Berkshire

Jane Austen (1775-1817) 1785-87 Cassandra and Jane went to the Abbey School which consisted of two rooms, over the Gateway of the ruined Bendictine Abbey in Forbury Road.

E.F.Benson (1867-1940) July 24th 1867 b. Wellington College, Crowthorne, Berkshire.

John Betjeman (1906-1984) JB and his wife, Penelope nee Chetwode, in 1934, lived at Garrard's Farm, standing opposite the Fox and Hounds, Uffington, now with a blue plaque. There is a small inscription in the church giving credit to JB, a former church warden, for saving the oil lamps. (The village, where Thomas Hughes was born, is also home to the Tom Brown's School Museum which has a section on the Betjemans and their family, some of whom still live locally). In 1945, John Wheeler, the landlord of Garrards Farm, decided he wanted the farm for his son and the Betjemans moved to the Old Rectory at Farnborough (Berkshire), a large house set on the downs near Wantage. It is situated on a bend in the road opposite the parish church and completely hidden from view by a screen of tall bushes. The church contains the beautiful memorial window to Sir John Betjeman by his friend John Piper. In 1951, the Betjemans moved from Farnborough to The Mead in Wantage.

Garrards Farm

Warwick Deeping (1877-1950) In 1902 Warwick Deeping became assistant to Doctor Walter John Roalfe Cox, of Mortimer, a few miles south of Reading. The practice was at a house, The Laurels, in Victoria Road, which is now occupied by Genapp Grange, a residential home. The practice has been rebuilt at the rear of the site.

Anthony Powell (1905-2000) Educated: Eton College and Balliol College, Oxford.

Shelley (1792-1822) Educated Eton.

Edward Thomas (1888-1917) Memorial window in the church at Eastbury.

J.R.Tolkien (1892-1973) 1912 Walking holiday around Lambourn.

H.G. Wells (1866-1946) Thornwood Lodge, Knowl Hill, near Maidenhead is the house that H.G.Wells bought for his first wife, Isabel, whom he divorced, in 1898.

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Resided in Reading Gaol, 1895-97, following imprisonment for homosexual acts.

 Any additions please email : Rosemary Culley, Hon. Sec of the Alliance of Literary Societies Thanks!
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