This is one, among many, of my favourite images of Wokingham. It is of Rose Street at the end of the 19th Century and although the photograph is undated I’m going to be specific and say it is in 1897.

My conjecture is based on the idea that taking photographs was not an everyday occurrence at this time and so a special event might have been the trigger for carting the large camera apparatus to this part of town on what appears to be a warm summer’s day. The children to me appear to be dressed up and I’m going to speculate that the most likely event around this time – which has other photographs to record it – was the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria, officially celebrated on 22 June 1897 to mark the occasion of the 60th anniversary of Queen Victoria’s accession. In Wokingham there was a major event in Market Place.

To take this even further, I can say that the building on the right with a lamp outside is the Queens Arms, that this pub was run by James Cook and that he had a daughter and two sons. The girl was called Elizabeth Cook, who had been born in 1890 and so would be around 7 in 1897, and she had two brothers called Amos and Albert who would have been 6 and nearly 5 respectively at this time. My speculation is that the three children shown in this photo are indeed Lizzie, Amos and Bertie!

And maybe that’s why I like local history. It allows an insight to a past that I can explore on my own terms and even visit – although I wouldn’t suggest staining in the middle of Rose Street nowadays without due care. And already for a curious mind this has opened up numerous questions. When did the Queens Arms close, what happened to Lizzie and her brothers, what are the other buildings on the street and many more thoughts to follow up.

I have never been very good at remembering the ‘Kings and Queens of England’. 

I tried to learn by rote the sequence of monarchs and the dates of their reigns, but got the Edwards mixed up with the Henrys. I confused my Gladstone with Disraeli and what was Bonar’s Law?

At school this seemed to be important. But my ineptitude in recollection was not because I wasn’t interested in history; quite the contrary. 

For me, it wasn’t the dates that were important, or the deeds of the good and mighty; I found the lesser details more interesting. The actions of individual people rather than whole nations or armies. The daily lives of the ordinary people.

And it was this perspective on the past that led to an interest in local history. 

Wokingham is my town; these are the streets down which I have walked, and these are the buildings that I see most days. 

The fact that no major battles have been fought here, or vital discoveries made, is irrelevant to my enjoyment and pleasure in uncovering more about the place where I live and the people, like me, who have lived here.

The history of Wokingham is not pivotal to the history of England, but without the shires, the county towns and their inhabitants, the history of England would be very different. The contribution that market towns like Wokingham have made to the culture and fabric of England is immense.

The history of England is of relevance to understanding the history of Wokingham. Local history cannot be properly understood without reference to the broader context of national or even international happenings.  

But conversely local history should not be seen as a scaled down version of national history. It has a chronology, key events and a relevance of its own. But most of all, it is personal and not remote; it is history literally on my doorstep.