, George was still a gardener at Ashdell, while Laura was a schoolmistress and Alice was a dressmaker. George aged 14 was still at school.

school where the Headteacher was E M Worth and the other staff named were Agnes Wilson, H? Merrett, Kate Carpenter and Ethel Hockley. In 1910, Frederick CROWLEY died aged 84 and the Ashdell estate was then sold to Mr Guy FERRAND . George READING senior moved to 3 [Old] Acre Road in 1913; and two years later, in 1915, his son George Frederick aged 38, a carpenter, died in January. His wife Jane Susanna aged 77 in March. George stayed on in Old Acre Road, dying himself in July 1931 aged 87. The family are buried in After the publication of the Normandy Street School article in 2016, I forgot about Laura and her family until some old postcards of the Alton area were acquired:- When researching Normandy Street School, we had not found out where Laura Reading went to teach but, on looking at the messages on the back of the cards, something sounded familiar. The surname and the address of a couple of senders – ‘3 Acre Road, Alton’. Here are the cards in date order: ––––––––––––––––––––––– ‘21 Sep. 1904. Miss Reading, ‘Grassmere’, Mildmay Road, Chelmsford Dear Siss Many thanks for postcard. I hope you have not already got one like this. Hope you are settling adjacent plots in Alton Cemetery. Laura never married and died in the Portsmouth district in 1970.

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